The structure and resilience of traditional energy trade networks in countries along the belt and road

Energy security, as a cornerstone of national strategic frameworks, plays a pivotal role in advancing the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This study investigates the structure and resilience of energy trade networks across 154 BRI countries (regions) from 2001 to 2023, utilizing coal, oil, and natural gas trade data and constructing a dynamic weighted directed network model. The results demonstrate that the evolving BRI energy trade network showcases improved connectivity and a sophisticated, multi-tiered brokerage system; however, nodal influence remains highly uneven. Core nodes, including South Africa, Russia, and China, continue to exert disproportionate influence, maintaining a core-periphery structure with degree distribution Gini coefficients consistently above 0.4. This hierarchical pattern coexists with multicentric restructuring in the backbone network, where strengthened connectivity between core layers accompanies reduced betweenness centrality disparities and increasing topological complexity. Notably, improvements in resilience vary significantly by sector: coal trade networks achieve 4% higher recovery efficiency than their oil and gas counterparts, even as the network overall shows enhanced robustness against both random and targeted attacks. Most importantly, the declining coefficient of variation in nodal resilience, from 10.84% to 8.76%, provides empirical evidence of a progression toward equilibrium in regional energy cooperation. This study underscores the need for dynamic core-node monitoring systems, decentralized trade frameworks, and collaborative innovation platforms to optimize BRI energy governance. These insights provide actionable pathways for building adaptive, multicentric energy systems that align with sustainable development goals.