The 1973 oil embargo, not old theory, triggered the NIEO’s emergence

Evidence

Prebisch’s work undoubtedly provided an important justification for the NIEO platform, but his seminal thesis alleging deteriorating terms of trade for primary commodity exporters was published in 1950, more than two decades earlier. Thus in explaining why the NIEO emerged when it did, one must look to contemporary events, and specifically to the Arab oil embargo of 1973. The sense of economic and political dislocation generated by the oil shock, and the portentous predictions of the Third World’s coming “resource power” that the energy crisis was thought to augur, were of decisive importance in explaining why the G-77 countries, despite having failed to secure most of the objectives laid out at the first UNCTAD conference ten years prior, nevertheless viewed the Sixth Special Session as an auspicious opportunity to advance their agenda (Doyle 1983). — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1743

Categorization

• QUESTION: The claim that the oil shock was ‘of decisive importance’ for timing invites exploration of how commodity-exporting confidence rose then collapsed in the 1980s debt crisis.
• XREF: connects to: The 1970s NIEO represented developing countries’ collective demand for redistribution and sovereignty. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 163; OPEC’s 1973 embargo inspired the Global South’s New International Economic Order. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 413; The 1974 NIEO declaration culminated a movement begun in 1955 — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1736 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Loose monetary policy plus oil shocks triggered the 1973 economic crisis #complicates (0.80) — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 861