Company Officials Research Articles

The DutchMogharaer,ArabicMuḥarrar,and Javanese Law Books: A VOC Experiment with Muslim Law in Java, 1747–1767

This article examines the claims of Dutch East India Company (VOC) officials in the mid-eighteenth century regarding the Islamic source of a legal code prepared for the local population in Semarang, northeast Java. Although the VOC had encountered local legal cultures in Indonesia since the mid-seventeenth century, it preferred to circumvent those in favour of European laws whenever possible. But in the eighteenth century, VOC officials addressed indigenous legal systems more directly when the company sought possibilities for direct control. This resulted in the production of many codes on the legal status of Muslim and Chinese subjects of Indonesia. In the process of codification, some officials claimed to have consulted Islamic legal texts and Muslim jurists. One criminal code that came out of the effort supposedly took its rulings accurately from theMugharrar,which is possibly theMuḥarrarwritten by the Islamic jurist ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Rāfiʿī (d. 1226). I argue that this assertion is baseless, and demonstrate that the very pretense is part of a larger colonial project that sought legitimacy from the indigenous subjects at a time of political and economic crises.

REPRESENTATION OF A COMPANY WHEN CONTRACTING WITH ANOTHER PERSON UNDER SOUTH AFRICAN COMPANY LAW Makate v Vodacom (Pty) Ltd [2016] ZACC 13

A company is an artificial person and has no mind, will or hands of its own. It is, therefore, compelled to act through human agents. The board of directors is responsible for the management and direction of the business affairs of the company. Under South African company law the directors’ powers of management are statutorily entrenched (S 66(1) of the Companies Act 71 of 2008). The board of directors may, however, delegate its powers to an individual director (or individual directors), a committee of the board, a managing director or other officers of the company. Before an individual director or officer of the company can conclude a binding transaction on behalf of their company, they must have the authority to do so. In South Africa, the issue of authority to enter into a transaction or agreement on behalf of a company is dealt with using the principles of the law of agency.The crisp issue in this note relates to the circumstances in which an individual company director or officer who, when contracting with another person, purports to be acting on behalf of the company will bind the company. In the recent case of Makate v Vodacom (Pty) Ltd ([2016] ZACC 13 (hereinafter “Makate v Vodacom”)), which involved a claim for reasonable compensation by the inventor of the concept of “Please Call Me” against Vodacom (Pty) Limited (hereinafter “Vodacom”), the Constitutional Court dealt specifically with the authority of a director to conclude a contract with a third party on behalf of the company. This note discusses Makate v Vodacom and the approach of the court regarding when a company will be bound by contracts concluded by its director or another person purporting to represent the company in a transaction with a third party. It examines the main judgment of Jafta J and the concurring judgment of Wallis J in relation to the legal nature of ostensible authority in the absence of actual authority.The note further looks at the issue of prescription, which Vodacom in its defence raised against the claim for compensation brought by Mr Makate. It explores the circumstances in which prescription can be successfully invoked to deflect a contractual claim brought against a company, the impact of the Constitution in this area of the law and whether the claim lodged by Mr Makate amounted to a “debt” for purposes of the Prescription Act (68 of 1969). To this end, again, both the main judgment of Jafta J and the concurring judgment of Wallis J are examined. This is followed by critical insights on the implications of this case and some concluding remarks.

Durable Remains

Bulgarian Roma living in the capital city of Sofia rely on glass for EU-era survival becauseof its role in food-jarring practices and its ability to be repeatedly used and reused withoutbreaking down. The durability of glass emerges as a salient material quality for ensuringa means of preservation in the face of everyday economic precarity. Glass's durability ismaterial and temporal: temporal in that it transcends political and economic upheavals,and material in that, unlike plastic, metal and paper, glass does not naturally decomposeover time. Instead, it enables structurally disadvantaged urbanites, like the Roma, touse homegrown food packaging technologies in order to survive in the era of EU "free"markets, plastic packaging and neoliberal discardability. The temporal and materialdurability of glass juxtaposes the precarious circumstances of those most engagedwith its contemporary reuse for whom glass enables both survival and a form of EU-eramaterial citizenship. However, EU regulations focused on recycling fail to acknowledgethe widespread practice of glass reuse in Bulgaria. This paper analyzes how EU policy,recycling company officials and Romani and non-Romani Sofia residents reconfiguredurability through different temporal materialities - and practices - of recycling and reuse.

Early years of East India Company rule in Chittagong: Violence, waste and settlement c. 1760–1790

This article probes the production of the uplands of Chittagong in the early years of British East India Company (EIC)rule in Bengal and its eastern frontiers. The South Asian debates around the nature of agrarian property relations have largely skipped places like Chittagong uplands, consequently, the uplands appear in academic and popular discussions as an already constituted outside to this agrarian historiography. The history of the uplands then become easily separated and consumed as part of frontier studies. The article seeks to address the constitution of this outside. Narrating a story where the protagonists range from influential Bengali middlemen in EIC retinue, Company officers responsible for Chittagong administration to mobile Arakanese men called ‘Magh zamindars’, brought together in a swirl of forged documents and contending claims to ‘wastelands’, the article glimpses into the complex interlocking between upland and lowland networks of Chittagong. It frames this narrative by unpacking the revenue categories of sair and kapas mahal; the two categories used for Chittagong uplands during this period. Disaggregating them allows one to see how the uplands were created in the image of the commodity cotton: the people who produced it, the way it was exchanged and the violence that marked the process.

Vaca Muerta Rising: Building Unconventional Production From the Ground Up in Argentina

Vaca Muerta Rising: Building Unconventional Production From the Ground Up in Argentina What is unconventional exploration and production in Spanish? YPF goes with “no convencional.” The translation, not conventional, is a literal description for the sort of ultra-tight reservoir rock in the Vaca Muerta, the huge formation that the Argentine oil company says can return the country to the ranks of energy-exporting nations. Not conventional is also the essential mindset required to do something nobody else in the world has accomplished: develop a massive shale play outside the US and Canada. The potential is there. The US Energy Information Administration ranks Argentina second in the world among unconventional formations for technically recoverable gas and fourth for oil. When YPF announced the discovery of a world-class shale play in 2011, it marked the start of years of work to solve a multidimensional puzzle presenting daunting geological, business, and political problems that has stymied the global spread of unconventional development. In the 6 years since then, YPF has shown it is possible to make money drilling and completing wells when oil prices are around $50/bbl while developing a block with Chevron. Vaca Muerta Rising: Faster and Cheaper Without Losing Better After Gustavo Astie, executive manager for unconventionals at YPF, presented what he thought was an aggressive growth plan for the coming year to YPF management, he was asked: Would it be possible to go faster? The answer was, there are limits. In the past 6 years, YPF has built a foundation for profitably developing the Vaca Muerta, but it is just now beginning to see if what worked in the initial pilots can be transferred elsewhere in the huge formation. When it comes to the pace of development, YPF needs to work with corporate partners providing much-needed money as well as expertise. Those partners include some of the biggest, most technically savvy companies in the industry, which took their time getting into unconventional development. Vaca Muerta Rising: A Trip Along the Learning Curve A drive down a gravel road in the Loma Campana follows the steep early learning curve in the Vaca Muerta. There are large pump jacks on old single wells left from the early days when vertical wells were drilled on scattered sites in a place that looks a lot like West Texas. There are pads with four vertical wells forming a rectangle. That pattern reduced the time needed to drill the wells by shortening the trip from well to well for older rigs not built to walk or slide on skids. Still it used two rigs, and the wells were far less productive than horizontal ones. A flexible pipeline snakes along the edge of the road leading to a fracturing site where it supplies the fresh water needed for the job. Flexible water lines have become a common sight, replacing fleets of trucks pounding down the bumpy, unpaved roads. Vaca Muerta Rising: Forces Favoring Shale Development are Aligned in Argentina, for Now It is easy to fixate on what it will take to extract huge volumes of oil and gas from the nearly impermeable rock within the Vaca Muerta. But in terms of the future of the huge Argentine unconventional formation, “the aboveground risk is far more important in the pace of development,” said Robert Lewis, a senior research analyst covering Latin America upstream for IHS Markit. Scaling up this unconventional play will require spending billions of dollars a year and support from government policies that promote a stable investment climate, the ability to move money and goods in and out of the country, affordable deals with labor unions, and improved infrastructure. Vaca Muerta Rising: Creating a Family-Friendly Oilfield Boomtown Añelo is a small town in an arid, sparsely populated area with a new supermarket, police station, bank, skate park, hotel, and hospital. In the past decade the population has roughly tripled to 7,000, and in 5 years, it is expected to nearly triple again to 20,000. The catalyst for this boom is the development of the Vaca Muerta, an enormous unconventional oil formation that extends under the town. As the town nearest to YPF’s office for this huge play, Añelo has recently attracted a cluster of service company offices, warehouses, and equipment yards on the edge of town. And more growth is expected as the national oil company scales up development. For YPF, the goal is to turn the fast-growing town into a good place to live for workers and their families. But that is hardly a sure thing.

