THE US invasion of Venezuela — however it is ultimately justified in Washington — marks more than a regional rupture. It signals a deeper shift in how power is exercised and normalised in a world where climate stress, resource scarcity and geopolitical rivalry are converging. History will likely remember this moment not simply as another intervention, but as a test case for a new global logic: that in an era of shrinking resources and accelerating crises, raw power can once again override law, norms and restraint.

The immediate political implications are obvious enough: destabilisation in Latin America, erosion of US credibility, and the hardening of global blocs. But beneath these headlines lies a far more consequential question. What does this approach licence in a world where climate change is transforming resources — oil, water, food, minerals — into strategic prizes? And what does it do to the fragile, hard-won rights architecture that was meant to protect the vulnerable from precisely this kind of power politics?

Venezuela is not only a state in political crisis; it sits atop one of the world’s largest proven oil reserves. In an era where the energy transition is uneven, contested and geopoliticised, control over hydrocarbons remains a lever of global influence. The danger is not that Venezuela is unique, but that it is precedent-setting. If military force can be openly used to secure strategic resources under the banner of national interest, then the line separating competition from conquest........

© Dawn