The Oil Crisis and the Emerging World Order

The paper outlines a conceptual framework for understanding and analyzing the structuring of an institutional order. Particular attention is given to developments which make institution restructuring likely – for instance power shifts which favor actors with a different vision or model of an appropriate institutional order. The framework is applied in a brief historical study of the development of post-World War II international economic institutions and current developments associated with the ‘oil crisis’. This conceptual framework and historical investigation provides a basis on which to formulate propositions indicating potential sources of conflict and cooperation and certain ambiguities and dynamics of current institution restructuring in the international system. The paper concludes by outlining several action guidelines for structuring new global cultural forces and institutional forms related to bringing about a New International Economic Order.