The Culture of Subordination and the Deep Contradiction of OPEC

Abstract

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) came into being principally to check at the temporary level and totally eliminate at a permanent stage the exploitation that exists in a North- South relationship. International relations had been full of exploitative tendencies by the North over the South such that even the designing of those rules and regulations that govern the global community were so designed in such a way that they favour the North over the South. One would have expected that in an international oil politics where in the South was highly favoured in reserves and production, the story would change in such a way that such oil producing nations would be seen to be in control indeed. This is more so with the coming of OPEC and especially with the fact that OPEC’s entry into international oiul politics was not in any way a coincidence as it was actually an intentional act meant to destroy the culture of subordination entrenched in the Southern developing nations. In essence, OPEC was expected to represent an extraordinarily big departure from what international relations had been to such an extent that continued dependence, reliance and subordination would gradually but consistently be done away with. OPEC therefore not only represented a southern collective bargaining organ but was seen, even in consideration of the basis of its entry into global oil politics that the culture of subordination that had consistently been linked with the South would considerably whittle down. It can therefore be said that OPEC has always been a very important organization in re designing whatever may be an existing lopsided relationship between the South and the North. It has therefore remained surprising, shocking and disappointing that despite the criticality of OPEC to the international community and its potential at designing a new role for the South in international politics and relations, the North-South relationship had neither changed in any dramatic form at the general international relations level and at the stage of international oil politics. This work therefore aims at finding out specifically why, despite notable potentials of an OPEC at reducing if not totally eliminating the culture of subordination, that culture has remained in virtually every relationship between the North and the South. The work employs an interpretative methodology at analyzing the data. This it does by critically appraising the basis under which OPEC came into being with a view to indicating the proper linkage and relationship that exists between OPEC’s move into international oil politics and destroying exploitative tendencies of the North over the South. Different literature such as journal articles, books, internet materials and newspapers were exhaustively made use of towards working at the methodology. Cases explored in the work include the pre OPEC years and what the oil companies represented before OPEC came into being, the immediate factor responsible for an OPEC in international oil politics, what culture of subordination implies in the North- South relationship, the case of the dependency theory and the continued sustenance of the culture of subordination in spite of OPEC.The work finds out that even though OPEC was meant to reduce and finally eliminate a culture of subordination, a focus and attention on oil as an income generating organization has considerably affected the effectiveness of OPEC in international oil politics in particular and international relations in general. It concludes that until OPEC is finally structured and designed beyond that of revenue generation, the culture of subordination may well but continue.

Keywords: Subordination, OPEC, Contradiction, Oil, Oil Politics.