Full Title: The History of U.S. Relations with OPEC: Lessons to Policymakers
Author(s): Jareer Elass and Amy Myers Jaffe
Publisher(s): James A. Baker III Institue for Public Policy
Publication Date: September 1, 2010
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Description (excerpt):
The history of U.S.-OPEC relations has been a volatile one, ranging from intense conflict in the 1970s to marked cooperation stabilizing markets in the face of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in the early 1990s. In recent years, U.S. rhetoric against the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and “foreign oil” has intensified as oil prices have experienced giant swings and the American economy has suffered as a result. This paper will look at the history and current geopolitics of the United States’ policy toward OPEC and its important member states such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, as well as the ways current emerging U.S. climate and energy policy, including average automobile fuel efficiency standards, might alter oil geopolitics and supply and pricing trends in global oil markets. In analyzing how U.S. policies toward energy security and climate might impact policy choices of OPEC and important oil producing countries, the authors will shed light on the new geopolitical power politics of oil today.