Oil On Troubled Waters: Gulf Wars, 1980-91

This study of the Iran-Iraq war and the more recent Gulf conflict introduces the important element of petroleum and the international oil industry.

The author provides a brief historical overview of the five thousand years of conflict between Iran and Iraq before moving to the origins of the 1980s war. Having shown that grounds existed for both agreement and dispute between the two countries, he examines their societies and resources (human, financial and military) at the outbreak of war.

Other chapters are devoted to neutral third parties with an interest in stability in the Gulf ( the US and the USSR, the oil-consuming world and the members of the Gulf Co-operation Council). The author also examines concurrent developments in the Middle East which had an influence on the conflict: superpower rivalry, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Islamic resurgence, the Kurds, fluctuations in the rate of the US dollar and the emergence of OPEC, among others.

The inland battlefront, the war at sea (with implications for international shipping), attacks on cities and the propaganda war are also discussed in some detail.

The book concludes with an account of the 'Desert Storm' operation in the Gulf in January 1991.