Few regions have shaped modern geopolitics as profoundly as the Middle East, where oil and gas have defined both power and vulnerability. Since the early twentieth century, global powers have competed to control the region’s vast energy reserves—often through exploitation masked as partnership. Western corporations such as BP, Shell, and Standard Oil first secured concessions that granted them enormous profits while local populations received little benefit. The 1953 CIA-MI6 coup in Iran, orchestrated after Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh nationalized oil, became a symbol of how deeply foreign powers would intervene to secure energy access.
During the Cold War, the United States consolidated dominance through military alliances and economic dependence built around petrodollars. Energy security justified interventions, from the creation of the U.S.–Saudi partnership to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union and, more recently, China have pursued their own energy footholds—continuing the pattern of external control. The result has been a regional order where oil wealth rarely translated into broad development, reinforcing authoritarian rule and dependence on external markets.
OPEC’s rise in the 1970s briefly shifted power toward producing nations, yet global financial structures and technology dependency kept true sovereignty elusive. Today, as the world transitions toward renewable energy, the Middle East faces a new dilemma: how to diversify without replicating old hierarchies of dependence—this time on green technologies and capital from the Global North.
The story of Middle Eastern energy politics is ultimately one of paradox: immense wealth paired with persistent exploitation. Global powers have long viewed the region less as a partner than a pipeline to fuel their own growth. As energy transitions accelerate, whether the Middle East can finally reclaim control over its resources will determine its political and economic destiny.