OPEC and Industrialized Market Nations A Study

A Study of Neo-Imperialist Relations and Sibling Rivalries

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is often referred to as a cartel. It is, however, better described as a loosely cooperating oligopoly of heterogeneous nations, whose compact with one another is based on two key factors. The first is, of course, the fact that all the nations of OPEC have economies based primarily if not exclusively on the production of a politicized commodity, namely petroleum. The second commonality is that all the member-states, like the commodity they share, are found in relatively non-industrialized parts of the world or, to use the political terms of the just-passed Cold War era, the (Third World.(1 The latter commonality has less to do with the relations among the OPEC countries themselves than it does with their relationship as a group and individually to the industrialized nations, OPEC(s primary customers. Among themselves, OPEC nations, most notably in the Middle East, are often at odds not only in connection with oil production, but also ideologically and politically. However, the existing economic and political global relationships inside and outside the cartel suggest that OPEC(s real significance on the world scene is understood, perhaps only implicitly, in relation to the nations of the so-called First World, especially the United States. In the narrower terms of the international oil market, OPEC(s influence