Internal and External Threats in Energy-Rich Regions

Abstract Following the Industrial Revolution, while some states tried to achieve global dominance, energy resources provoked hostilities. Regions containing natural resources and having geopolitical and geostrategic importance have become increasingly vulnerable to conflicts. As the necessity of ensuring energy security has intensified significantly over time, leading actors have attempted to increase hegemony in energy-intensive regions. At the beginning of the 21st century, the US, as a leading power, made various efforts to establish hegemony in energy-intensive regions such as Asia and the Middle East to protect its own energy security. Contrary to diplomatic discourse, the US defended its sovereignty mainly through military force and thus wanted to limit the operational breadth of other potential rival global powers. By exercising control over energy resources under the guise of aligning its interventions in strategic regions with the interests of the West in terms of energy, the US has tried to reduce the influence of other global actors on the brink of uninterrupted resource flow and energy dependency on the West. In disputed regions such as the Caucasus, the Middle East, Africa, and America, the US’s strategic approach has been to narrow the operational space of other global powers that can compete with it. While the US has occasionally supported nations rich in energy resources to adopt Western values to make its own ideological perspective indispensable and internally appreciated, it has often carried out covert operations against them. This situation has accelerated its transformation into a hegemonic power and legitimized its continued dominance. Keywords: USA, RF, Energy, Oil, Competition, Conflict. Citation: Mürseloğlu, E. (2025). Internal and external threats in energy-rich regions. The Review of Law, International Politics and Economics, 1(1), [pp.48-60].