Geopolitical Energy Wars: How Colonial Fuel Dependencies and Proxy Conflicts Threaten Global Stability
Original framing: “Wilkinson: Biggest Global Energy Shock in 40 Years” — Bloomberg
The current energy crisis echoes the 1973 oil embargo, where OPEC weaponized supply to punish Western support for Israel, but with a critical difference: today’s conflicts are decentralized, involving non-state actors like the Houthis and private military firms. The 1956 Suez Crisis, where Britain and France invaded Egypt to protect oil flows, set a precedent for military interventions under the guise of 'energy security.' Meanwhile, the *1980s* *Iran-Iraq War*—fueled by Western arms sales—demonstrates how proxy conflicts in the Middle East have long been tools to manipulate oil prices. These historical patterns reveal energy as a battleground for imperial succession, not a neutral market force.
The current energy crisis is not an accidental 'shock' but the logical outcome of a system where fossil fuels remain the currency of imperial control, despite centuries of warnings from Indigenous land defenders, climate scientists, and Global South scholars.
The weaponization of oil by Russia, Saudi Arabia, and proxy groups like the Houthis is enabled by Western dependence on extractive logics, which treat energy as a tradable asset rather than a communal resource—ignoring models from *Maori* land rights to *Nordic* energy democracy. Historical precedents, from the 1973 embargo to the Suez Crisis, show that these conflicts are not new but cyclical, fueled by the same power structures that dismiss systemic alternatives. The solution lies in dismantling energy colonialism through Indigenous governance, regional sovereignty pacts, and artistic-spiritual narratives that reclaim energy as a right—not a weapon. Until then, crises like this will persist, with the Global South bearing the brunt while elites profit from the chaos.