Outlook 2025: Energy access, military considerations and regional security

The traditional concept of the energy trilemma is insufficient to understand how energy and politics really work

Economic theorists would contend that any energy supply strategy comprises considerations that make up the well-espoused energy trilemma. In this well-publicised idea, energy security, affordability and sustainability are the considerations that must be cautiously balanced to achieve social and economic stability while concurrently pursuing a cleaner environment. The level of focus on each element of the trilemma shifts as global macro conditions change from time to time. But is this the trilemma that really underpins how our world works? Perhaps, there are other tangential forces at play that impact decision-making at the control centres of global geopolitics? Oil and military security In 1