In this volume the primary intent is to uncover the objective functional relationship between import and export dependencies as they affect the reliability of supply in the past and the future. Until recently, under the aegis of American hegemony, and due to the role the oil multinationals played, both oil exporting and oil importing countries exhibited a sufficiently high degree of dependence on the trade in oil to bring about a symmetry in their reciprocal conditions. The manipulation of oil supplies during the 1956-57 and 1967 Middle East crises was ineffective as an instrument of international influence due to the particular balanced form of interdependence. Beginning in 1970, the rise of OPEC against the background of American decline disrupted the fragile symmetry and caused a widening disequilibrium between oil importers and exporters. The scope of remedial policies to restructure the energy system so as to enhance its security is surveyed in the last two chapters. Two cooperative strategies are analyzed: horizontal multilateralism and vertical bilateralism. The study concludes that either of two unilateral approaches are more likely to characterize future events in the energy area than complex cooperative arrangements.