Norwegian Petroleum Policy and Ocean Management: The Need to Consider Foreign Interests

Abstract

Østreng, W. Norwegian Petroleum Policy and Ocean Management: The Need to Consider Foreign Interests. Cooperation and Conflict, XVII, 1982, 117-138.

The perspective of this article is that the mutual interdependence between the nations of the world is on the increase and that the national community and the outside world reveal more and more points of contact. Problems are internationalized, increasingly the fate of one nation is the concern of all, while national freedom of action is reduced. Domestic policy has become a more integral part of foreign policy and vice versa. This applies particularly to the management of what we may call mankind's common resources, such as the ocean and the air. The empirical purpose of the article is to picture Norway's ability and willingness to take into consideration the interests of other countries in shaping and implementing her ocean petroleum policy in the 1970s. In other words: Has Norwegian petroleum policy, as interpreted by Norwegian and foreign elites, been exclusive, inclusive or balancing in incorporating foreign consider ations ? The author arrives at an answer in four stages: (1) by charting Norwegian official interpretations of the impact that the problem of internationalization and mutual interests has on Norwegian petroleum policy; (2) by charting the areas of contact between this policy and foreign interests; (3) by charting Norwegian official interpretations of the extent to which they take into account the interests of other countries; (4) by charting foreign interpretation of Norwegian considerations of foreign-Norwegian interests. By and large, the conclusion arrived at is that there is a discrepancy between Norwegian and foreign interpretations of Norwegian ability and willingness to take into account the interests of other countries in her ocean petroleum policy.