You can never really know someone! You may know their favorite color, tidbits about their family, or even whether they are an ice cream cone or cup person. But how well do you really know someone when circumstances change? You can know someone for years. You know their habits, their preferences, their usual way of doing things. And then pressure arrives: a health setback. Plans change. Expectations are tested. You discover something you hadn't seen before. The same is true of supply chains....

Energy has long been a symbol of hard power. It has been used as a tool of coercion, a lever to shape alliances, and a means of extracting strategic concessions. As the foundation of industrial output, control over energy has historically translated into economic and geopolitical influence. While disparities between resource-rich and resource-poor nations persist, today’s energy landscape is no longer defined primarily by supply manipulation, price shocks, or embargoes. Instead, strategic...

Strategic Signals from a Fragmented Global Energy System For this year’s review, I decided to move beyond the headlines and instead dissect the strategic themes shaping the global energy system. What began several years ago as an annual reflection on the top headlines and their implications for the energy sector has evolved into a body of work with deeper strategic analysis. This review assessed how energy players responded to technological change, geopolitics, and climate pressure. It...