The Kuwait Petroleum Corporation and the Economics of the New World Order FROM THE PUBLISHER
Economic and strategic power is not the exclusive province of powerful, developed countries. Kuwait has used its main resource, oil, to integrate itself into the world economy as an autonomous actor rather than as a dependent commodity exporter. This daring economic strategy enabled Kuwait to claim military support from governments hosting its direct investments overseas in 1990-91 following its invasion by Iraq. Based on five years of research, including interviews with more than 200 people, Dr. Tetreault's book analyzes the development of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation in the context of domestic, regional, and world politics. Contrary to current thinking, she argues that multinational vertical integration under state ownership can be an optimal strategy for oil-exporting, developing countries, particularly those whose resource endowments are otherwise highly limited. This book is directed toward executives in natural resource industries, economic and strategic planners in public and private institutions, and those charged with the formulation and implementation of national, international, and transnational economic policy; in addition, it is of interest to academics specializing in political economy, development, industrial organization, regional and domestic politics, and international relations.
SYNOPSIS
A unique, research-based study of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation and the role it plays in Kuwait's effort to integrate itself into the world economy as an autonomous actor, not as another dependent commodity exporter.
FROM THE CRITICS
Booknews
Tetreault (political science, Iowa State U.) argues that the motive for the US reconquest of Kuwait from Iraq was not oil itself but the elaborate linkage between Kuwaiti oil and the domestic economies of the western states; that the New World Order so highly touted at the time had more to do with the collapse of the Soviet Union than with events in the Middle East; and that the shift in the global distribution of power has complex roots, including the interpenetration of large and small states by individuals and transnational organizations. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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