Importance Of Oil In Us Forieng Policy

Essay, Research Paper

The Importance of Oil In U.S. Foreign Policy

Introduction

During the oil and energy crisis of the mid-1970s

Americans became painfully aware of the consequences of the

United States dependence on foreign sources of oil.

Unfortunately, research and exploration for alternative

sources of oil in North America has not been pursued

vigorously enough to cease such foreign dependence.

As a result, in the mid-1990s Americans find themselves

in the same precarious position as they were during the

1970s. The Persian-Gulf War in 1991 was all the proof needed

to convince the United States of how strongly oil still

influences our foreign policy and international relations in

general.

Oil and U.S. Foreign Policy: Historical Issues

The United States has had a long history of supporting

and aiding oil-rich countries in time of political or

economic crisis. Specifically, the U.S. has relied

predominantly on oil imports from the Middle East since the

1920s. This was a result of several events.The availability

and cost of gas became a critical issue in 1920, because

there were numerous oil shortages on the Pacific Coast.

According to Beaver (1991), “Union Oil and Standard Oil of

California rushed petroleum by rail from Texas to the Los

Angeles area in order to ease “the acute shortage of

gasoline” and the long lines at service stations. In

Portland, Oregon, gasoline was rationed during the summer

months as the price climbed to 50 cents per gallon” (Beaver,

1991, p. 241).

As a result of this situation and another historical

factor, consumption of oil almost doubled during the decade.

This factor was Americans love of the newly invented

automobile. Right after World War I and throughout the

1920s, the U.S. began to experiment with ways of developing

its own energy resources, namely the use of synthetic fuels.

However, during the 1920s, synthetic fuel development was

ultimately not successful. However, the issues surrounding

oil did become more clearly defined. According to Beaver

(1991), “the availability and cost of conventional energy

sources; national security concerns; the technical, legal,

and economic uncertainties related to synthetic fuels; and

the emergence of large oil companies as major forces in

shaping energy policy. These issues that became salient in

the 1920s remain relevant to the 1990s” (Beaver, 1991, p.

241).

Both the Wilson and Harding administrations took

proactive foreign policy actions in order to ensure adequate

supplies of oil for the booming economy. Both

administrations assisted major U.S. companies in their

attempts to secure foreign oil agreements. For example, the

government tried to persuade Great Britain and the

Netherlands to allow U.S. oil companies into the Middle East

and Pacific regions where they controlled most of the oil

reserves. The U.S. government hoped to gain an open door

policy in oil exploration. However, U.S. diplomacy failed to

secure this from either the British or the Dutch. According

to Beaver, “Such failures frustrated U.S. officials. Frank

G. Lane, secretary of the interior, called British control

of Middle Eastern oil “a menace.” In fact, anti-British

sentiments prompted Congress to pass retaliatory legislation

barring foreigners from acquiring oil leases on public

lands” (Beaver, 1991, p. 241).

The postwar initiatives to secure foreign oil set a

precedent that was to become more important in later

decades. Namely, when oil was in short supply, major

companies, with the support of the U.S. government looked

to Latin America and the Middle East rather than

concentrating on domestic solutions. As a result, “These

initiatives reduced any sense of urgency to explore

synthetic fuels; as long as foreign oil could be obtained at

reasonable prices, the difficult task of developing

synthetics could be averted” (Beaver, 1991, p. 241).

Thus, the U.S. found itself dependent upon oil from the

Middle East. The Middle East, except for the constant

struggle between Israel and her Arab neighbors, had long

been calm. Soviet pressure on Greece, Turkey, and Iran had

been successfully contained in 1947 by a combination of

local opposition and firm American support.

In 1971, the British announced that they would withdraw

their remaining forces from the Persian Gulf. The French and

British withdrawal from such colonial dependencies as Syria,

Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, Lybia, Cyprus and Aden

had pacified local nationalists and helped to calm tension

within the region. Soviet attempts to cross over the barrier

of the “northern tier” and to win countries such as Egypt,

Iraq, and Syria with massive military and ec

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