The Violence of Petro-Dollar Regimes

The present work is a clear and flowing translation from French by Cynthia Schoch of Luis Martinez’s work on how three revolutionary petro-dollar regimes, Algeria, Iraq and Libya, put their oil rent to the service of authoritarian power. Martinez explains their destructive force as other than an anthropological problem: these regimes are not somehow humanly different from other authoritarian regimes; they just had the tremendous wind of oil profits in their sails to do extreme damage to populations. The study is therefore a very detailed account of how petro-dollars were made, transformed into police cruelty and social inequality, and how local populations were ravaged by three revolutionary regimes. The author’s insights are numerous and to the point, and the book’s readerfriendly structure can be read in two ways: For specialists, each chapter is exhaustive in its historical details and other minutiae and is not to be missed. Interested laymen, or those wishing to remember Martinez’s deductions, can however safely read the introductions and conclusions of each of the chapters to understand the core points. The very gist of Martinez’s work is the following paradox: ‘although the Algerian, Libyan and Iraqi economies have “failed”, the regimes have “succeeded” in remaining in power despite meagre economic results, revolts and wars’. (p. 160) This strange truism could almost be called “funny” were it not for its millions of victims! Whilst this is mostly a tragic retelling of the adage “easy come easy go,” Martinez explains that we must not lose sight that authorities in power were largely to blame, ‘With the sudden and bountiful inflow of revenue, governments lost control over spending. This inability to manage unexpected wealth arose from the revolutionary context in which the wealth appeared… [F] or these regimes the windfall has in fact been the engine of an economy of plunder that has ensured their longevity.’ (p. 159) This is borne out by his reference to Isabelle Beaulieu’s study of Malaysia, wherein she notes,