The influence of neo-liberal thinking on the internationalization of Middel East and North African oil
Keywords:
Neo-liberal ideology, Landscape orientalism, League of Nations’ mandates, Third Worldism, International oil industryCopyright (c) 2024 Aurelia Mañé
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Abstract
This article examines the creation of the Middle East and its extension to the MENA region as a key territory for global oil supply within capitalism. It argues that Middle Eastern oil poses a challenge to hegemony because of its abundance, quality and lower cost compared to US oil. The capitalist energy model seeks to maintain hegemonic power by ensuring that energy flows and prices favour the hegemonic powers.
Control over the Middle East's oil wealth has been achieved by transforming its oil into an "international" resource through international companies and markets. Historically, this process has been led by two oil regimes: the Seven Sisters and the OPEC-IEA duo. The "international" principle originated in the League of Nations mandates of the 1920s, driven by a neoliberal ideological and civilisational project in the region.
The article also discusses how changes after the Second World War, such as increased demand for oil in Europe and Japan and decolonisation, challenged the existing oil regime. In the 1970s, AOPEC and the Non-Aligned Movement sought autonomous economic development, challenging the neoliberal perspective. However, these actions reinforced OPEC's role as an organisation supporting the international oil market, forcing member states to abandon national development efforts in favour of OPEC quotas. In this way, OPEC is presented as a neoliberal counterweight to Third Worldism.
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