|
|
|
|
Middle East Review of International Affairs
The Double-Edged Crisis: OPEC and the Outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War
by Avshalom Rubin
*
Abstract
The outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War in 1980 followed a decade of rising oil prices and fluctuating oil supplies, both of which had fueled the ascendance of OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries). The industrialized oil-importing nations of the non-Communist world and their major oil companies feared that the Iran-Iraq War would compound these trends. But ironically, the outbreak of the war saw the importing nations display a resurgence of initiative, while OPEC’s bargaining power declined. Despite persistent efforts to maintain the high prices and leverage it had enjoyed throughout the 1970s, the cartel ultimately suffered the consequences of internal disunity and increased caution on the part of the importing nations’ consumers, governments, and oil companies.
Full Text (PDF, 14 pages, 91.1 KB)
Note *: Avshalom Rubin is currently a Fulbright Scholar at Ben-Gurion University in Israel. Back