The Field of Endless Intrigue”
The Contest for North Iranian Oil, 1916–1947
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8968616 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Joseph Conlin (0000-0003-0394-4931, University of Southampton, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 56 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 663-685 |
| Publication date | 2024-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal Middle East Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-7438 • E-ISSN: 1471-6380 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s002074382400103x |
| OpenAlex | W4406848762 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 41 |
The interwar period saw fitful attempts by British, American, French, and Russian interests to secure oil concessions for Iran’s northern provinces, in a region traditionally perceived as a Russian sphere of interest. Drawing on corporate as well as familiar state archives, this article argues that the contest over concessions in this region served political more than narrowly economic agendas. Although this contest was convoluted, repetitive, and ultimately inconclusive, it sheds light on the emergence of a world oil cartel, as well as the relations between oil-producing and oil-consuming countries before World War II. This article challenges familiar state-centered narratives of oil diplomacy and critiques the tendency to view the history of Iranian oil as one of all-out plunder by Britain and the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. It outlines the political as well as intellectual obstacles—obstacles not only to achieving a more equitable allocation of Pahlavi Iran’s oil wealth prior to Mossadegh’s 1951 nationalization, but to conceptualizing what such an equitable allocation might have looked like
CONTEST · Field (mathematics · Oil field · Petroleum engineering · Political science · Geology · History · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Mathematics · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts
The Prize
The Political Economy of Modern Iran
Iran in the 20th Century Historiography and Political Culture
Iran and the Rise of Reza Shah
Russia and Britain in Persia
Oil Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century
The Open Door and U.S. Policy in Iraq between the World Wars
A Peripheral View of the Origins of the Cold War
The campaign against the Anglo‐Iranian agreement of 1919
A Projected New Trusteeship”? American Internationalism, British Imperialism, and the Reconstruction of Iran, 1938–1947
An Oily Entente
Sheer Madness” or “Railway Politics” Iranian Style? – The Controversy over Railway Development Priorities Within the Persian Government in 1919–1920 and British Railway Imperialism
The Origins and Intentions of the Anglo-Persian Agreement 1919
Mercantile States and the World Oil Cartel, 1900-1939
The History of the British Petroleum Company. Vol. 1
Dollars without the Flag
Popular Politics, the New State and the Birth of the Iranian Working Class
Iran's Oil Nationalization and Mossadegh's Involvement with the World Bank
Knitting Iran Together
Stumbling through the “Open Door”
In Search of “Equitability”
Russia and the West in Iran, 1918-48
Mexico and the United States in the Oil Controversy, 1917-1942
The Great Powers in the Middle East, 1919-1939
Economic Development in Iran 1900-70
Informal Entente
International Politics and Iraqi Oil, 1918–1928
The Anglo-American Oil Agreement and the Wartime Search for Foreign Oil Policy
Blood, Power, and Hypocrisy
A Roaring Farce”
Fouled by Oil’? Oil Diplomacy and the Lausanne Conference, 1914–1928
Social Engineering and the Contradictions of Modernization in Khuzestan's Company Towns
The Purchase of the British Government's Shares in the British Petroleum Company 1912-1914
The Formative Years of Anglo-Iranian Relations (1907-1953)
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |