> a large part of it is decided as part of internal political posturing I agree that not "everything" on the lowest level (single politicians) is simply "oil"

> a large part of it is decided as part of internal political posturing I agree that not "everything" on the lowest level (single politicians) is simply "oil" but even looking at your example the motivation on the lower level is surely to keep the power and influence by these who already have it and to get the power and influence for these who don't have it. The next step is to ask what the power and influence does in total, what are the interests of the whole systems.