The global energy transition confronts East vs. West realpolitik: Why energy security matters

As Ainslie (2022) notes, the document “stunned energy company executives and fortified environmental advocates.” He goes on to say, “Not only does this involve a ‘huge decline in the use of fossil fuels’ but a transition to renewable energy with the objective of ensuring that renewables constitute 80% of total energy supply, essentially replacing the current supply mix of hydrocarbons.” 12 THE GLO. [...] JACK MINTZ AND RON WALLACE | APRIL 2022 17 The strategic importance of fossil fuels The climate crisis appears to have obliterated memories of the history of con- flicts based on the politics of energy – particularly oil. [...] As Douglas Lovelace, Director of the Strategic Studies Institute at the US Army War College, com- mented: The real danger is to relegate the world oil supply to the backwa- ter of strategic studies. [...] Wars are quite carbon intensive Russian criminal cyber-attacks on the Colonial Pipeline system in the US in 2021 led to temporary gasoline shortages in the US southeast and served to alert not just the Pentagon but the wider US public to American fuel security issues. [...] Fossil fuel consumption is central to the effectiveness of the world’s military establishments In sum, the US military is among the largest global consumers of fossil fuels and producers of greenhouse gas emissions.