Guy Laron

Guy Laron, an expert in international relations, examines how the competition to control energy corridors and chokepoints has shaped the modern world. 

For the last 20 years, Putin’s Russia has weaponised its vast resources of oil and gas, trying to use them to dominate Ukraine and, later, with growing audacity, challenge NATO itself. But this is far from the first time this tactic has been used. Over the last 150 years – from the First World War through the Cold War, and ranging across Vietnam, India and Egypt – access to oil and gas has repeatedly been used as a tool to gain an advantage.

In Oil Wars, Laron shows how political actors have leveraged their power through key chokepoints – production sites, pipelines, and even refineries – in a great game that continues to this very day. 

Dr Guy Laron is a senior lecturer in international relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of two books, Origins of the Suez Crisis and The Six-Day War. His op-eds have appeared in The Guardian, Le Monde Diplomatique, and American Prospect.