United States foreign policy is, to a great degree, influenced by the performance of the international economy. This fact was brought home with dramatic force in 1973, when Arab oil-producing countries suddenly quadrupled the price of oil. That abrupt increase in price, followed by the Arab oil embargo, nearly crippled the economies of the industrial nations of the west. The recent political upheaval in Iran and its affect on the world oil supply is only another poignant example of the extent to which the performance of the American economy, which obviously includes our national and multinational business enterprises, is intimately affected by external economic factors. It is becoming increasingly apparent that, in the global village, politics cannot be separated from economics and business.