INTERNATIONAL
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A threat to Western energy dominance The China-Russia energy alliance seems to challenge Western energy supremacy By Kevin Kraft, Staff Writer
B
y persuading Russia to spurn the West in its choice for an international energy partner, China has emerged as a potential threat to the Western domination of energy policy, positioning itself to help the rest of the world counter the West’s oppressive energy policies, which are masked by the guise of promoting energy security. Energy occupies a unique position in the international system. No country can survive without it as it provides the fuel that runs the world. Successful energy policy, both on a domestic and international level, has proven absolutely crucial to maintaining economic strength. The diverse nature of energy requirements and increasing demands make it practically impossible for a country to satisfy all of its needs by itself, so to do so countries must turn abroad. International energy interdependence and its accompanying susceptibility to political troubles underline the need for extensive international cooperation. In the past, the developed West, desperately in need of energy to fuel their massive industrialized economies, has tapped into the extensive stores of natural resources in the non-Western world. Shortly after realizing the true economic potential of their access to energy resources, Western countries started to meddle in the domestic affairs of their energy suppliers in order to strengthen and further their economic relationship. With the power disparity be-
tween the two camps so large, the Western countries could effectively control politics in their non-Western economic partners with little regard for local interests, which proved crucially detrimental to political stability. Political meddling in the non-Western world proved at least somewhat counterproductive to Western economic interests as the increasing political instability in the rest of the world compromised the energy stability of the West. After this weakness of the international energy system was exposed in the 1973-74 OAPEC (Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries) oil crisis, energy security became a crucial goal of all countries striving for economic stability. The ideal of energy security relies on being able to economically sustain any fluctuation in the international political system. While this economic insulation could come from any number of sources, countries have primarily focused on developing alternative energy sources and international cooperation. Today, even though energy security has been an international policy focus for almost four decades, no single country has truly achieved it, making international energy cooperation a necessity. In the wake of the OAPEC oil crisis, the International Energy Agency (IEA) was founded by Western countries in the framework of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to promote international energy security through international cooperation and sharing of technological developments and alternative energy methods. Overall, the IEA has proved quite effective in promoting efficient international energy policy. For example, the IEA has developed an insurance program that enables its
members to successfully weather another oil or natural gas crisis. While international organizations like the IEA and the OECD provide positive influences on international cooperation in society, they only extend their benefits to their members, which come exclusively from the West. Instead of being a truly “international” organization, the IEA only caters its policies to safeguard the energy interests of the West at the expense of non-Western countries. By systematically excluding non-Western developing countries, the IEA has become a self-serving tool for the West to maintain their energy dominance over the rest of the world, which has proven essential to maintaining their economic strength and stability. Without any comparable energy organization, non-Western countries have struggled tremendously to make long-term gains in securing energy stability. The West has utilized the rhetoric of energy security, a tremendously powerful political force in domestic politics in the West, to cover up the energy disparity between the West and the rest of the world. The current trend of Western energy supremacy over the rest of the world is likely to change with the rise of significant energy powers outside of the West. By swaying Russia away from its Western neighbors, China has officially arrived on the scene as an international energy leader. China, able to tap into the massive natural resource reserves of Central Asia, has the power to drastically alter the international energy dynamic by challenging the West for energy supremacy. With energy allegiances for most non-IEA countries up for grabs, Russia very well could be the first of many to become energy partners with China. If Russia were indeed to serve as the first in a long line of dominos, then the non-Western world could transform into a powerful energy force independent of Western influence and thus threaten Western chances of achieving economic strength and energy security. ♦
Trang Dang, Ramanpreet Dheri, Brittany Ly/The Legend