Us Foreign Policy in the Middle East- Oil

As an industrial superpower, oil is an extremely important factor in maintaining that status. The United States and the entire world depend on oil to run their machines and engines. The Middle East produces over 60% of the world's oil supply. Demands for this oil increases every year. The United States relies on the Middle East for about 14% of all oil needs, but that percentage keeps on growing. As disaster and lack of reserves damage our own oil reserves, the United States needs more options for obtaining oil. The Middle East is the cheapest to extract. We need to maintain a healthy relationship with these Middle Eastern nations to be able to use these oil reserves.

This is a problem though because all of those major oil producers of the Middle East are all divided economically and politically. In history, political issues have caused governments, such as Saudi Arabia, to place oil embargoes or completely cut off the United States from oil supply. Saudi Arabia did this in hope to influence the United States to side with them in conflicts. This shows us today that oil is not just an economic issue, but a political one also. The United States needs to manage foreign policy very delicately to assure that we will not cause regions to change our healthy connections. We should try to balance our relations with the Arabs so our support will not be as one sided it has been with our aid towards Israel. This will help us gain a status of being fair and a stable peacemaker. This will also help show the nations that we are respectful and show true interest in being involved with their economics. That will influence their decision to keep the United States in a good position, which prevents another crisis to occur.

The United States has its own tension with Iran also. However, if we were to solve the tension peacefully, we could be able to establish a beneficial alliance for oil. The conflict is pointless and only prohibits us from being truly strong against European rivals also looking for oil in the Middle East. The more ties we establish in the region shows that the United States is trustworthy and capable of forming a favorable alliance with.

By resolving conflict and crafting careful association with Middle Eastern nations, the United States can obtain the important oil we need to thrive economically. This also helps us establish profitable foreign relations with regions to strengthen our own nation. Oil is an