Consequently, few major weapons systems purchases are likely to be made in either region, but particularly not in Africa. Military intervention is expensive and risky. No country joins another country’s civil war without balancing the cost against their own strategic interests and what possible benefits there are. We found countries producing lots of oil or those with higher reserves (and considerable market power) were more likely to attract military support. Most often this was to preserve oil prices on international markets. Indeed, there were on average more interventions in periods when there were only a few big oil producing countries and thus reduced competition (and more stable prices). Such interventions are more likely to be operated by countries highly dependent on oil imports. The US is the obvious example, but the USSR also fits this pattern – look at its intervention in oil-rich Indonesia in 1958, when Soviet oil production was still in its infancy. Consider also the UK’s military intervention in the Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Biafran War, between 1967 and 1970. At the time the UK was one of the largest net oil importers in the world, as North Sea oil production only started in 1975. The country also had, via BP, a direct interest in the stability of the region. It may seem tempting to attribute UK intervention in Nigeria to ties to its former colony. However, the UK did not intervene in civil wars in other, less oil-rich, former colonies such as Sierra Leone or Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe).
Military intervention is expensive and risky countries producing lots of oil or those with higher reserves ) were more likely to attract military support. Most often this was to preserve oil prices on international markets. Indeed, there were on average more interventions in periods when there were only a few big oil producing countries and thus reduced competition (and more stable prices). interventions are more likely to be operated by countries highly dependent on oil imports. The US is the obvious example, but the USSR also fits this pattern – look at its intervention in oil-rich Indonesia in 1958, when Soviet oil production was still in its infancy. Consider also the UK’s military intervention in the Nigerian Civil War At the time the UK was one of the largest net oil importer