Oil As Instrument Of Coercion In Foreign Policy -By Sanni Oluwatosin Temitope

Nation states, by their nature must interact with one another. The interaction can take different forms and be influenced by different motives. Foreign policy can be referred to as, the calculated steps taken by states which are intended to maximize the opportunities that are available outside their geographical boundaries. Foreign policy can also be seen as a reaction to external stimuli while reflecting on domestic realities.

Since there is no central authority in the world, each nation retains the ability and “right” to use coercion against any other nation with which it has a dispute based on the level of power they possess. A wide variety of coercive means maybe and has been used. An example of such coercive action is the restriction, cutting or imposing fines on oil. For example, when the United States resupplied Israel with weapons during the Yom Kippur War of 1973, Arab oil-producing countries cut back their exports of oil to the United States and other Western Nations.

Oil right from the 19th and the early 20th century has been of prior importance particularly to states. One of the importance of oil today is largely due to the fact that it is a source of energy. This energy is used to power automobiles, trucks, airplanes, trains and ships around the world; it is used to fuel industrial manufacturing processes and provides heat, light and air conditioning for homes and businesses. Another importance is that, oil serves as lubricants for machines. when lubricants are applied to machineries, it reduces the friction between moving parts. There are various lubricants that are products of crude oil. Since the late 19th century, more than 90 percent of all lubricants have been obtained from oil, which are abundant and can be distilled and condensed without decomposing. It is also a form of revenue for states, The discovery of oil has increased the revenue of several nations, eg the discoveries of oil in the Arabian Peninsula, the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. It is also important because countries that possess oil and other forms of energy resources have considerable importance in international affairs due to the possession of oil.

Coercion, can be seen as the use of threats to influence another’s behavior (usually a target state but occasionally a non-state actor) by making it choose to comply rather than directly forcing it to comply i.e. by brute force). Coercion can involve the use of deterrence, made to cause a target state to not take a particular action or compelling a target state to stop a current action or to undertake another. Clearly, deterrence and compelling are two types of coercion. Both depend on risk, threats and choice. In both deterrence and compelling, the target chooses to comply. Coercion depends on two factors, credibility and manipulating sanctions. Credibility which is whether the target believes that the coercer will execute its threats and persuasiveness, that is whether the threats will have a great impact on the target. Coercion is effected by manipulating sanctions, inflicting punishment on those who refuse to comply, or offering bribes to those who will.

Oil as an instrument of coercion in foreign policy involves the use of oil as a tool for power by a supplier country or countries that make a concerted effort to utilize the embargoing of oil to affect the foreign policy of the target country or countries. As such, using oil as an instrument of coercion of foreign policy can be considered a form of economic sanction. Oil as an instrument of coercion in foreign policy is effective if it results in a substantial alteration in the target’s policy consistent with the initially stated goals.

The field of International Relations has only recently begun to examine oil and its role in inter-state relations, focusing mainly on its use as a foreign policy tool. One commonly used technique is the manipulation of resources. Whenever one party controls materials or funds, essential for the survival or well-being of another, threats of withholding them may be used as a weapon. In 1960, five of the world’s largest oil-producing nations established the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC); since then, the OPEC nations have exacted numerous concessions from various industrial nations by manipulating both the supply and price of crude oil and even sometimes trade embargo. Oil is also used as an instrument of coercion in foreign policy by the use of embargoes and import restrictions for political reasons or to protect or promote their interests. The US has historically imposed a greater number of oil embargoes than any other nation, including oil embargoes on Japan before World War II, on the Soviet Union in the 1960s, and on South Africa, Burma, Serbia, Haiti, Libya, Iraq, Iran, and Sudan in the last two decades. A number of Arab oil-producing states, mostly US allies, used oil as an instrument of coercion against Western countries in 1956, 1967, and 1973. Their objective, especially in 1967 and 1973, was to force countries that supported Israel to change their foreign policies and put pressure on Israel to withdraw from territories it occupied during the 1967 war.

Oil embargoes are not confined to the past. Calls for oil embargoes have been on the rise in recent years.