ABSTRACT
In its Programme of Action for the Establishment of a New International Economic Order of May 16, 1974, the United Nations General Assembly devoted a large section to the “Fundamental Problems” facing the international community. The policy to encourage specialization in primary products has been influenced frequently by assessing development and change in quantitative terms only. The relationship between producers and consumers of strategic resources is one of dual dependence and dual vulnerability, rather than of viable interdependence hence, this relationship is unstable and unviable. A primary product or resource is a raw material which has been subjected to little or no processing of any sort. An economically strategic resource would usually command monopolistic benefits and prices; a poltically strategic resource would command favorable terms in international agreements. The role of strategic resources in international relations reflects the economic and political power they command.
