Iraq's Burdens: Oil, Sanctions, and Underdevelopment

(Hardback)

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Oil revenue has been an economic curse for Iraq. In the second half of the 20th century the international oil sector shaped Iraq's economy, forcing it to rely too heavily on revenue brought in by oil production and exports. Iraq's failure to use copious oil rents to diversify the economy has proven disastrous for its people and economy. Its over-reliance on oil revenues coupled with the consequences of its war with Iran, the Gulf War, and the ensuing economic sanctions have led the country to economic destruction, sanctions, and enormous debt. Iraq is a major oil producing country, a founding member of OPEC, and possesses the world's second highest amount of oil reserves. Yet few studies exist on Iraq's oil industry and its impact on the economic and political fortunes of the country. Alnasrawi remedies this by helping us understand this important Arab, Middle Eastern, oil-exporting country that has been a constant focus of U.S. foreign policy since 1990. Alnasrawi concludes that the availability of capital is an insufficient condition for economic development, and may in fact retard it, as it did in this now reviled and wrecked country.

Reviews

[a] valuable contribution to literature on economic development, the political economy of the Middle East, and the literature on the history of geopolitics of oil. It provides a useful background to Iraq prior to the second Persian Gulg War. It deserves to be widely readby scholars and by citizens concerned about war, occupation, and the new imperialism.-Journal and Review
This book is a useful addition to the literature...Alnasrawi's book is a thorough study with reference to the literature and the available data.-www.swans.com
This is a welcome book by a well-established scholar who has spent decades studying oil markets and OPEC in general, and Iraq in particular....Important reading for understanding wars, sanctions, and particularly the ruinous international neglect of a nation in despair. Highly recommended. General readers and lower-division undergraduates through professionals.-Choice
"a valuable contribution to literature on economic development, the political economy of the Middle East, and the literature on the history of geopolitics of oil. It provides a useful background to Iraq prior to the second Persian Gulg War. It deserves to be widely readby scholars and by citizens concerned about war, occupation, and the new imperialism."-Journal and Review
"This book is a useful addition to the literature...Alnasrawi's book is a thorough study with reference to the literature and the available data."-www.swans.com
"This is a welcome book by a well-established scholar who has spent decades studying oil markets and OPEC in general, and Iraq in particular....Important reading for understanding wars, sanctions, and particularly the ruinous international neglect of a nation in despair. Highly recommended. General readers and lower-division undergraduates through professionals."-Choice
"[a] valuable contribution to literature on economic development, the political economy of the Middle East, and the literature on the history of geopolitics of oil. It provides a useful background to Iraq prior to the second Persian Gulg War. It deserves to be widely readby scholars and by citizens concerned about war, occupation, and the new imperialism."-Journal and Review

Author Bio

ABBAS ALNASRAWI is the John H. Converse Professor of Economics, the University of Vermont. He is the author of The Economy of Iraq: Oil, Wars, Destruction of Development and Prospects (Greenwood Press, 1994) and Arab Nationalism, Oil, and the Political Economy of Dependency (Greenwood Press, 1991).