Satellite image of the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s coastline. The Iran war has highlighted energy security as a hot topic for countries around the world. (Shutterstock/best-backgrounds)

How the Iran War Is Reshaping Global Energy Security and Geopolitics

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The Iran war did not create the global energy scramble, but it reinforced a trend that is reshaping alliances, trade, and national security.

The Iran war fits a pattern: the rise of energy as the lead national security issue for the global economy. The COVID pandemic caused major energy disruption and restructuring, trends that continued with the Ukraine war and deepened with the Iran conflict and the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution. Although ideology, multilateral alliance-building, and climate change remain factors in global geopolitics, having safe and secure energy trumps them all. 

The energy factor is a major consideration in the Trump administration’s shift toward fossil fuels, mostly oil and gas. In this, the United States is a superpower. Its rivals, China and Russia, also have their own energy agendas, while other countries are left grappling with a new geoeconomic game built up around energy security. The scramble is on to de-risk energy supply chains and develop better options.

Energy security was an important policy issue for Trump 1.0 and the Biden administration. However, it has taken on a greater sense of urgency with Trump 2.0. In its National Security Strategy, quietly released in December 2025, one of the points stressed was the centrality of energy: “We want the world’s most robust, productive, and innovative energy sector—one capable not just fueling American economic growth but of being one of America’s leading export industries in its own right.”

With the changes induced by the wars in Ukraine and Iran, as well as domestic policy shifts, the United States is a world leader in oil exports. It is also the number one LNG exporter, meeting 58 percent of Europe’s liquified natural gas (LNG) needs in 2025. The damage to Qatar’s Ras Laffan LNG facilities will take three to five years to repair, which hurts a major US LNG export rival.

Another element of US energy policy is a push to reduce dependency on China for critical minerals, including rare earths, many of which are key to the AI revolution. Indeed, the AI revolution is another factor pushing US policy to upgrade its energy grid and invest in mining companies. The last includes a $1.4 billion deal with mining and magnet maker Vulcan Elements, in which the Department of Defense’s Office of Strategic Capital is providing a $620 million Direct Loan. Magnets, which China dominates, are used to convert kinetic energy into electrical energy. 

The United States may not officially have an energy policy, but it is reading the changes in the global energy system, assessing the geopolitical risks associated with those changes, and acting on them by loosening regulations and providing financial support to various mining companies. This strategic thinking factors into US actions vis-à-vis Venezuela and Iran. 

China’s Energy Security Strategy

China places an emphasis on energy as a core national security concern. Its goal of being the global hegemonic power depends on it. While it has been forced to de-risk from more problematic oil suppliers, such as Iran and Venezuela, it has increased imports of Russian oil and gas, and Chinese oil companies are aggressively involved in oil and gas exploration and exploitation in such places as Angola, Argentina, and........

© The National Interest