Counter-shock The Oil Counter-Revolution of the 1980s

Description

The oil price collapse of 1985-6 had momentous global consequences: non-fossil energy sources quickly became uncompetitive, the previous talk of an OPEC 'imperium' was turned upside-down, the Soviet Union lost a large portion of its external revenues, and many Third World producers saw their foreign debts peak. Compared to the much-debated 1973 `oil shock', the `countershock' has not received the same degree of attention, even though its legacy has shaped the present-day energy scenario. This volume is the first to put the oil `counter-shock' of the mid-1980s into historical perspective. Featuring some of the most knowledgeable experts in the field, Counter-Shock offers a balanced approach between the global picture and local study cases. In particular, it highlights the crucial interaction between the oil counter-shock and the political `counterrevolution' against state intervention in economic management, put forward by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in the same period. Front Cover Editor Biographies Title Page Copyright Contents List of Figures and Tables List of Contributors Introduction: Counter-Shock and Counter-Revolution PART I OIL PRICES IN CONTEXT 1. Price Regimes, Price Series and Price Trends: Oil Shocks and Counter-Shocks in Historical Perspective 2. The Role of the Dollar and the Justificatory Discourse of Neoliberalism 3. The Oil Market and Global Finance in the 1980s 4. Counter-Shocked? The Oil Majors and the Price Slump of the 1980s PART II THE PRODUCERS: OPEC 5. Saudi Arabia and the Counter-Shock of 1986 6. Iran and the Counter-Shock: Oil as a Weapon (for Survival) 7. Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the Counter-Shock PART III THE PRODUCERS: NON-OPEC 8. Abandoning Enforced Autarky for Re-Insertion in the World Petroleum Market: Mexican Oil Policy, 1976–86 9. The Double Shock: The Soviet Energy Crisis and the Oil Price Collapse of 1986 10. The Counter-Shock in Norwegian Oil History 11. Counter-Shock or After-Shock? North Sea Oil and Economics as Politics in the UK, 1973–86 PART IV THE CONSUMERS 12. Reducing Dependence on OPEC Oil: The IEA's Energy Strategy between 1976 and the Mid-1980s 13. The United States and the Oil Price Collapse of the 1980s 14. Back to the Future: Changes in Energy Cultures and Patterns of Consumption in the United States, 1973–86 PART V ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES 15. The Rise of Environmentalist Movements and the Debate on Alternative Sources of Energy during the Oil Crisis in the United States 16. The Role of Nuclear Reactor Technology on the Development of the Nuclear Industry and Decision-Making in the Context of the Price Fluctuations of the 1970s and 1980s 17. A Small Window: The Opportunities for Renewable Energies from Shock to Counter-Shock Bibliography Index Back Cover