AI, geopolitical conflict, and military competition are making resilient energy systems a defining pillar of national security.

Europe and the eastern United States are once again experiencing record-breaking summer heat. Wildfires, droughts, and strained power grids have renewed public demands for faster decarbonization, reinforcing the widespread assumption that climate policy will remain the principal force shaping national energy strategies.

Climate will undoubtedly remain important. Yet a different force is rapidly moving to the forefront: national security.

The war in Ukraine, repeated confrontations in the Middle East, and the rapid emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) are together changing the way governments think about energy. The central question is no longer simply how to produce cleaner or cheaper energy. It is increasingly how to build energy systems capable of surviving geopolitical confrontation while supplying the enormous quantities of reliable electricity demanded by modern economies and militaries.

This shift is redefining strategic competition.

Energy Is No Longer Merely a Resource. It Is a Battlefield.

Energy has always influenced military strategy. Hitler’s 1942 offensive toward the Caucasus was motivated largely by Germany’s desperate need for Soviet oil. Stalingrad became not merely a battle for territory but for the fuel required to sustain mechanized warfare.

Today’s conflicts reveal a different evolution. Energy infrastructure itself has become an operational objective.

Russia has repeatedly attacked Ukrainian power plants, transmission networks, fuel depots, and refineries in an effort to weaken both military operations and civilian morale. Ukraine has responded by striking Russian oil depots, refineries, and energy facilities far beyond the front lines. The destruction of the Nord Stream pipelinesfurther demonstrated how vulnerable critical energy infrastructure has become, even hundreds of kilometers from active combat.

The Middle East tells a similar story. Every crisis involving Iran immediately raises concerns over the Strait of Hormuz because roughly one-fifth of globally traded oil passes through that narrow waterway. Military planners now recognize that pipelines, liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals, electrical substations, ports, and transmission networks can be as strategically significant as airfields or naval bases.

Energy is no longer simply supporting wars. It has become one of their principal battlefields.

Energy Also Shapes What Wars Can Be Fought

Energy influences strategy in another, less obvious way. It increasingly constrains escalation.

One of the most consequential questions during the recent confrontation with Iran was whether its oil-export infrastructure would become a target. Officially, Washington emphasized that its objective was to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons rather than to inflict long-term hardship on the Iranian population. There was also hope—however uncertain—that internal political pressures might eventually weaken the regime, making it undesirable to destroy infrastructure a future government would need.

Strategic calculations almost certainly reinforced that restraint. A major disruption of Iranian oil exports could have sharply increased global energy prices, strained allied economies, and complicated relations with China, Iran’s largest oil customer. Once energy markets become central to strategic calculations, military options become constrained by economic consequences extending far beyond the battlefield.

Energy therefore shapes not only how wars are fought, but also which wars governments are prepared to wage and how far they are willing to escalate them.

Artificial Intelligence Is Changing the Energy Equation

A second transformation is occurring simultaneously.

Artificial intelligence is rapidly increasing the demand for reliable electricity. Frontier AI models, hyperscale data centers, semiconductor fabrication plants, advanced manufacturing, and cloud computing all require uninterrupted electrical power on an unprecedented scale.

For decades, governments evaluated national energy strategies according to three principal criteria: affordability, reliability, and environmental sustainability.

Today, another criterion has become equally important: strategic resilience.

Can electrical generation continue during wartime?

Can fuel supplies survive maritime disruption?

Can transmission networks withstand cyberattacks or missile strikes?

Can damaged infrastructure be restored quickly enough to sustain military operations and economic activity?

These questions increasingly occupy defense ministries alongside energy ministries.

The issue is not whether electricity will replace oil or natural gas. It will not. Oil remains indispensable for transportation, aviation, and military mobility. Natural gas has become a cornerstone of electricity generation in many countries, while coal, hydroelectricity, renewables, and nuclear energy all continue to play essential roles.

The strategic challenge is different. Nations increasingly require energy systems capable of producing large quantities of dependable electricity regardless of which primary fuels generate it.

Why Nuclear Energy Is Returning

This changing strategic environment helps explain the renewed interest in nuclear power.

For decades, nuclear energy was judged primarily through the lens of safety, economics, and environmental concerns. Those considerations remain important, but governments increasingly assess nuclear power alongside broader questions of strategic resilience.

Unlike imported fuels, nuclear plants can reduce external dependence. Unlike intermittent renewable sources, they provide continuous baseload generation. Modern reactor designs—including small modular reactors (SMRs)—promise greater operational flexibility and improved safety, although important engineering, regulatory, and economic challenges remain.

Nuclear power is therefore becoming attractive not because it solves every energy problem, but because it addresses several strategic requirements simultaneously.

Different countries will pursue different solutions. Norway benefits from abundant hydroelectric resources. Israel increasingly relies on offshore natural gas. Canada combines hydroelectricity, nuclear power, and natural gas. France continues to depend heavily on nuclear generation. There is no universal model.

The common objective is resilience.

A New Dimension of Strategic Competition

The world’s major powers already appear to recognize this shift.

China is simultaneously investing in artificial intelligence, semiconductor production, and electrical generation, while executing the world’s largest expansion of civilian nuclear power. In China’s state-directed economic model, energy policy, industrial policy, and national security are deeply intertwined

The United States is reaching similar conclusions through a different mechanism. Rather than relying primarily on centralized planning, market forces are driving major technology companies to secure dedicated long-term sources of electricity for next-generation AI data centers. Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Meta have all announced initiatives involving nuclear-generated electricity or advanced reactor technologies. Their investments reflect commercial logic, yet they also strengthen America’s long-term strategic resilience by expanding dependable generating capacity.

Elsewhere, France continues modernizing its nuclear fleet. Japan is gradually restoring reactors to service. Germany is reconsidering assumptions that shaped its post-Fukushima energy policy. Across much of the industrialized world, governments are reassessing the relationship between energy security and national security.

This emerging competition extends beyond fuels or technologies. It concerns the ability to build energy systems capable of supporting economic growth, technological leadership, military readiness, and national resilience under increasingly uncertain geopolitical conditions.

The 20th century rewarded nations that secured reliable access to oil.

The 21st century is likely to reward those who build resilient, diversified energy systems capable of generating abundant, reliable electricity regardless of the crises they face.

That is why the new energy arms race has already begun.

About the Author: Boaz Golany

Boaz Golany is an emeritus professor at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, where he has served in various leadership positions. He also serves as a member of the Board and as a strategic consultant to some companies and organizations. He has a BSC from the Technion and received his doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin. 

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