Managerial perceptions of corporate sustainability reporting determinants in Nigeria

This study investigated managerial perceptions of the determinants of sustainability reporting in Nigeria. The rationales that managers construct around institutional pressures in relation to sustainability reporting constitute an under explored area in research. A survey research design was employed. A questionnaire was designed for the purpose of data collection and copies were administered to 81 companies in oil and gas, banking, industrial goods and consumer goods sectors in Nigeria. The results showed that corporate respondents opined that a mix of factors – coercive, normative and mimetic factors actually influence sustainability reporting of companies. The findings showed that corporate actors attributed higher values to initiation from the company chief executive officer (CEO) and investors’ concern with long-term performance of the business. Interestingly, regulatory pressures and employee training were found to have higher mean scores than pressures arising from corporate membership of external governance bodies, total asset base and foreign operations. Results from factor analysis showed that respondents opined that sustainability reporting was influenced by a mix of coercive, normative and mimetic factors. Pearson correlation between the level of sustainability reporting and coercive, normative and mimetic pressures showed significant association between the level of sustainability reporting and coercive and normative pressures. This study identified that a number of pressures combine to influence sustainability reporting. The rationales attributed to the factors could be a pointer to the areas that members of the organizational field need to improve upon to enable companies to provide reliable sustainability reporting and disclosures. This study contributes to the literature by focusing on aspects of the organizational field or environment of business that can aid improvements in the quantity and quality of sustainability reporting. This aspect of research is yet to be undertaken in the Nigerian context.

Collecting Oriental and Asiatic Arms and Armour: The Activities of British and East India Company Officers, c.1800-1850

During the first half of the 19th century substantial quantities of Oriental and Asiatic arms and armour first began to appear in Britain. On the one hand they certainly reflected the expansion of empire but their wider significance has yet to be discussed. This article seeks to address that omission by exploring the growth of interest in these objects within military circles, what they represented to the individuals who acquired them, and how they fitted into the wider collecting strategies of military officers as a group.

The tranfer of local company head office function on metropolitan area and relations with the growth (2) --Inspection by the change of aggregate market value from 1954 to the present--

The tranfer of local company head office function on metropolitan area and relations with the growth (2) --Inspection by the change of aggregate market value from 1954 to the present--

Penang and Its Networks of Knowledge eds. by Peter Zabielskis, Yeoh Seng Guan and Kat Fatland

