Iran and Russia are actively using economic markets for national security purposes. The US needs to think along similar lines if it wants to make headway on both defense and climate change issues.
During the Trump administration, officials often repeated the slogan that “economic security is national security.” While that phrase has disappeared under the Biden administration, it’s a concept few would disagree with — unless one were to argue it must be expanded. In the following op-ed, the authors argue the specific ways that energy security ties into not just defense matters, but climate change as well.
Meanwhile, Iran is taking a page from Russia’s playbook and trying to exploit energy as a weapon of political influence in Lebanon. Lebanon is a Hezbollah-dominated fiscal basket case whose power grid shut down because it lacked the oil needed to run it — a development exacerbating Lebanon’s devastating financial and political dilemmas. Iran sent convoys of oil to get the system back running and, concomitantly, buy influence.
In response, the Biden Administration initiated several high-stakes natural gas and electricity deals in the region. Through US mediation, Egypt will likely supply Lebanon with gas via Jordan and Syria. Jordan, in turn, might interconnect its electricity grid with Lebanon via Syria. Meanwhile, the US is mediating a longstanding border dispute between Israel and Lebanon, which, if successful, could open Lebanon’s offshore gas fields to exploration and investment.