Resources are not spread evenly, and that unevenness is one of the strongest forces in world politics. Who holds the oil, who processes the rare earths, who sits upstream on the river — these decide far more than trade figures. This page covers what insecurity does, and the three ways out of it.
📘 What you need to know
Resource insecurity occurs when the availability of essential resources does not meet a population’s demands.
Causes: rapid population growth, overexploitation, uneven global distribution and climate change.
Impacts include hindered socio-economic development, unemployment and health crises.
Resource control creates geopolitical power — OPEC in oil, China in rare earth processing.
Three routes to security: reduce demand, increase supply and change technologies.
Economic globalisation increases supply but creates interdependence, which cuts both ways.
Interdependence is mutual reliance; dependence is one-sided and far riskier.
What resource insecurity does
Insecurity arises when supply of water, energy or minerals falls short of demand. Four causes sit behind most cases: rapid population growth, overexploitation of resources, the uneven distribution of resources across the globe, and climate change altering what is available where.
Impact
Mechanism
Example
Hindered economic growth
Limited access to resources restricts industry and agriculture, causing unemployment and reduced economic output
In sub-Saharan Africa water scarcity limits agricultural productivity and energy insecurity limits industrial growth, contributing to poverty
Health challenges
Lack of clean water and food leads directly to health crises
Prolonged droughts in Somalia contributing to food shortages and malnutrition
Resources as geopolitical power
Control over a resource is control over the countries that need it. Resource-rich nations hold significant global influence, control over supply chains can shift power balances, and nations dependent on imported energy are exposed to price shocks.
Energy leverage. Russia’s control of natural gas supplies affects European energy security. The European energy crisis of 2022 followed reduced gas supplies from Russia.
Territorial competition. Resource competition can turn into disputes over territory, as with South China Sea tensions over oil and gas deposits and strategic position.
Oil. The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries controls much of global oil production, and its decisions on production levels move global markets and economies.
Minerals and rare earths. Most mining of key minerals such as lithium and cobalt, and of rare earth elements, happens in Australia, China, Chile and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. China processes nearly all rare earth elements, and that dominance in processing gives it significant geopolitical power — rare earth exports have featured in US-China trade disputes.
Note the distinction between mining and processing. Several countries dig rare earths out of the ground; almost all of it is refined in one place. Bottlenecks in the middle of a supply chain are often more powerful than owning the deposit.
Three routes to resource security
Most national strategies use all three at once. The EU is reducing demand through efficiency, increasing supply through renewables, and changing technology through electrification, in the same policy package.
Reducing demand
Conservation measures improve efficiency directly: energy-efficient appliances and buildings cut electricity use, and drip irrigation minimises water waste in agriculture. Recycling and the circular economy reduce reliance on raw materials — aluminium recycling uses about 95% less energy than producing new aluminium.
Increasing supply
Diversifying sources spreads risk, which is why the European Union has invested in renewable energy to cut dependency on imported oil and gas. Investment in domestic production reduces reliance on imports, as with the United States boosting shale gas extraction to improve energy independence.
Changing technologies
Innovation can substitute for a scarce resource or use it far more efficiently. Solar and wind reduce dependency on fossil fuels. Desalination improves freshwater availability in arid regions such as Saudi Arabia.
Sector
Technology or scheme
Effect on security
Food
Vertical farming and hydroponics
Reduce pressure on arable land, raising food security in urban areas
Water
Singapore’s NEWater project
Recycles wastewater to drinking standard, reducing reliance on imported water
Energy
Offshore wind farms
Shift generation to a domestic renewable source, boosting national energy security
Globalisation: more supply, more exposure
Global trade widens access to resources that are not locally available — Japan imports over 90% of its energy needs. Foreign investment enables extraction in developing countries, as with Chinese investment in African countries to secure cobalt and copper.
But the same trade creates reliance. Countries become increasingly dependent on one another for resources, and that can reduce national resource security rather than raise it. European nations depending on Russian gas is the standard example, and supply chain disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic caused electronics shortages tied to rare earth elements.
Exporters carry a mirror-image risk: becoming overdependent on resource revenues. Venezuela’s economy collapsed significantly from 2014 onwards, when global oil prices fell from over $100 per barrel in mid-2014 to below $30 by early 2016. Because government revenue relied heavily on oil exports, the price shock triggered hyperinflation, food shortages and a humanitarian crisis.
Interdependence: the USA and China rely on each other, China supplying goods and the USA providing a major market. Dependence: many European countries rely on Russian gas, but Russia does not rely on them equally.
WORKED EXAMPLE
Explain how resource insecurity can lead to geopolitical tension. [4]
Build the chain from scarcity to conflict1. Resources are unevenly distributed, so some nations control supplies that others need.2. That control becomes political leverage — Russia’s natural gas supplies affect European energy security, as shown by the 2022 energy crisis.3. Where deposits are disputed, competition turns territorial, as with South China Sea tensions over oil and gas.4. Processing bottlenecks add another layer: China refines nearly all rare earth elements, which has featured in US-China trade disputes.Scarcity plus uneven control converts a resource into a bargaining toolThree named examples in four marks is efficient. Each one is worth a mark on its own.
WORKED EXAMPLE
Evaluate the role of economic globalisation in national resource security. [6]
In favourGlobal trade gives access to resources not available locally — Japan imports over 90% of its energy. Foreign investment enables extraction where domestic capital is lacking.AgainstInterdependence becomes vulnerability: European reliance on Russian gas exposed nations to political pressure, and COVID-19 supply chain disruptions caused shortages linked to rare earth elements.Exporters risk overdependence on resource revenues. Venezuela’s economy collapsed after oil fell from over $100 to below $30 per barrel between 2014 and 2016, causing hyperinflation and food shortages.JudgementGlobalisation raises supply but concentrates risk, so security depends on diversification rather than on trade volumeEnding on diversification links the evaluation straight back to the three routes, which reads as a genuine conclusion.
💡 Exam tip
Structure any security answer around reduce demand, increase supply, change technology.
Learn two hard figures: aluminium recycling saving about 95% of the energy, and Japan importing over 90% of its energy.
Distinguish mining from processing when discussing rare earths. It is where the real power sits.
Use the Venezuela example for the exporter’s risk. Most students only cover importers.
Get interdependence versus dependence right — it is a specifically flagged distinction.
Link back to earlier pages: vertical farming and desalination appeared under food and technology too.
⚠️ Common mix-up
Using interdependence and dependence as synonyms. Mutual versus one-sided is the whole point.
Assuming resource-rich countries are automatically secure. Venezuela shows the opposite.
Thinking globalisation only improves security. It also concentrates risk in long supply chains.
Treating insecurity as purely about quantity. Infrastructure, price and politics all matter.
Forgetting climate change as a cause of insecurity, which is explicitly listed.
Naming a strategy with no example. “Diversification” alone rarely scores.
That completes 7.1 Natural Resources: Uses and Management. Before your exam, go back over natural capital versus natural income and the renewable-versus-sustainable distinction — between them they underpin most of the questions in this sub-topic.
Want this explained one-to-one?
Book a free session with an experienced IB ESS tutor and get your trickiest topics made simple.
