Post-cold War Era Of The Main Factors Affecting The International Oil Prices

Since the 70's of 20th century, three successive outbreaks of the oil crisis made all countries realize the importance of oil in promoting global economic development. In subsequent decades, the oil resources became the focus of world major conflicts. Post-Cold War era is such a period of time when oil is no longer a simple commodity, but a"weapon", a financial means like US dollar. Oil-producing countries manipulate in such a way as to seek diplomatic, political, economic and strategic interests; on the other hand, oil-importing countries have to try every possible attempt to control the production and transportation of crude oil for their own energy security. This intense game has become more acute than ever in the economic globalization today, All the consequences of the seesaw battle reflected the fluctuations in international oil prices. Any slight drift in oil prices is likely to lead to volatility. The impact of fluctuations in international oil prices, with the consequences in politics, economy, military affairs, and with cultural factors is discussed in detail in this paper from the global perspective.Political analysis focus on three factors: internal contest among the oil-producing countries; contest between producers and consumers; and between oil-consuming countries. How Iraq, Iran and Venezuela, and OPEC members's oil seeking and political infighting led to ups and downs in oil prices is carefully described; A comprehensive discourse is dedicated to contest of the post-Cold War United States, Japan, the European Union in the oil-producing region and its consequence leading to fluctuations in international oil prices; A more thorough study is given to OPEC-led oil exporters and oil-consuming countries'political battle which inevitably has lead to fluctuations in international oil prices.In a detailed way, this article analyzes, from three aspects of international oil price fluctuations, the crude oil market, excessive speculation, the dollar and world macro-economy and other influential economic factors, exposing the root cause of excessive speculation and its impact on the world economy; discussing the role of the up-and down US dollar in the international oil price; exploring the post-Cold War world, the macroeconomy and international oil prices relationship.After the Cold War, impact of local war in the oil-producing region on international oil prices is straightforward. This paper describes the influence of the previous local wars on international oil prices after the Cold War; taking as example the war in the Middle East and Islamic culture, which substantially affected the international oil prices.Since oil is the current context of economic globalization, and an essential strategic material, its impact on the world economy should be enormous, unprecedented. The world-wide scramble for oil is also an unprecedented intensity. Frequent fluctuations in international oil prices, various volatility with intense competition for the oil level change, will eventually lead to increased uncertainty about the global economy, which affects the world economy as a whole.