The Two Oil Crises In 1970s And US Adjustments Over Its Middle-eastern Oil Policies

The two oil crises in 1970s is a major event with a far-reaching impact on the contemporary international political and economic situations.The decade of the crises is both a decade showing the relative decline of American national power with a strategic contract over the US-USSR Cold War period,and a booming decade for a new world political and economic order of the national independence movement and the Third World countries.It's expected that researches on the two oil crises in 1970s and the US adjustments over its Middle East oil policies when facing such crisis can both provide some useful supplementary information over the researches on the history of international relations,the history of the Cold War,the history of international economic relations,the relationship history of the US towards Middle East,etc.,and provide ourselves some valuable lessons and references in order to develop a more reasonable overseas policies in oil and to the Middle East,so as to reduce the wrong decisions over the situation and policies.On the basis of the latest declassified diplomatic archives(FRUS),this paper has made a thorough analysis on the US oil policy adjustment and evolution towards Middle East before and after the two oil crises,in an attempt--through the perspective of the global petroleum oil diplomacy--to restore the process of the establishment and consolidation of US hegemony after World War ?,its oil hegemony meeting with major challenges and the declining in late-1960s to early-1970s,the disintegration of the hegemony in the first oil crisis in 1973,the reconstruction of the US oil hegemony post 1973,and the undergoing test for the US oil hegemony in 1978 in the second oil crisis.This paper first reviews the process of the US' establishment and consolidation of its global oil hegemony in the post-Second World War to the end of 1950s.After the 2nd World War,as per the designing in the report "Foreign Oil Policies" of 1944,the United States pushed out Britain,France and other well-known imperialist countries,and established a global oil hegemony with Middle East oil as the fulcrum and multinational oil companies as carriers,and through which they controlled with impact over the Middle Eastern oil producers,Western Europe,Japan and other countries' political and economic lives.The late 60s to early 70s has seen the US oil hegemony in great turmoil and severely weakened,during which great changes have taken place in international energy structure.United States has transformed from its basic self-sufficiency in oil to heavy rely on the imported oil--especially the Middle East oil in order to maintain its normal economic functioning.Western Europe and Japan's dependence on Middle Eastern oil also deepened in this period.With the booming development of OPEC and the national independence movement,and around other rights and interests related to oil like "raise the posted prise","control the right of posted prise","oil participation and oil nationalization",Middle-Eastern oil-producing countries waged struggles against multinational oil companies and their home countries.The US government was not ready in face of such struggles.When its oil hegemony was basically stable and,in line with the concept that if s essential to ensure the oil supply and not to let oil issue interfere in US Middle East policies,the American government took attitudes like "none intervention ","less intervention" and "limited intervention" towards struggles around oil interests by Middle Eastern oil-producers.This disordered and volatile counter policy lacked complete thinking and long-term consideration,lacked coincidence in policy-making and the sense of crisis,no effective support to multinational oil companies,eventually lead to the gradual ground-loss for those multinational oil companies,which seriously weakened the US oil hegemony and paved the way for the future crisis.October 1973 saw the outbreak of the 4th Middle East War.The Arab oil-producing countries used oil as a weapon and launched oil embargo,which resulted in the first oil crisis.To ensure their own oil supplies,Western Europe,Japan and other countries—one after another—changed their attitudes and chose to stand on the Arab side,a huge split came into being between the Western alliance and US when the latter could no longer provide them effective oil guarantee.For the first time after World War ?,the United States could not unify the political attitude of western union countries over international issues.The oil hegemony established by the United States eventually disintegrated.Faced with this crisis,the United States acted agily.To lift the oil embargo,under Kissinger's design,the American totally changed its full pro-Israeli policy diplomatically,to listen to and listened to certain degrees to the voice from the Arab countries.Through its "shuttle diplomacy" and "progressive solutions",the US helped resolving the Arab-Israel conflict,eased the situation and laid foundations for lifting the Embargo.Meanwhile,US stabilized the relationship between Saudi Arabia the major oil producer and Iran.With the help from Iran,the oil supply could be ensured in certain degrees;with the help of Saudi Arabia,it could promote lifting the embargo and control the oil price.Among western countries,"misery sharing" policy was practiced,and all shared the pressures arising from the oil embargo.After experience the first oil crisis,the oil issue came into the US national decision-making level and became an integral part of American national securities,which also became a core part of the US strategy in Middle East and the Arab-Israeli problem,and began to form mature policies.After the first oil crisis,the US oil hegemony disintegrated and Western Union countries became scattered.Through establishing the International Energy Agency(IEA)and consolidating the unity of western countries within IEA,and through adjusting US Arab-Israel policies and strengthening the relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia the "Two Pillars",Kissinger helped to rebuild the American oil hegemony,and recovered the unity of Western alliance on the oil issue to confront the OPEC as a whole.Overall,the US policy in this period was successful.With the establishment and consolidation of IEA,the United States reached the goal of preliminarily unifying the Western Union's energy policy and improved their ability to guard against and deal with the energy crisis,which resulted to certain degree the divergence between US and its allies on oil policy,and let US return to the center of international oil power,and restored partially the US oil hegemony.The adjustment of American Middle-appropriate listening and satisfying the needs of Arab countries while assisting Israel,and strengthening the relationships with Iran and Saudi Arabia the "Two Pillars in the Gulf Region",made US have more leeway in the Middle East and more choices in dealing with oil price raise and other issues.Furthermore,it also helped the more serious conflict and reuse of the "oil weapons" in the Middle East.The international oil situation entered a relatively stable period.1978-1979 had witnessed the Islamic revolution in Iran,the fall of the Pahlavi regime,Khomeini's return to Iran and establishing the Islamic Republic of Iran,and the US and Iran's severing their diplomatic relations—the US-Iraqi alliance,which was established on the basis of the Cold War,came to an end abruptly.The Iranian Revolution caused a substantial cut in its crude oil until finally shutdown,which led to the occurrence of the second oil crisis.The US oil hegemony and the International Energy Agency,which cost United States a huge effort to build after the first oil crisis,faced the test of the new crisis.When facing the second oil crisis,the US government and President Carter failed to do a good job in handling it.Although the US government tried to mobilize Saudi Arabia to increase its oil production,even reached a consensus on dealing with the crisis at the Tokyo G-7 Meeting,implemented the above consensus through cooperation by consuming countries within the IEA to resolve the crisis,still it failed—oil price did not decline,spot market did not stop purchasing,and fears for the oil crisis continued for years.A number of reasons to be summed up for such a situation—the split in the top American decision-making team lead to the two-sidedness of their policies,the underestimate towards the severe nature of the crisis resulted in policy changes,the recession of the American global leadership,and the weakening of the US president power.Owing to the two-sided policies of the United States,the Western alliance could not really become united to deal with the crisis,and IEA failed to play a leading role.However,the US energy hegemony did not collapse in the crisis,and measures adopted by the IEA during the crisis came into function in the later years.With the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the burst of the Iran-Iraq War,the US middle-eastern strategy and middle-eastern oil policy started to change profoundly,the solving of the second oil crisis itself started to fade out the center of the US decision.