Arab Oil — The Political Dimension

The Fourth Arab-Israeli War of October 1973 may prove to be a turning point in the history of the Arab world, not only because it marked a significant change in the military balance of power between Israel and the Arab states, but also because it ushered in the employment of Arab oil, on a massive scale, as a bargaining counter in international relations. To be sure, the use of economic resources as an instrument of political pressure is one of mankind's oldest games, few wars having been waged without an underlying economic cause. Furthermore, it is a game that appears to have drawn its most enthusiastic adherents from among states which have enjoyed a preponderance of economic resources and used them frequently to achieve political ends. A case in point is the United States whose recent history is replete with examples of the use of economic power as an instrument of international political pressure in one form or another. Even now, the US Congress is resisting a proposal to extend most favoured nation status to the Soviet Union because of the USSR's attitude towards Soviet Jewry. The US boycott of Cuba has been going on for more than a decade, and US trade with China was only recently restored after a lapse of 20 years. Even earlier, in July 1941, the US froze all Japanese assets in the US, which brought all trade with Japan to a standstill, and the Dutch cut off Japan's vital supplies in one stroke. Furthermore, the international community as a whole, represented by the United Nations, is participating today in an economic boycott of Rhodesia and South Africa in an attempt to redress a political injustice. It is against this background that one should judge accusations of oil blackmail which are now being freely levelled against the Arabs by those self-styled defenders of Western civilization whose arrogance is matched only by their moral duplicity

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