Reviewed by: Penang and Its Networks of Knowledge eds. by Peter Zabielskis, Yeoh Seng Guan and Kat Fatland Ahmad Murad Merican Penang and Its Networks of Knowledge Peter Zabielskis, Yeoh Seng Guan and Kat Fatland (eds) Penang, Areca Books, 2017 This book had its origins in 'The Penang Story: A Celebration of Cultural Diversity' launched in 2001. The project culminated in The Penang Story International Conference in April 2002. Since then, Penang has been the focus of much interest. Over almost two decades, narratives on Penang have proliferated. Penang and Its Networks of Knowledge represent this continued interest and advocacy on the citystate, its diasporas and proximities. In the Introduction, 'Penang's Networks of Knowledge and Practice', Peter Zabielskis, one of the editors, enlightens us on the volume. It is an interesting fusion of collegiality of 'old friends of Penang, who, in various and separate ways over the years, have found Penang—the place, its people, its history and its culture'. There is an intellectual, interdisciplinary engagement among the writers, who see many things about Penang 'to which they regularly return in their thoughts and writing'. The volume sees Penang as an island in motion, in ways of thinking and doing. The volume is appropriately about 'the hybridity and in-between-ness'. There are 11 chapters narrating their encounters in their various and multiple outcomes. These chapters represent a splendid link to the past, and to a broader geography and culture that was, and of what we see today in the various avatars we call Penang. The overarching theme is the exchange of ideas and knowledge that has carved Penang in the regional and global map. The volume opens with the chapter by historian Barbara Watson Andaya titled 'Gathering "Knowledge" in the Bay of Bengal: The Letters of John Adolphus Pope, 1785–1788'. Central to the chapter is information from the letters of John Pope who, at the age of fourteen, became Third Officer on an English country ship, the Princess Royal. It was suggested that this 'information order', the framework to amass the 'knowledge' considered necessary to support political and economic power, could also foster cross-cultural communication. Andaya emphasizes the importance of the accumulation of knowledge on the region by English country traders operating in the Malay archipelago between 1750 and 1820, and also by the East India Company officials. But it was in the young John Pope (1771–1821) who, at the age of fourteen, was asked to collect 'knowledge' about places he visited and to relay it back to interested parties in India. Through his letters, Pope, as described by Andaya, fits the profile of an 'orientalist', but that term conveys little of the pleasure he derived from his interactions with the Malays on 'Pulau Penang'. Chapters 2 and 3 respectively delve into knowledge networks associated with the Penang College Général by historian Anthony Reid; and Evangelical Christianity and the Brethren Movement in Penang by Jean DeBernardi. In the latter, the writer investigates the Evangelical and Brethren movements in Penang [End Page 171] and the networks of people, ideas and practices they helped create. Reid's story is of network of knowledge—religious in character with a bent on the College Général 'as Penang's greatest contribution to Asian "network's of knowledge".' Arguably so if one looks at it from a Eurocentric perspective. Given the volume's orientation, there is but a certain import that this review intends to highlight—that of indigenous Malay Muslims, discussed in several chapters, and disparately captured throughout the volume. Of much interest is 'Indian Ocean Connections: Illuminated Islamic Manuscripts from Penang' by Annabel Teh Gallop, Lead Curator of Southeast Asia, British Library, London. This chapter, based on an earlier version presented at The Penang Story Conference 2002, speaks of a 'Penang style' of Islamic manuscript art. She describes two manuscripts and subsequently explores the Indian Ocean context in which they were produced. Is there a 'Penang style'? Gallop suggests the possibility that the Qur'an in the Penang State Museum could have been decorated by an artist with Penang connections whose style was rooted in the colours, shapes and forms of the Western fringes of...

IS FEAR OF FAILURE A PSYCHOLOGICAL BARRIER AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON OCCUPATIONAL CHOICES

Purpose- In our age, “success” has been promoted as the ultimate aim and result in life. Failure has been underrated in our society. However, failure is important and necessary. The contradiction of success promoting mentality is that in order to be successful failure is essential. However, we do not come across failure stories as much as success stories. Success is nice and positive, but failure is unpleasant and most of the time is not welcomed by the society and our close relations. Therefore, managing failure is highly important and is not taught or mentioned anywhere. This study tries to show the possible connection between the Fear of Failure (henceforth FoF) and occupational choices by including wide range of career options (e.g. being a social entrepreneur, being an academician, being a paid employee either in a private company or public office, being self-employed/entrepreneur and being not working at all if it is possible). Methodology- Survey method is used as a research instrument and 413 university students accepted to be the part of the study. Multiple regression analyses were performed to test the proposed relationships. Findings- Among them only two models constructed with entrepreneurial intention and not working at all (if it is possible) was found significant. Conclusion- . Alongside different findings of the study, negative connotation attached to the FoF for entrepreneurial intentions are still valid.

LANGUAGE SKILLS, SUB-SKILLS AND VOCABULARIES NEEDED BY AUTOMOTIVE DEPARTMENT STUDENTS OF TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL: A NEED ANALYSIS STUDY

This study aimed to analyze specific English language skills and kind of technical vocabulary that are needed by the third year automotive students of SMKN 2 Kota Bengkulu. The sample for interview comprised of 12 alumni, they were teachers and various company officers who have a MOU with SMKN 2 Kota Bengkulu. In the interview was used saturation sample. The results of interview with alumni indicate that the English skill most needed in the workplace is reading, the second was speaking, the third was writing and the last place was listening. The automotive students/ alumni need to comprehend the technical terms associated with technical terms in English. Related to car, are kick lever, oil pump, water cooling system, trail and rolling roof. Related to heavy machine are rear body offset, over hung, road clearance, light van and rear engine. Related to motorcycle are swing arm, bottom link fork, drum brake and kick starter. General automotive vocabulary are disc brake, gasoline, head lamp, piston and tire. Mastery of technical terms greatly affect the practice of industrial work (prakerin) of students in the work place.

