Eni, Mattei and Boldrini: A Radical Response to the Challenges of Developing International Energy Expertise

This chapter examines the role the Graduate School for the Study of Hydrocarbons, a business school established by the Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi (ENI) in 1957, had in educating engineers, geologists and managers from oil-producing countries and the Third World. By analyzing the curriculum along with the professional and personal biographies of its professors and students, this chapter argues that in the 1960s ENI’s School became an internationally renowned institution and attracted some of the most important American and European scholars working on economic development and oil, as well as some of the most qualified students from the Third World. Through the presence and participation of economists such as Paul Rosenstein-Rodan, who played a crucial role in defining U.S. modernization theory and development policies during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, the School became an important tool for U.S. and Italian cultural diplomacy toward developing countries, and contributed to the emergence of a new technocratic elite in oil-producing countries.