International Security and Global Economy - Essay Example

7th December International Security and Global Economy Introduction The increased demand for energy sources worldwide due to the emerging industries has made countries to use their political and military powers to protect these important resources. US for example has been engaged in various games with countries such as Russia and Britain to ensure that it remains dominant in the Middle East, the major source of energy resources in the world. This paper seeks to discuss the ongoing trends in international market for crude oil and natural gas and the strategic and political responses of producer and consumer states to these trends. Additionally, the paper will discuss the ongoing challenges to the nuclear nonproliferation regime. According to Henry Kissinger, the former US secretary of state, the global battle for control of energy resources could become the modern equivalent of the 19th century great game. The great game referred to strategic rivalry and conflict between British and the Russian Empires for supremacy in Central Asia. Having taken place from 1813 to 1907, during Russo-Persian Treaty and Anglo-Russian Convention respectively, the great game led to the current competition for dominancy in Central Asia and Middle East among other emerging economies with energy resources. Kissinger argument was that the classical great game resulted to the new great game between 1990 and 2001. The new great game entailed the competition between western powers, China, and Russia to access the energy resources and raw materials in Transcaucasus and Central China. One of the major aspects that have led to the growth in US natural gas consumption is the industrial and electric power sector. By 2040, it is estimated that natural gas consumption in the US industrial sector will increase by 2.5 Tcf. As a result, the country has adopted extensive measures to expand its oil resources. This has made the country to seek dominance in the Middle East and Central Asia just like the Tsarist Russia resulting to the same issues that emerged during the classical great game. Thus, Henry statement is relevant taking into consideration that the demand for oil by Russia and US has generated a competition in the areas with expansive energy resources. As the result of the competition among the huge consumers of the energy resources, petroleum politics have emerged. As stiff competition for the increasingly scarce but essential resource, strategic calculations among countries regardless of their sizes has become prominent with more emphasize on refining, transporting and pumping of petroleum products. For the consumers, the power to face the increasing huge consumers lied on the formation of organizations that emulated specific regulations. For example, in 1949, Venezuela approached major oil producers including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Gabon, Kuwait and Libya to establish OPEC. However, OPEC was not set up until 1960, when US imposed import quotas on Persian Gulf and Venezuela in order for them to give support for Mexican and Canadian oil industries. The emerging trends in oil consumption as well as events such as rapprochement of Cyprus, Greece, and Israel together with 2014 Saudi-Qatari rift has resulted to geopolitical rivalry between natural gas producers which analysts argues that it can have long-lasting consequences. During the US-India Business Council, Kissinger indicated that competition for access to energy has become the life and death for many societies. Additionally, he argued that it would be ironic if the direction of pipelines and locations become the modern equivalent of the colonial disputes of the 19th century. During the colonial disputes, western and eastern powers were competing for resources in African and other regions an aspect that made the providers of raw material to lag behind up to now in terms of development (Stiglitz 21). Thus, the competition for oil, according to Kissinger should be well managed to avoid the consequences of the colonial disputes. Since the amount of energy is finite and the demand is high, huge consumers should come up with ways to manage the sector without jeopardizing the producers or other huge consumers. One of the major cause of cold war was the same calculations that were done by the two nuclear super powers that is the US and Soviet Union. Just like, Condoleezza Rice, who was concerned about Tehran’s development of nuclear weapons, Kissinger indicated his concern on the expanding nuclear weapons. Currently, countries are competing for dominance in the production of nuclear weapons. This is an aspect that that will lead to emergence of global conflicts that Kissinger refers to as permanent imminent catastrophe (Caroline 4). It is vital for global organization such as UN to come up with strong strategies to control the production and usage of nuclear weapons without necessarily using military operations. According to Kissinger’s views, India should join US in a dialogue on energy usage and control. Based on the high demand of energy sources in US, the country administration has to make energy control a top priority, an opinion that Kissinger also supported. Ongoing challenges to the nuclear nonproliferation regime Nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation are closely related. Non-proliferation aims at ending the spread of nuclear weapons to other states but not just maintaining the status quo. Once it undertakes its role, non-proliferation gives nuclear disarmament a proper environment where states are able to honor the treaties. However, nonproliferation regime has encountered a number of challenges as discussed in the section below. In the current times, there are major challenges that have emanated in the nuclear nonproliferation regime. First, there is a lessening of commitment to non-proliferation. For example the cases of non-compliance in regions such as Romania, Syria, DPRK, Iran, Iraq, and Libya. Secondly, sensitive nuclear technologies have spread drastically through active black market (John 3).This has even resulted to new design in nuclear weapons. Thirdly, the detection of undeclared nuclear programs has become difficult due to limits of the IAEA’s confirmation ability. Additionally, the nuclear nonproliferation regime is faced with a challenge of how to deal with the violations of treaties. In their efforts to deal with use of nuclear weapons, US in collaboration with other developed countries have engaged in entering into treaties and agreement especially in the countries that are advocating for the use of nuclear weapons to fight other nations. One of the countries that are known for violation of treaties in Iran. The country violated the Non-Proliferation Treaty, an international agreement that focuses at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons as well as nuclear technology as a way of promoting cooperation during the usage of nuclear energy. Similarly, Iran is known to have defied the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as well as Security Council resolutions. While more countries seek of the way to prevent the usage of nuclear weapons, another notable challenge is further spread of reprocessing and enrichment of nuclear. This is based on the fact that to date, there is a large number of undeclared nuclear programs. As a result, it may reach to appoint where it will no longer be possible to control the nonproliferation regime. Conclusion Based on the above discussion, it is clear that the issue of energy production and consumption has played a key role in the international as well as US political developments. As developed countries tend to dominate the Central Asia and Middle East among other oil producing countries, cases of political conflicts have also emerged. The current challenges facing nuclear nonproliferation regime need to be addressed by all countries through UN since the use of weapons is a global concern. International community should be prepared to take sustainable and appropriate action to uphold treaty obligations. Otherwise, globally there will increasing proliferation and an increase in the risk of nuclear war among the emerging and developed countries. Works Cited Caroline, D. 2005. Kissinger warns of energy conflict. Available from http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/4c24ef26-d2f3-11d9-bead-00000e2511c8.html#axzz3L5sTH78C John, C. 2008. Challenges to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime, and Implications for Nuclear Disarmament. Available from https://www.dfat.gov.au/asno/publications/challenges.html Stiglitz, E. Global public goods and global finance: does global governance ensure that the global public interest is served? In: Advancing Public Goods. Paris: Macmillan Publishers, 2006. Print. Read More