This study is an examination and comparison of the manner in which Nigeria, Iran and Libya used oil revenue for their economic development. The research methodology was the case study approach, utilizing statistical time series data, as well as a historical profile of each country's income and expenditure accounts. As a prelude to the oil injection, the pre-oil revenue economy, the history of the oil industry, and the previously implemented development plans of each of these nations is surveyed. The impact of the oil revenues on the standard of living and the non-oil sectors of these economies is examined. The paper concludes with projections concerning each country's ability to continue to promote economic development when its exhaustible oil reserves runs out.

The main objective of this research is to test some of the hypotheses linking economic development, social mobilization, legitimacy, and the coerciveness of the regime with internal political conflict. Each proposed hypothesis is to be tested across sixteen predominantly Islamic Middle Eastern nations for data from two time periods, 1960-66 and 1967-73. To check for the consistency and strength of the hypothesized relationships the test results for each hypothesis for the first period data will be compared with those of the second period.