ABSTRACT
Decision-making theory— even though it emphasized its break with traditional perspectives and its integration within the scientific-behavioral approach—did little to break with the state-centric frame of reference. This chapter deals with Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) as an influential international actor. In a tight market situation such as that of the 1979 Iranian oil crisis, increases in crude oil prices on spot markets affect OPEC's official prices. The direct participants in the decisions of 1980 and 1982 were, of course, OPEC's members, whose economic conditions and development plans were affectedto varying degrees—by the state of the international oil market. At the OPEC Conference held in Geneva during the month of May 1981, a concerted effort was made among the member countries to reunify prices and to reduce oil surplus on the international oil market. To understand OPEC's decision-making process, one must keep an eye on world market forces, OPECs internal power structure, and especially the linkages between them.
