EH.N: call for papers

[ALAIN BELTRAN]

International congress
Oil and war
11 and 12 February 2010, at Paris-La Défense (France)




Call for communications

  In 1939, the young and brilliant lawyer Edgar Faure published a book  
in the
Bibliothèque d’histoire politique, militaire et navale (Library of  
political, military and
naval history) called: « Le pétrole dans la paix et dans la guerre  
» (“Oil in Peace and
War”). Twenty years later, the subtitle of a work called "Oil and War"  
could sum up, in
itself, this congress topic : "How oil won the war and now controls  
peace". Oil, "the
blood of peace and the nerve of war", is ordinarily associated with  
images of armed
confrontations, and is often perceived as one explanatory factor of  
conflicts. In times
of peace, an awareness of oil dependence can even lead to various  
kinds of foreign
intervention. To be sure, we know that motorisation of armed forces  
has made oil
vital in any modern war. It is hardly necessary to remind you of the  
vital role played
by oil during the two World Wars, the abundance of that raw material  
no doubt being
one of the elements accounting for the Allies' final victory. We will  
simply remind you
of the incredible American logistical effort at the time of the  
Normandy landings on 6
June 1944 (operation PLUTO). For countries lacking oil, that lack  
demanded a
tremendous effort to come up with substitute products, as the German  
chemical
industry did with synthetic (« Ersatz ») oil. Certain military  
offensives are directly
connected with access to oil resources (such as the German conquest of  
Valachia or
Transcaucasia during the First World War, or the German thrusts toward  
Baku and
Mesopotamia during the second one). Shortage of oil (lack of resources  
or because
of a rapid shift of the fighting front) slowed Rommel, Patton and Von  
Rundstedt.  The
technical decisions were also influenced by the need for using more or  
less petrol, or
developing oil products well suited to the army's needs. The  
effectiveness of
blockades and of oil embargos can be reconsidered in the light of  
recent research.
  Looking beyond the context of world wars, in certain hydrocarbon- 
rich parts of
the world the oil companies are said to have intervened, directly or  
indirectly, for
instance during the war between Bolivia and Paraguay, and later at the  
time of the
Biafra of secession. The oil factor was also present during the Cold  
War, and during
wars for independence (in the latter case, were the oil regions  
"sanctuaries" far from
the fighting?). During local conflicts oil has served as a medium of  
exchange (for
weapons), as cement as a bonding agent for alliances and as a means of  
exerting
pressure for "oil despots". In peacetime, the strategic stocks, the  
question of supply
security and the quality of the various fuels are all vital elements  
in determining the
feasibility or the continuation of possible conflict.  An  
understanding of the oil issue
also includes direct or indirect control of the production areas that  
are vital to the
major powers (the Middle East above all) as well as the security and  
control of the
most important routes for hydrocarbon exchanges. Thus maritime routes  
regain their
full importance, whether we think of straits, islands, offshore  
operating areas with
sometimes vague borders … The various crises involving Suez, Iran and  
Iraq,
Kuwait, the Paracelse Islands…offer numerous contemporary examples.  
But oil
pipelines can also be the object of conflicting appetites. The United  
States, having
become a net importer, the strongly dependent European Union, China…  
have come
to pay great attention to such questions, which directly influence  
their future,
particularly as concerns an inevitably limited resource.  In the final  
analysis, can a
country be a great power without direct or indirect access to vast  
hydrocarbon
resources? Looking beyond historical examples and the required  
typology, in the final
analysis we want to be able to view today's questions in a long-term  
perspective,
even if we have to show that certain ones among yesterday's factors  
are no longer
equally relevant today.
  Hence the congress is intended to be a multidisciplinary one so as  
to welcome
attendance by historians, geographers, military experts, specialists  
in international
relations, persons responsible for the oil sector (both public  
authorities and the
companies involved…). The history that is brought up will cover the  
entire period of
the 20th century, and also the beginning of the following one. The  
congress' work will
have several focuses, this list being indicative only :
• making war with or without oil : examples since the time of the  
First World
War
• the civilian authorities and the oil issue in France and abroad from  
the
viewpoint of national security: what has been the nature of the public
policy since 1914 (notion of oil dependence, appropriate legislation,
development of a tanker fleet, relationships with the military  
authorities…)?
• the General Staff and the technical problems raised by the oil  
supply issue
(depots, reserve stocks, mobilisation of resources, locations of oil
installations…)
• oil embargos and their effectiveness (or the absence of an oil  
embargo as
happened in the case of the League of Nations against Italy in 1935,  
in the
case of Ethiopia)
• Atlantic or European cooperation to develop an oil policy in case of
international conflict
• etc.
  A roundtable discussion at the end of the colloquium is planned to  
emphasise
the past and present strategic aspects of oil: from controlled oil for  
making war to
secured access to the resources.

Organization

  The colloquium will be held at la Défense, near Paris. The  
organisers will
arrange accommodation and meals on the spot. A limited amount of  
travel can be
provided.
  Proposals with abstracts (maximum 250 words), up to five key-words,  
a brief
CV (no more than one page) should be sent by 1 September 2009, either  
in French
or in English :

Alain BELTRAN
Directeur de recherche au CNRS
beltran at univ-paris1.fr

The proposals will be selected at the end of September 2009.


Scientific Committee

• Alain Beltran (IRICE, National Centre for Scientific Research)
• Gilles Bellec (General ingeneer gisements)
• Benoît Doessant (Archives TOTAL SA)
• Nathalie Fokart (Director TOTAL University)
• Robert Frank (Professor Panthéon-Sorbonne University)
• Pascal Griset (Professor Paris-Sorbonne University)
• Pascal Hintermeyer (Professor War Studies Institute of Strasbourg)
• Hervé l’Huillier (Economist intelligence TOTAL SA)
• Pascal Lorot (Director Revue Géoéconomie)
• Jean- Christophe Romer (Director Centre for Historical Studies of the
defense)
• Georges-Henri Soutou (Institute of France)
• Jérôme Thuez (Manager organisation&methods department TOTAL SA)