#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #ITALY #SICILIA #ANARCHISM #LIBRARY #News #Journal #Update - (en) #Italy, #Sicilia Libertaria: Energy + Profit = War (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 The Mediterranean basin is regaining that global centrality that had

distinguished it over the past centuries or rather over the past millennia. The
"mare nostrum" has always been one of the two traffic terminals on the East-West
axis. Today that historic meeting point is re-emerging on the world stage. The
actors can only be different but the play is paradoxically the same. The
Mediterranean has been and is the pivot of geopolitical and geoeconomic balances
and the Italian peninsula represents its central natural platform. If the
geographical centrality of the Mediterranean basin (with Italy equidistant from
the two outlets that of Gibraltar and that of the Bosphorus) is its historical
value, energy and the new (always in evolution) modalities of world trade are the
elements of news. The Mediterranean has figuratively expanded its borders in
recent years. Geoeconomics and geopolitics now draw a triangle whose apex is
represented by the Italian peninsula, the east side which runs along the Atlantic
coast to the Gulf of Guinea, the base which extends as far as the Strait of
Hormuz and then completes with the left side going up along the Middle East and
rejoining the summit. This geographical portion contains 70% of all fossil energy
(gas and oil) known and used today. Energy is one of the fundamental factors in
the equation that has characterized world events for decades: Energy + Profit =
War. It is no coincidence that most of the conflicts of recent decades have had
this "energy triangle" as a stage. It is no coincidence that almost all of
Italy's foreign missions (currently 45) take place in this portion of the globe.
Finally, it is no coincidence that even the last conflict (Russian-Ukrainian) has
Donbass as its strategic node, the Odessa region and the Black Sea basin, i.e.
the transit and landing route for energy from Russia and the Transcaucasus in the
Mediterranean . In other words, whoever holds the keys to the energy "treasure
chest" has a good chance of determining the global flows of raw materials and goods.

Italy plays a leading role, or rather to be more precise, ENI, the National
Hydrocarbons Authority, is the real protagonist. The script of the military
missions is only apparently or rather technically interpreted by the Armed Forces
but the real "operating room" is not located at the Ministry of Defense or at the
Farnesina but in the Board of Directors of Enel in San Donato Milanese. Two data,
simple in their reading, and equally explanatory in explaining the overlapping of
ENI's industrial apparatus with the dislocation of the good majority of our
foreign military missions. ENI extracts 1.8 million barrels of crude oil every
day, of which 1.4 come from the "energy triangle", the share of gas is even more
significant, 90% of the gas extracted daily by the "six-legged dog" comes from
this geographic area. It goes without saying that the control of this "energy
ellipse" determines the location of foreign operations. Finally, it is no
coincidence that the new five international missions have gone to strengthen the
eastern side of the energy triangle. From the South-Eastern European basin (to
counter Russian expansionism) to the South, in Qatar, (one of the numerically
more consistent new missions with 500 elements). If this is the picture of the
"Enlarged Mediterranean" in a nutshell, it is no wonder that tactics and strategy
must adapt to the new "energy horizons". From this point of view, Italy, in the
footsteps of the original legacy of Mattei (the founder of ENI and the father of
Italian foreign policy in the Middle Eastern territories), is pursuing the
"all-out" business path. ENI's foreign policy is paying off very well. Net
profits, in the first nine months of 2022, amounted to 10 billion euros with an
increase of 311%.

To understand the guidelines of the national economic and strategic foreign
policy it is necessary to refer to the Multi-year Planning Document (last
published last August), in which, beyond the technical details of the foreign
missions and arms investments, there is represented the director of national
foreign policy. This document explains the most meaningful observations on the
"energy ellipse". We cite the most significant passages. Central is the
reflection on instability, no longer the exclusive product of the competition of
individual states but also on the part of non-statutory "big players", first of
all, the large multinational companies whose economic weight has grown to such an
extent as to assume also in geopolitical and geostrategic terms.  It should be
noted that these subjects "in terms of size and/or ability to act, express a
geopolitical weight comparable to, and sometimes greater than, that of states".
These observations lead to a completely new strategic conclusion, i.e. "the loss
of relevance of the traditional reference international organizations with
Western traction (NATO and the European Union in primis) and the multipolar drift
that seems to characterize global geopolitical dynamics, with new alliances"
variable geometry" sustained more by contingent interests than by actual
affinities (for example that between China and Russia).

If these are the factors that give substance to the equation Energy + Profit =
War, there is another completely new element that is transforming the role of the
Mediterranean. The Mare Nostrum is turning into a Middle Ocean or a global
commodity HUB. The coincidence of the technical evolution of transport, from
super containers, to the digitization of goods traffic is profoundly changing the
role of the Mediterranean. Digital allows us to modulate the production of goods,
increasingly conceived in the logic of just on time (I produce only what is in
the sales forecast). Not only is digital technology profoundly changing
international traffic, the other fundamental element that ensures the Middle
Ocean the leading role of international traffic is the intermodality of
transport. The digitization of port facilities, super containers are only part of
the goods distribution process. These innovations gain strength thanks to the
connection of maritime transport with the European High Speed networks. The
Community institutions, already at the time of the Maastricht Treaty, designed
the nine high-speed corridors, the so-called TENs, corridors that extend from
East to West and above all from South to North. In the design and construction of
the TEN network, the Mediterranean is central considering that of the nine
routes, six have the Mediterranean or rather the Middle Ocean as their outlet.
The equation Energy + Profit = War must be completed with the other variable,
that of the circulation of goods. Beyond the innovations and transformations, the
result has always remained the same, profit for the few, precariousness, the
uncertainty of the future and the difficulties of the present for many.

Daniel Ratti

https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
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