A reassessment of the 1967 Arab oil embargo

Abstract

The 1967 war had more influence on the Arab–Israeli conflict than any other factor, and yet the Arab states did not make use of their most efficient weapon. Most of the research on the Six Day War which has touched on the oil embargo blames the embargo's failure on the lack of Arab unity rather than on the inability to set oil policies. Indeed, many researchers believe that the disagreements within the Arab world before the war prevented the oil-producing states from cooperating with their counterparts, such Egypt and Syria, that took part in the war against Israel, and that the embargo therefore did not stand a chance of succeeding. This article seeks to refute the received wisdom that the 1967 oil embargo was a failure because of the lack of Arab unity. By contrast, the success of the 1973 oil embargo was not, as is widely argued, due to Arab unity but to the nature of the oil market at the time.