Persian Gulf States

Persian Gulf States

Introduction

The roots of peace are to be found in the pattern of economic interaction between nations. The Persian Gulf is no exception to this principle. It is imperative for the success of peace building exercise in the Persian Gulf that a restructuring of economic relationships be undertaken. The history of the region offers some significant lessons one of which is that competition for control of resources has been a frequent cause of conflict. In the past, control over water resources, fertile land and pastures led to wars. The discovery of oil in the 1920's added a new dimension to regional rivalries but ironically enough it also carried the possibility of promoting greater understanding and cooperation among regional states.

Discussion

The Economic And Political Dimension Of Oil

Automatically generates html versions of documents as we crawl the web. The Economic Dimension The roots of peace are to be found in the pattern of economic interaction between nations. The Persian Gulf is no exception to this principle. It is imperative for the success of peace building exercise in the Persian Gulf that a restructuring of economic relationships be undertaken. The history of the region offers some significant lessons one of which is that competition for control of resources has been a frequent cause of conflict. In the past, control over water resources, fertile land and pastures led to wars. The discovery of oil in the 1920's added a new dimension to regional rivalries but ironically enough it also carried the possibility of promoting greater understanding and cooperation among regional states.

The Economic and Political Dimension Of Oil

The main beneficiaries of oil until the 1970's were the oil companies and the developed nations of the west. The oil producing states only received royalty on the sale of oil, the amount of which was fixed and the benefits it brought to the oil producing states were nominal compared to the advantages reaped by the developed nations. The oil companies paid higher taxes to their own governments. It would not be wrong to say that the reconstruction of war shattered Europe after the end of World War 11 was made possible due to the availability of cheap oil. The oil producing states lacked unity and coordination and were therefore totally at the mercy of oil companies. The oil companies could play one oil producing nation against the other, turning local rivalries and lack of cooperation into political dividend for themselves.

This began to change when North Sea oil entered the world market. Islamic revolution in Iran was another major development which affected the pattern of political interaction in the region. There has also been a lot of oil related conflict in the region. Whether it is a result of changed political environment or a cause of it may be a difficult question to answer but one thing is clear; the 170 intensification of rivalries in the economic and political fields is fraught with consequences for the future. Although the Iran-Iraq war was not ...