Crude oil has managed to
become the most essential commodity of our time. Becoming one of the dominating
forces with the ability to drive or sink any nation’s economy. Wars have been
fought and lost for the purposes of oil diplomacy. Oil has become what sugar
was to imperial Spain, the spice trade to the Mongolians, and king cotton to
the antebellum south. Dismantling its infrastructure
along with its dependencies’ would ensure a power shift across the globe.
Roger Stern’s article “Oil Market Power and United States National
Security” highlights some of the driving forces of oil diplomacy with what
he calls the oil weapon. Stern’s describes the oil weapon as an embargo tool
imposed by the oil producing nations as a means of attack for the intended nation’s
economy. While the oil weapon has never been used Stern’s suggest that the fear
of such an attack is driving factor for the US appeasement policy in the Middle
East.
After reading about the oil weapon I was of Iran’s threat of
closing the straits of Hormuz, which according to Caitlin Talmadge article “Closing Time” traffics around 90% of the
entire Gulf’s oil. Luckily for the US Iran didn’t go along with this threat.
Sources:
Closing Time by Caitlin
Talmadge
Oil Market Power and
United States National Security by Roger Sterns
http://www.jstor.org/stable/30048427
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