‘After the first world war, France was the first country to establish strategic oil reserves,’ Eva Thiébaud writes in our May edition. ‘A few years after the Suez crisis (1956), European Community states likewise committed to maintaining a minimum stock.’ In October 1973, Arab oil-exporting nations raised prices and imposed oil embargoes in response to the Yom Kippur/Ramadan war. The US was affected, as its oil production was in decline, and began building an emergency stockpile. Since the 2010s, when shale exploitation took off, the US has gone on the offensive in the energy wars, as Michael T Klare wrote in 2022. It was in this spirit that Donald Trump recently encouraged countries ‘that can’t get jet fuel because of the [closure of the] Strait of Hormuz’ to ‘buy from the US’ as ‘we have plenty’.

As our archive demonstrates, the energy wars have been waged in imaginative ways, from all sides, and show no signs of abating. In September 2022, a group of Ukrainian citizens sabotaged Nord Stream 2. In December 2022, in response to the invasion of Ukraine, European countries placed an embargo on Russian oil. A shadow fleet ensures it continues to travel the oceans.

To dive into the stories behind this month’s news — and understand the tensions between Islamabad and Kabul; the salience of Irish reunification; and the Vatican’s views on AI — read ‘the longer view’ each month. Our entire archive is available, online, to subscribers.