ABSTRACT
Regional and international influences are of exceptional importance in the Middle East and Africa in terms of World Bank and International Monetary Fund activity in the regions. However, a new and more exacting relationship developed between the Middle East and Africa during the 1970s which was forged by an association between oil and aid. A different form of economic realism emerged during that period and studies suggested that a powerful system of patron/clientalism developed (LeVine and Luke 1979; Ismael 1986). The global situation has changed radically since that debate and in the present post-Cold War, post-1991 Gulf War international environment the relationship needs to be reconsidered. This chapter looks at the continuing roles played by oil aid, and the impact of Western and Islamic agencies of development.