Enganging the past of the city through the conservation of heritage building

Built heritage is a physical representation of culture that provides a connection with the past and important for aesthetic and symbolic values for the city. The conservation of built heritage is a necessary not only to engage with the identity of but also to sustaining development in the city. However, heritage buildings are vulnerable to development and modernization. The paper examines a colonial building in Jakarta that has been converted into different functions through various levels of physical modifications. As a case study is Cut Meutia Mosque in Menteng, designed by a Dutch architect PAJ Moojen during the Dutch late colonial era. The building was initiated in 1912 as N.V. Bouwploeg, a Dutch architecture firm that developed the nearby residential area of New Gondangdia. The New Gondangdia, including Menteng as its central area, was developed according to modern garden city principles. During its lifetime, the building was used for different purposes such as a post office and a train company office. After Ali Sadikin's term as Governor of Jakarta, the building was converted into a mosque. The architecture of the building follows the Dutch Rationalist style but adapts to local climate such as a ventilation tower in the center of the building to regulate the temperature inside. Through historical and field research, this paper discusses the benefits and possible distortions of history manifest in the transformation of colonial buildings. Moreover, learning from the conservation of building heritage and urban area in the city may support the idea of livable memory of urban area and sustainable city.

The appeal of doing business in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Shanghai

Why do Hong Kong, Singapore, and Shanghai boast so many head offices of foreign companies in the Asia‐Pacific region? A review of the social and economic policies of those megalopolises, complemented with feedback from 52 businesspeople who have lived and worked there, reveals that to varying degrees, each of these urban centers offers a business‐friendly environment, political stability, advantageous tax policies, and a highly educated workforce. These characteristics appeal to the leaders of multinational firms, as well as to individuals seeking an international experience with an established organization or their own startup.

A Qualitative Research Review of the CRM Strategies of the Selected Pharmaceutical Firms in Delhi

Indian Pharmaceutical sector that was practically non-existent in 1970s, is now considered as one among the top five pharmaceutical emerging markets of the world. Marketing has always been a major thrust area for pharmaceutical industry. Personal selling through MRs was the only method of promotion of pharmaceutical products till about a decade ago. However the period post liberalization saw many changes in Indian pharmaceutical Industry(IPL). Huge expenditure, upto 15-20% of the annual product revenue on the sales force, with a questionable ROI was putting a lot of pressure on these firms. To intensify the competition The Indian Patents (Amendment) Act was implemented in 2005. This resulted in a paradigm shift in the marketing and promotion strategy adopted by the industry. The traditional model of promotion through personal selling was replaced by newer sales models like channel management & key account management through customer relationship management (CRM) strategies. This research paper gives a qualitative research review of the CRM & e-CRM strategies adopted by the selected pharmaceutical companies of India with the help of secondary data sources and opinion survey of company officials in Delhi.Although Indian Pharma industry has adopted the newer technology to build and enhance its relationship with doctors but the ironic fact is that it is still staggering with the proper and effective implementation of the selected CRM Software. The major reason for the same is lack of willingness on part of the sales team (as found during personal interactions with the sales managers of these firms), to accept and adopt this new technology.

Fuel as a Factor in Canadian Transport: Energy Capital and Communication Theory

Background Established in 1849, the Fort Rupert coal settlement represented a departure in the Hudson’s Bay Company’s mode of colonial wealth accumulation on Vancouver Island. Company officials failed, however, to appreciate basic differences in the new mode of accumulation, including the importance of transportation to capitalist mineral extraction.Analysis This article accomplishes three things: it retrieves foundational theories of transportation and commodity circulation once popular in communication studies, provides a documentary account of coal mining and the coal trade in the mid-nineteenth-century eastern Pacific, and articulates a theory of capitalist energy consumption.Conclusion and implications The culminating theory of energy capital positions the extraction and circulation of fuel within Canadian communication studies through a transportation-focused approach to communication.

