Oil and National Security

The relationship between petroleum, the vital resource fueling the industrialized world (and the American lifestyle), and economic security as a prominent issue of national security (the absence of a threat to American values). Interruption in the supply of oil and other natural resources would have dire economic consequences for the United States and for the entire industrialized world. As a result, the United States and other major oil-importing countries consider the protection of this resource to be a significant concern.

More controversially, dependence on oil imports from unstable regimes and volatile regions, particularly Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states, forces foreign-policy compromises on U.S. policymakers that can also adversely affect national security. For instance, the United States maintains a close alliance based on oil with the autocratic and despotic Saudi despite its nebulous sponsorship of and complicated relationship with radically anti-American Islamic forces.

Oil Shocks

Oil has had been a key factor in many of the wars and crises of the 20th century, motivating countries to go to war and determining outcomes. In 1990, for example, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded neighboring Kuwait in large part because of a desire to gain access to the country's oil fields. In response, the United States went to war as part of a United Nations (UN) coalition to push back Iraq and restore the oil status quo.

Fears of oil shortage as an issue of U.S. national security stem primarily from the oil shocks of the 1970s. In October 1973, the Arab oil-producing states belonging to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), an international organization that seeks to regulate the price of oil, successfully imposed production restraints and an embargo on the United States and hiked oil prices by 70%. These actions were taken partly in retaliation for U.S. aid to Israel during a joint Egyptian and Syrian offensive known as the Yom Kippur War. It was also a chance for the OPEC cartel to gain leverage over U.S. and international oil companies that were taking a large slice of the profits from the oil-producing countries. (OPEC's first failed attempt at embargo, in 1967, followed Israel's speedy victory in the Six-Day War.)

The effects of the OPEC embargo and price hikes were immediate. By 1973, the United States was importing up to 35% of its oil, as a result of the decline of its own oil production coupled with ever-increasing demand. The oil shortage meant that the United States was effectively held hostage by the Arab nations. Accustomed to an uninterrupted flow of cheap oil, U.S. citizens were suddenly forced to ration everything, from thermostat use to gas consumption, and gasoline lines snaked their way around city blocks. At the height of the crisis, the price of gasoline had risen from 30 cents a gallon to about $1.20. The United States and the entire Western world reeled from a severe recession.

A second energy crisis struck in 1979 in the immediate aftermath of the Iranian revolution. The disruption of Iranian oil exports led to oil shortages, which allowed OPEC to drive up prices once again. Oil lines appeared in the United States as they had six years earlier.

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