Oilfield Services Companies, Decolonization, and the Changing Shape of U.S. Global Power

FAIN: FT-285960-22

Alex Beasley
University of Texas at Austin (Austin, TX 78712-0100)

Research and writing two new chapters of a book on the cultural, political, and economic development of the globally integrated economy through the lens of the oilfield services industry.

This project examines the cultural, political, and economic development of the globally integrated economy through the lens of the oilfield services industry. I argue that oilfield services executives promoted a new ideology of American internationalism that envisioned the U.S. not as a center of manufacturing and production but as a white-collar headquarters serving the world through its provision of expertise. In negotiations with domestic and international workers and with foreign governments, these companies promoted a new version of global capitalism, which I call “service empire,” that provided a way for U.S.-based firms to maintain cultural and economic power in an era of postcolonial nations’ rising political strength.