Energy Security and the Revival of Geopolitics

The issue of energy security is being reviewed from a standpoint of geopolitics. The contention is that geopolitics is inescapably related to the question of energy security for a simple reason: the contradiction between the universal character of energy demand and the nation-state’s exclusive right of management of natural resources located within its realm. I start with a discussion of the earlier historical antecedents of geopolitics of natural resources and the imperialist struggle for oil at the beginning of the twentieth century. I follow with an overview of the oil crises of the seventies, which ended the era of the oligopolistic domination of the market by a few western companies, and instituted the second oil regime, much more dependent on stability of the producing countries. The discussion then moves to the impact of globalization and the return of geopolitics that followed mass disillusionment with the neoliberal project of the nineties. The article ends with a case study that focuses on present struggles over the control of energy resources in Eurasia. As Russia reasserts controls over its energy production and trade, its energy policies and foreign economic relations take center stage in the discussions of energy security in both regional and global contexts