Rethinking Energy Statecraft: United States Foreign Policy and the Changing Geopolitics of Energy

The United States Administration has an opportunity to foster a new energy statecraft based on the realities of a dynamic and rapidly-changing global energy marketplace. The geopolitical considerations of this energy transition are not well-explored. Additionally, the recent renaissance of oil and gas in the US has reinforced the alluring notion that energy independence and national energy security are the same thing. But the global nature of energy markets expose this notion as utterly misleading. A re-envisaged energy statecraft would utilize a variety of US foreign policy and multilateral tools to reform the international energy sector, protect the global energy marketplace, and spur investments in new generation and innovation. These steps require building an integrated approach to the multiple energy-security challenges.