Access to resources is the primary determinant of power, more decisive than democracy promotion, culture, or rhetoric about human rights.
Wars have always followed resources and the present conflicts are no different. The central struggle in the current world order lies not in ideology or abstract principles, what is at stake is the hard arithmetic of oil, gas, minerals, and the ability to secure and distribute them. Analysts at Chatham House have consistently underlined that access to resources is the primary determinant of power, more decisive than democracy promotion, culture, or rhetoric about human rights. When pipelines are planned or constructed, military action is never far behind, and history has made that lesson clear in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria. The same dynamic now plays out in Venezuela, Sudan, and across the Sahel, where the measure of foreign interest is the extent of oil fields, mining rights, or transport corridors.
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