Coloniality

The level of oil exploitation depends on the political order established by colonial or postcolonial great powers. Whether the political order is a formal or informal, colonial or imperial order will also help us to identify the tools and policies of oil exploitation. British colonial order in the Persian Gulf was informal and provided the groundwork and tools for maximum oil exploitation. The American informal imperial order in the Gulf has been established to achieve the same objectives but used different institutions and justifications. In order to reveal the relationship between political order and oil exploitation, relevant concepts such as colonialism, imperialism, decolonization, and neocolonialism are defined and the debates regarding their different types and applications are analyzed. Understanding British colonial and American postcolonial oil policies toward the Gulf region, the chapter has initially introduced concepts that are closely related to both the subject of the book and its theoretical approach. Postcolonial theory thus reanalyzes these concepts according to its theoretical perspective and establishes its critical approach from both practical and theoretical explanation and exploration.