{"id":54091,"date":"2025-09-18T14:51:47","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T14:51:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saperemarketing.com\/clearpath\/?p=54091"},"modified":"2025-09-19T15:02:27","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T15:02:27","slug":"put-energy-security-at-the-center-of-u-s-foreign-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saperemarketing.com\/clearpath\/our-take\/put-energy-security-at-the-center-of-u-s-foreign-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Put Energy Security at the Center of U.S. Foreign Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

American innovation drives energy security, a key factor in geopolitical influence. The U.S. can leverage its energy abundance by putting energy at the center of its foreign policy strategy, mutually benefiting America\u2019s partners while reducing global emissions and advancing U.S. national interests. As Secretary of State Marco Rubio made clear<\/a>, energy will be \u201cat the forefront of foreign policy for the next 100 years.\u201d To meet this moment, the U.S. must lean into its strengths and create a coordinated, agile and effective energy diplomacy and delivery system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One way to do so would be through the bipartisan creation of Energy Security Compacts (ESCs) that align American technical assistance and financing tools to strengthen the Trump Administration\u2019s work in elevating energy security as a core pillar of U.S. foreign policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Scattered Goals, Strategic Costs<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The American foreign policy apparatus has become enormously cluttered. Institutions from the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) to the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. (EXIM) work hard for the American people, but disjointedly toward scattered goals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, American adversaries are speeding ahead. The Chinese Belt and Road initiative, led by state-backed or outright-owned corporations, deploys large amounts of capital in a coordinated effort. In Brazil, for instance<\/a>, the largest Latin American economy, China has invested more than $60 billion into the nation\u2019s energy sector since 2015. The Chinese Communist Party now controls over 12 percent of Brazil\u2019s energy infrastructure. Meanwhile, the U.S. government\u2019s foreign investment institutions have supported less than $472 million, with one of the main projects being a streetlighting system. Worthwhile, but not transformative or strategic.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While trying to out-subsidize China is unrealistic and economically unsound, the U.S. needs to leverage its strengths. Countries want to work with the American private sector, which is the largest and most innovative in the world, but U.S. companies are at a disadvantage. For example, Egypt wanted to select American nuclear technology for its El Dabaa power plant, but ultimately had to go with Russian technology. America is the preferred vendor for many countries, including Ghana, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, but private businesses can\u2019t compete alone against heavily state-subsidized corporations. U.S. policies should level the playing field to support U.S. business and streamline bureaucracy so we can more effectively use the tools we do have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chinese energy finance from official sources is 10x more than the U.S. since 2015<\/span><\/p>\"\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From Bureaucracy to Strategy<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The creation of the U.S. Development Finance Corporation (DFC)<\/a> and the modernization of  EXIM<\/a> under the first Trump Administration were strong steps towards a more proactive international policy. While those tools need to be sharpened further through their upcoming reauthorizations, the next step toward ensuring American energy dominance and global prosperity is to build an Energy Security Compacts mechanism to maximize the toolkit’s effectiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

America already has a model to build on. The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)<\/a> utilizes a compact framework that can serve as a platform to coordinate the interagency, advance American national security interests and support American energy innovations in foreign markets. These compacts would be bilateral, U.S.-led engagements designed to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n