Introduction

This introduction presents some of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book is based on the view that understanding the cooperation between oil producers is a question of understanding interactions of politics and economics. It explains the possibility of oil-producer cooperation on the basis of changes in the market structure and the accompanying distribution of power among three groups of market actors: the producer countries, the consumer countries, and the international oil companies. The book focuses on an intermediate level between the structure, which the actors take as given, and their individual behavior or interaction. It examines the consequences for oil-market behavior of states' security interests. The book includes a discussion of the proposition that changes in domestic factors influence the willingness of a state's authorities to indulge in producer cooperation. It argues that institutions might obtain sufficient autonomy to influence the actors' behavior.