Yet the course of the six major disruptions from the early 1950s through 1991 has revealed that the logistical and supply system can adapt to such an extent that the shortages ended up being less dire than had been expected. Indeed, the real problem in the 1970s turned out not to be an absolute shortage, but the disruption of the supply system and the confusion over ownership of oil, with the consequent rush to reorder the system under conditions of high uncertainty. And in 1990 and 1991, the lessons of previous crises, along with the mechanisms developed since the 1970s and improved
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