| "The faulty structure of the world economy has rested for long
centuries on the division of the world into two- a rich world and a
poor world, a world which enjoys everything and a world depreived of
everything, a world which plunders wealth to build civilisation,
industry and progress, and another which is oppressed. This is the
situration that the Opec states have grasped and refused to accept, and
are now endeavrouring to correct..."(al-Otaiba, 379). |
The economic policy of western European power, namely Britain and America,
was to secure oil interests in the Middle East.
The oil industry is a life or death matter for the first world. In the 70’s the
tables have turned as various third world Middle Eastern countries who are part
of OPEC (Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab
Emirates, etc), have seized control over their own resources, and thus, can set
their own prices to the highest bidders in the developed first-world.(Tignor,
421) The political and economic policies of the western neo-colonialism were
turned against them as the United Arab Emirates learned to power in the western
policy of using and manipulating resources to get the highest profit and
possible. Effective Middle Eastern politics come down to who controls a given
resource and how much it is to be sold for. In short, the Middle
East learned the west’s game of control of natural resources very
quickly.
Mana Saeed
al-Otaiba, in his account of “The Arab Oil Weapon” clearly conveys the
recognition for responsibility and aptitude for learning the practice of oil
regulation. Though the developed western countries still have certain methods
of neo-colonial financial influence, oil still holds out to be the most
powerful and convincing natural and invaluable commodity to bargain for. Simply
put, the west has something to loose and will go to any lengths in order to
ensure that their resource quotas are met. There is now also present a level of
resentment on Western Europe and America’s parts. Western democratic
countries, especially America
and Britain,
are so used to getting what they want by force. There is a desire for
recognition at the root of cutting oil supply. Much deeper than the surface
tells, there is an outcry from Middle Eastern countries for recognition. There
is a thirst for respect, to be equally and unbiasedly accounted and recognized
by the developed nations of the world community. If anything can be decided from the emergence
of the threat of regulating oil flow and sales, it is that America and all its western democratic allies
must play their cards right with the Middle East, or pay insanely high prices
elsewhere, in order to ensure the demand for oil as a relaible energy source
from the Middle East.
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