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By authors of The Global Political Economy of Israel

The authors acknowledge that their analysis/perspective is "unique". I find it so, but it is very interesting.


On the one hand, the differential profits of the oil companies and the revenues of the oil-producing countries remain tightly correlated with the relative price of oil: over the past decade or so, both have plummeted in tandem. So this side of the theory still works. On the other hand, the synchronized decline of prices and earnings has occurred despite ongo- ing regional conflict and plenty of violence. On this count, the theory seems incon- sistent with recent events.
Is this partial breakdown a sign of things to come? Will the differential profits of the Weapondollar-Petrodollar Coalition continue to stir Blood and Oil in the Orient, as Essad Bey (1932) poetically called it or are we witnessing the end of an era? 

Arms and Oil in the Middle East

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