Publications
Publications
- June 2022
- HBS Case Collection
Mossadeq’s Gambit: The US, UK, and Iranian Oil Nationalization
By: Jeremy Friedman and Jingyu Liu
Abstract
Many of the West’s political problems in the Middle East and in Iran in particular can be traced to the overthrow of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh by military forces supported by the American CIA and the British MI6 in August 1953. Mossadegh, at the head of a newly-elected nationalist government, had nationalized the Iranian oil industry that had been controlled by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), now known as BP. Since 1908, the AIOC had been producing enormous revenue for London, and control of Iranian oil was essential to the British Empire. In order to gain Washington’s assent to the coup, the Americans had to be convinced that Mossadegh represented a geopolitical threat, not merely an economic one. Ever since, the overthrow of Mossadegh has been seen as evidence of the extent of the supposed neo-imperialist motivations of the West in the post-colonial world.
Keywords
Neo-imperialism; History; Conflict Management; War; Globalized Economies and Regions; Natural Resources; National Security; Government and Politics; Globalized Markets and Industries
Citation
Friedman, Jeremy, and Jingyu Liu. "Mossadeq’s Gambit: The US, UK, and Iranian Oil Nationalization ." Harvard Business School Case 722-065, June 2022.