The Global Political Economy of Oil
“…that which is beyond question is the solid ground on which one stands.” - Tesnay Serequeberhan
1. Purpose
In the next few years I hope to teach a series of courses that examine a particular commodity (oil, sugar, music, arms, etc.) in the world market. I am interested in placing the investigation of that commodity within a historical context – tracing its origins, the changes in its market structure, and its interaction with other aspects of the world economy. My overall goal in the process of tracing out these various commodities is to understand the structure and dynamics of the world economy. My hopes for this course on oil are, first, that we will come to know the market structure of oil. By referring to “market structure” I mean to answer some the following questions: Which firms and states produce oil? How much do they produce? How much control do they have over production? Which peoples and states consume oil? How much do they consume? Is the world oil market a “competitive” market or is it closer to an oligopoly? Is oil scarce or is there a glut? We will be examining all these questions historically. That is, we will want to know how the answers to these questions change over time. Second, we will be concerned with understanding the geopolitical consequences of the oil market. How does the oil market effect how states and other organizations interact? Reciprocally, we want to how the state interests influence the oil market. Put simply, we will want to examine the relationship between oil markets and international relations. Again, we will ask these questions historically. The overall goal of the course will be to assess the overlap between global capitalism and the international state system by examining the crucial commodity of oil.2. Readings:
I have order the following books to be purchased at the Ithaca College Bookstore: • Yergin, Daniel, The Prize, Simon & Schuster, 1993;
• Engdahl, William,A Century of War, Pluto, 2004;
• Research Unit for Political Economy, Behind the Invasion of Iraq, Monthly Review, 2003;
• Munif, Abdelrahman, Cities of Salt, Vintage, 1989.
Parra, Francisco, [various chapters from] Oil Politics: A Modern History of Petroleum, Tauris, 2004. Manning, Richard, “The Oil We Eat: Following the Food Chain back to Iraq,” Harpers Magazine, February 2004, pp. 37-45. Dreyfuss, Robert, “The Thirty-Year Itch,” MotherJones.com (http://www.motherjones.com/cgi-bin/print_article.pl?url=http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2003/03/ma_273_01.html) March/April 2003.
Instructor and students will jointly determine the pace and selection of the readings as the course proceeds.