United States International Oil Policy 1973-83: Pursuing a Cooperative Regime or an Imposed Order?

Bull-Berg, H. J. United States International Oil Policy 1973-83: Pursuing a Coop erative Regime or an Imposed Order? Cooperation and Conflict XX, 1985, 173-194.

The fragmented theory on international regimes in essence focuses upon traits of coordination or collaboration between states within an international system. How can this approach be of utility for understanding the international politics of oil of the last decade? The author explores one aspect of this question by focusing his attention on the relationship between US policies and their intended bearing upon the political organization of the international oil system. Did the US pursue a cooperative strategy? If not, what are the chances for a future spontaneous creation of an international oil regime? The first section explores how we can use the concept of a non-contractual regime as a theoretical point of departure, and subsequently develops a link between actor policies and effects on the political ramifications of a subsystem like oil. The categories emerging from this discussion guide the empirical examination of US policies which follows in the second section. The third and last part of the article briefly suggests how an explanatory model could be sketched. It is pointed out that a combination of a realist and an economically oriented model should be selected, because of the character of oil as a strategic as well as an economic good. While the empirical conclusion points to a US policy that in essence has attempted to impose a new oil order on the system, the theoretical conclusion points to the methodologically problematic nature of investigating a purely normatively defined regime.