After suffering the disastrous effects of the 1973 oil embargo, countries around the world integrated their energy markets and largely stopped using energy to coerce others. But now, governments are once again wielding oil, gas, electricity, and rare earths as levers of foreign policy: Russia has slashed natural gas deliveries to Europe, China has restricted the export of critical minerals, and the United States has demanded that various countries buy more American energy in exchange for tariff relief. Energy weaponization is coming back, write Jason Bordoff and Meghan O’Sullivan in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs, and “this trend is unlikely to end soon.”
For countries to protect themselves, they will need to not only produce more energy but also consume less, argue Bordoff and O’Sullivan. And there might even be a silver lining on the volatility ahead. “Ultimately, the imperative to bolster energy security could be an even stronger motivator of clean energy deployment and reduced fossil fuel use than the threat of climate change itself.”
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