Coercive western energy security strategies: 'Resource wars' as a new threat to global security

Abstract

Against the background of the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 western coalition's war against Iraq, this article will argue that interstate resource wars and armed conflicts will constitute a new threat to global security. Two different phenomena are framing the conditions for future resource wars: first, an anticipated oil supply crisis as a first consequence of the decline of global oil reserves and second, the uneven distribution of these declining resources along the North-South axis. It is argued that in response to these developments the coercive character of traditional US strategies for securing energy will intensify, and thus bears the potential to escalate into further armed conflicts. It follows from this discussion that there are only two sustainable strategies for conflict prevention: first, the reduction of the dependency on fossil fuels by developing alternative and renewable energy, and second, the pursuit of a global policy based on more equitable and controlled energy distribution.