Energy Resources & Geopolitical Strategic Stability Policy Team
An operational unit of the Geopolitical Strategy and Statecraft Division, developing international frameworks for managing the geopolitical dimensions of energy resources — addressing energy as a tool of coercion, managing the stability implications of the clean energy transition, and building the international cooperation frameworks that ensure energy security for all states.
Mission & Operational Scope
Managing the Geopolitics of Energy in an Era of Transition
Energy has always been a source of geopolitical power and conflict. Russia's use of natural gas as a coercive tool against European states, the Gulf states' oil embargo of 1973, and the competition for control of oil-rich regions have shaped international relations for a century. The clean energy transition is not eliminating energy geopolitics — it is transforming them. The minerals required for batteries, solar panels, and wind turbines are concentrated in a small number of countries, creating new dependencies and new opportunities for coercion. China's dominance of rare earth processing and battery manufacturing gives it leverage analogous to OPEC's oil leverage. The transition to clean energy must be managed in ways that reduce rather than replicate the geopolitical vulnerabilities of fossil fuel dependence.
This team develops the international frameworks that manage energy geopolitics — addressing energy coercion, building clean energy supply chain resilience, and ensuring that the transition to clean energy advances global stability.
Governing Doctrine
Frameworks & Standards
- IEA FrameworkInternational Energy Agency framework — international energy security coordination system including strategic reserve sharing and emergency response mechanisms
- Energy Charter TreatyEnergy Charter Treaty — international framework for energy investment protection, transit rights, and dispute resolution applicable to cross-border energy infrastructure
- MSP FrameworkMinerals Security Partnership — international framework for building resilient critical mineral supply chains for the clean energy transition among allied nations
- IRENA MandateInternational Renewable Energy Agency mandate — international framework for accelerating renewable energy deployment and managing the geopolitical dimensions of the energy transition
Operational Capabilities
Six Core Functions
01
Energy Coercion Response Frameworks
Develop international energy coercion response frameworks — establishing the solidarity mechanisms, emergency supply sharing protocols, and diplomatic response options that allow states to resist energy coercion and reduce the leverage that energy exporters can exercise over importing states.
02
Critical Minerals Supply Chain Security
Develop international critical minerals supply chain security frameworks — establishing the allied coordination mechanisms, diversification investment standards, and stockpiling requirements that reduce dependence on single-country sources for the minerals essential to clean energy technologies.
03
Energy Transition Stability Management
Develop international frameworks for managing energy transition stability — addressing the economic and political disruption that fossil fuel-dependent states face as clean energy displaces their primary revenue source and building the transition support mechanisms that reduce instability risk.
04
Cross-Border Energy Infrastructure
Develop international frameworks for cross-border energy infrastructure — establishing the investment protection standards, transit rights agreements, and dispute resolution mechanisms that enable the interconnected energy grids and pipelines that improve energy security for all parties.
05
Energy Sanctions Coordination
Develop international energy sanctions coordination frameworks — establishing the allied coordination mechanisms, third-country enforcement standards, and price cap implementation protocols that maximize the effectiveness of energy sanctions while minimizing harm to sanctioning states and third parties.
06
Clean Energy Technology Diplomacy
Develop international clean energy technology diplomacy frameworks — building the technology transfer agreements, joint development programs, and intellectual property frameworks that accelerate clean energy deployment in developing countries while managing the geopolitical competition over clean energy technology leadership.