Thomas Roe and the Two Courts of Emperor Jahangir and King James

En tant qu’ambassadeur de Jacques I er à la cour de l’empereur Jahangir, Thomas Roe devait, dans sa correspondance à destination de l’Angleterre, prendre en compte deux ensembles de lecteurs : les administrateurs de l’East India Company, et un public royal et aristocratique choisi. La forme de sa correspondance varie en conséquence ; ses descriptions détaillées de la cour moghole, de ses pratiques, de ses lois et de son administration, ciblent le second groupe de lecteurs. Roe cherche à définir l’Inde moghole par une série d’attributs diamétralement opposés à ceux de l’Angleterre jacobéenne, et par extension de l’Europe. En un sens, son journal impliquait aussi un portrait de l’Angleterre pour ses lecteurs anglais. Si la plupart des critiques voient dans les dichotomies de Roe l’indice d’une perception typiquement occidentale et inadéquate à une véritable compréhension de l’Orient, le présent article suggère au contraire que les efforts de Roe pour définir l’Inde par opposition à l’Occident impliquent une oblitération délibérée de leurs similitudes sur bien des points. De plus, l’image du théâtre qu’il emploie régulièrement afin de critiquer l’irréalité de la cour moghole tend à saper son entreprise de différentiation, dans la mesure où elle possédait une résonance singulière dans le contexte anglais.

The Way We Think: Ethics, Health and the Environment in International Business

Breaches of ethics and social responsibility in domestic and international business are typically thought to be anchored in such phenomena as greed, dishonesty and conflict of interest. While these forces are frequently at work in international business transactions, there is often another major force at work when failures of ethics and social responsibility occur. This article addresses the question of what is it about the way that transnational company managers and government officials think or don’t think that leads to breaches of ethics and social responsibility – breaches that often result in major health, environmental and social tragedies. The article considers several cases of breaches in ethics and social responsibility: Texaco’s and Shell’s oil exploration and development in Ecuador and Nigeria, the Bhopal gas plant explosion in India, Wal-Mart’s sourcing of timber from China for manufacture of wood products, the trade in biofuels, the trade in toxic financial instruments, and the China milk crisis. The article discusses the roles of a variety of thought-processes in corporate and governmental decision-making and raises the question of whether we do enough in law schools and in business schools and school of public administration to address how companies and governments and their advisors think.

GIS Application Management for Disabled People

This research aimed to develop and design Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for facilitating disabled people by presenting some useful disabled information on the Google Map. The map could provide information about disabled types of people such as blind, deaf and physical movement. This research employed the Multiview 2 theory and method to plan and find out the problems in real world situation. This research used many designing data structure methods such as Data Flow Diagram, and ER-Diagram. The research focused into two parts: server site and client site which included the interface for Web-based application. The clear information of disable people on the map was useful for facilitating disabled people to find some useful information. In addition, it provided specialized data for company and government officers for managing and planning local facilities for disabled people in the cities. The disable could access the system through the Internet access at any time by using mobile or portable devices.

Green logistics practices in Turkey

Purpose- Since the beginning of the 1990’s, researches on using environmentally friendly technologies in logistic practices to mitigate the damage to environment have begun. A new application area, green logistic, has emerged which takes environmental and social factors into consideration, which is interested with the goods that are produced and distributed in a sustainable manner, and that aims to minimize energy consumption in logistics activities, minimize wastes and manage operations. This study aims to present the green logistics practices in Turkey. Methodology- The indicators table was prepared with datas from literature review, face-to-face interviews with firms in the scope of the research field and questionnaire with questions about activities. Face-to-face and phone calls with company officials, sustainability reports from the green logistics sector, and articles and news on the internet related to the subject were utilized. Findings- It is determined that logistics companies in Turkey adopt green logistics indicators. Conclusion- The study reveals that green logistics applications are seen in Turkey and companies are trying to enrich their business policies with a green point of view and that green logistics will provide competitive advantages in terms of logistics companies in the coming years.

After the Pipelines: Energy and the Flow of War in the Persian Gulf

Ensuring the flow of oil and providing security for oil producers like Saudi Arabia has long been central to American interests in the Persian Gulf. The security-for-oil argument is a formulation that obscures more than it reveals, however. The division of energy and security misses the important ways in which the two have become physically and technologically built into one another over the last three decades. While Washington leaders and oil company officials sought to secure strategic and energy interests in the Middle East throughout much of the twentieth century, the period of the 1980s and the decision by the United States to intervene directly in the closing stages of the Iran-Iraq war marked a new era in which energy and conflict have become permanently entangled.