Le pétrole du Moyen-Orient est-il géopolitiquement si précieux ? Réflexions autour d’une contestable centralité économique, stratégique et énergétique

It is a common point of view that the struggle for Middle Eastern oil is one

of the most important issues of international geopolitics. Is it so obvious? If

one pays attention to the great evolutions the world has been through since

the beginning of the XXth century, he will realise that the abundant “black

gold” of the region was rarely an objective for predatory States and almost

never the real cause of the tensions and internal wars in the Middle East.

Moreover, because of the concurrence of other oilfields located outside the

region, but also with the emergence of new energy products, the control

of the oil in the Middle East could become, in the long term, less and less

decisive.