The end of the Paris energy dialogue and the need for an international energy institute

Since 1973 energy has been in the forefront of international discussions about the political implications of supply and prices, especially as these factors affect the developing countries which are heavily dependent on imports (the OIDC). The author traces the history and organization of the Conference of International Economic Cooperation, its successes and failures, and focuses on the problems of the OIDC which, because they have not been fully recognized, account for the abundance of failures and point to the need for an international institutional mechanism for energy to go beyond the capacities of existing organizations.