In the second part of the last century oil producing and consuming nations' interests were seen as mutually exclusive. The former sought to push prices higher, while the latter tried to push them lower. The creation of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 1960 and the founding of the International Energy Agency (IEA) in 1974 in response to the oil-price shock of 1973-74 embody this confrontation between oil producers and consumers. Opposing misperceptions, however, did not serve the interests of either producers or consumers and, indeed, contributed to a broad destabilization of global oil markets and the international system.Consequently, in the last few decades th...