Ter(r)ra: Risorse, Rischi, Rispetto
Padova, 15-17 settembre 2026
Plenarist Abstracts
Geopolitics of Energy: "Even if you are not interested in energy and geopolitics, energy and geopolitics will be interested in you"
Massimo Lombardini
Massimo Lombardini
Senior Associate Research Fellow ISPI (Italian Institute for International Political Studies)
The presentation will provide an overview of the historical evolution of different energy sources to understand the new paradigms of energy and geopolitics.
Geopolitics could be defined as the way countries and international actors exercise their power and influence in relationships among each other. Such power and influence were initially aimed at controlling land and seas, then underground and underwater resources and more recently the space.
A good image of the current geopolitical arena is that of a chessboard on a global scale where, differently from a chess game, several actors are competing against each other. Moreover, recently the rules and the role of international bodies have been disregarded by some of the more relevant actors in the global chessboard.
As regards energy, through the centuries, it has always been the lifeblood of development and economic growth. The industrial revolution was enabled by abundant coal supply, in the past century, the boom of the 1960s, was possible because of cheap hydrocarbon resources.
However, such resources have also been an instrument of foreign policy used ruthlessly by some countries as, for example, by OPEC during the oil shocks of the 1970s, or lately by Russia for its energy supplies to the European Union.
More recently China has demonstrated its capability to take advantage of its dominant position in production and refining of critical raw materials and its willingness to use them as a tool for an assertive foreign policy.
The presentation will assess the drivers and the major players in the past and current competition for energy resources. Upcoming challenges in which competition, besides conventional resources, expanding to critical raw materials, will also be covered.
Geopolitics could be defined as the way countries and international actors exercise their power and influence in relationships among each other. Such power and influence were initially aimed at controlling land and seas, then underground and underwater resources and more recently the space.
A good image of the current geopolitical arena is that of a chessboard on a global scale where, differently from a chess game, several actors are competing against each other. Moreover, recently the rules and the role of international bodies have been disregarded by some of the more relevant actors in the global chessboard.
As regards energy, through the centuries, it has always been the lifeblood of development and economic growth. The industrial revolution was enabled by abundant coal supply, in the past century, the boom of the 1960s, was possible because of cheap hydrocarbon resources.
However, such resources have also been an instrument of foreign policy used ruthlessly by some countries as, for example, by OPEC during the oil shocks of the 1970s, or lately by Russia for its energy supplies to the European Union.
More recently China has demonstrated its capability to take advantage of its dominant position in production and refining of critical raw materials and its willingness to use them as a tool for an assertive foreign policy.
The presentation will assess the drivers and the major players in the past and current competition for energy resources. Upcoming challenges in which competition, besides conventional resources, expanding to critical raw materials, will also be covered.
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