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MODERN HISTORY AND POLITICS Crude Power: Politics and the Oil Market, by Øystein Noreng. London, UK and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2002. vii + 231 pages. Notes to p. 231. Tables and figures to p. 240. Bibl. to p. 247. Index to p. 254. $73.
Oil is a multipurpose fluid whose production and consumption have a long history, going back to Babylonian times. It was only in the years preceding World War I in particular after Winston Churchill decided to convert the British marine forces from a coal-fired to an oil-powered fleet - that oil became a strategic force of the first order. Since then, oil and politics have been closely intertwined. Oil as a political weapon, however, only entered the fray after World War II. Apart from the unique circumstances of late 1973, when the oil weapon was employed effectively, albeit less in political than in economic terms, both previous and subsequent attempts did not materialize. In hindsight, the success of 1973-74 looks very much to have been an anomaly, leaving the Arab world saddled with a permanent feeling of nostalgia.
Crude Power is a book that conforms to the widely held notion that "oil has been the major attraction for the foreign powers making intrigues in the Middle East" (p. 54-55). Had the latest war against Iraq been covered, the author would certainly have gone along with the view that this war has been a "war for oil." Although this...