Iran and China make Oil Deal
Writing by abuhatem on Monday, 10 of December , 2007 at 11:59 pm
Some international relations scholars have been arguing for the past half decade that the world will soon see an end to the post-Cold War era’s unipolar international system. Many of these scholars have argued that a second bloc was forming which would probably consist of China - and argued that China’s liberalization would not lead to its integration with the international system. A good example of these arguments are in Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations, and John J. Mearsheimer’s The Tragedy of Great Power Politics. Are they right? Only time will tell.
However, ecent years have seen a Iran-Venezuela-Syria axis form with economic and military aid, at least to Syria and Iran, from Russia. Now China is closing in on the deal with a two billion dollar oil contract with Iran. Economic liberalization and trading partners will make Iran wealthier, yet it remains to be seen whether this liberalization can pull it into the major Westernized democratic capitalist bloc. This differentiation of was termed the “core,” (or liberalized democracies) and the “gap,” (autocracies with centrally planned economies) by Thomas Barnett in his work The Pentagon’s New Map.
This is an interesting question to explore, whether liberalization will only lead to powers balancing against the strong - or will integrate them into the system.
Iran, China finalise two billion dollar oil contract - Yahoo! News
“The signing shows that there is no lack of investment in Iran and we are solidifying our economic relations with China more,” said Nozari.”The second message is that if other countries are willing to invest in the big oil and gas fields of Iran they should not lose the opportunity,” he added, in an apparent warning to any dithering Western firms.
The deal is one of the biggest foreign energy contracts ever signed by Iran, which holds the world’s second-largest oil and gas reserves and is seeking development of its oil fields.
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Category: International Relations
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