162
Kerry noted that the talks would focus on extremism and economic growth, but
also deal with environmental issues and climate change.
Today we hope to make further progress through a new regional approach, built around
initiatives on counter-terrorism, trade and investment, economic development, and clean
energy. (https://www.rferl.org/a/u-s-officials-discuss-cooperation-central-asian-countries/
29385498.html 2017)
In both these C5+1 meeting, Kerry tried to encourage the five foreign ministers
to move toward preeminent regional integration and cooperation, despite the reality
which prevented this from being fulfilled. Russia is, after all, the preeminent
guarantor of regional security in Central Asia, while China—with its huge investments in the region’s energy and infrastructure—represents the dominant economic
power. These realities will undercut any US attempts to build cooperation on security and trade into something significant (www.rferl.org 2017).
Political Economy of US Oil Companies
US multinational oil companies have long been encouraged by the US government
to invest in foreign oil. Their access to the American market boosts other incentives
for investing overseas. When the profits from their international operations were
squeezed by customers for higher privileges and competition from independent customers. In high-cost domestic markets, multinational companies, along with independent refineries and marketers, were free riders.
Cheap imports threatened the domestic structure, and US-based companies
feared losing their market share, although even if imports were to expand, they
would not be completely out of work. The domestic companies demanded that the
Eisenhower government helped them. But multinational corporations that were
under pressure were reluctant to lose their profits by selling crude to the United
States and continued to import oil despite voluntary import restrictions (Ann
Tétreault 2019:8).
Oil money was a mixed stimulus in the domestic economy of oil-exporting countries. The sudden increase in imports and the flood of new money would increase the
domestic inflation rate. Oil exporters soon learned to spend their new money as fast
as they could so that in the second round of rising prices between 1970 and 1980,
many people began to raise their foreign debt to raise money for investment and pay
for arms. The purchase of weapons led to a particularly sharp rise in oil prices in the
1970s. The deviation from excessive oil revenues to purchase weapons gained economic resources from domestic economies such as Iran and Iraq, whose rural population had been deprived (Ann Tétreault 2019:12).
5 US Energy Diplomacy Under the Obama Administration
Kerry noted that the talks would focus on extremism and economic growth, but
also deal with environmental issues and climate change.
Today we hope to make further progress through a new regional approach, built around
initiatives on counter-terrorism, trade and investment, economic development, and clean
energy. (https://www.rferl.org/a/u-s-officials-discuss-cooperation-central-asian-countries/
29385498.html 2017)
In both these C5+1 meeting, Kerry tried to encourage the five foreign ministers
to move toward preeminent regional integration and cooperation, despite the reality
which prevented this from being fulfilled. Russia is, after all, the preeminent
guarantor of regional security in Central Asia, while China—with its huge investments in the region’s energy and infrastructure—represents the dominant economic
power. These realities will undercut any US attempts to build cooperation on security and trade into something significant (www.rferl.org 2017).
Political Economy of US Oil Companies
US multinational oil companies have long been encouraged by the US government
to invest in foreign oil. Their access to the American market boosts other incentives
for investing overseas. When the profits from their international operations were
squeezed by customers for higher privileges and competition from independent customers. In high-cost domestic markets, multinational companies, along with independent refineries and marketers, were free riders.
Cheap imports threatened the domestic structure, and US-based companies
feared losing their market share, although even if imports were to expand, they
would not be completely out of work. The domestic companies demanded that the
Eisenhower government helped them. But multinational corporations that were
under pressure were reluctant to lose their profits by selling crude to the United
States and continued to import oil despite voluntary import restrictions (Ann
Tétreault 2019:8).
Oil money was a mixed stimulus in the domestic economy of oil-exporting countries. The sudden increase in imports and the flood of new money would increase the
domestic inflation rate. Oil exporters soon learned to spend their new money as fast
as they could so that in the second round of rising prices between 1970 and 1980,
many people began to raise their foreign debt to raise money for investment and pay
for arms. The purchase of weapons led to a particularly sharp rise in oil prices in the
1970s. The deviation from excessive oil revenues to purchase weapons gained economic resources from domestic economies such as Iran and Iraq, whose rural population had been deprived (Ann Tétreault 2019:12).
5 US Energy Diplomacy Under the Obama Administration