Research On Collective Actions Of OPEC

Energy problem has always been regarded as an important topic in IR research. Since energy is so closely related to national economic growth, bargains and even conflicts on it were to ensure the national sustainable development in essence. Oil, is now the playing the most important role in global energy structure, but high demands of western oil-consuming nations and high reserves of Arab oil-producing nations make the problem very complicated.OPEC was established by several oil-producing nations in 1960s. After that, through series of effective collective actions, they tried to control the world oil market, including changing production and price. Of course, the western nations would not sit still. They also took some measures to enhance ability of resisting risks.So, topic of this paper-OPEC s collective actions, were decided by cooperations among its members as well as external environment. Main influencing factors include:world politics and economy, differences in national interests and external games.Chapter 1 is the review of relevant literatures.Chapter 2 is the historical analysis of OPEC, revealing how this organization grow and gain is power.Chapter 3 tries to find the driving forces and resistances behind OPEC collective actions from the external prospective.Chapter 4 tries to explain when and why the OPEC members joined or betrayed collective actions.Chapter 5 is research conclusion.