Stork, Joe

New York. 1975. Monthly Review Press. 1st Printing. Very Good in Dustjacket. 0853453357. 336 pages. hardcover. Jacket design by Martin Stephen Moskof Associates, Inc. Front photo courtesy Mobil Oil Corporation. keywords: Middle East Oil Politics. FROM THE PUBLISHER - Starting off with a brief and illuminating survey of the political economy of the Middle East region under Ottoman and then European domination, Stork describes the growth of the international oil industry, the struggles among imperialist powers, and the competing nationalisms and inner class struggles that have dominated developments in the Middle East since the turn of the century. The specific attempt to control oil reserves did not become an important feature of Western politics until the First World War. In fact, that war marked a major turning point in the destiny of the region: the Ottoman Empire was destroyed and its Arab territories distributed between Britain and France; Zionism became an important factor with the Balfour Declaration and the British mandate over Palestine; Arab nationalism emerged as a significant political force; the war experience demonstrated the growing strategic importance of oil for motorized ground transportation, newly emergent air forces, and more powerful navies; control of oil resources became the overriding focus of Western rivalry and the main impetus for Western powers to establish and maintain political and economic control over the region. Tied in with these changes and deeply affecting them was the evolving monopolistic structure of the international oil industry and the imperatives of that structure. The Second World War marked another major turning point as the United States took advantage of its new role as the leading imperialist power to Consolidate U.S. corporate oil interests in the Middle East. New strategic alignments arose as a result of the energetic U.S. push into the region, the entrance of the Soviet Union as a rival for influence and control, the political independence of the Arab states, the tensions among the newly independent states, and the wars. inventory #15195 ISBN: 0853453357.