The US-Venezuela conflict is based not on the check cashing story of democracy or narco-terrorism but on the great-power competition. Venezuela holds the highest proven oil deposits in the world, with a reserve of about 303 billion barrels, or about 17 per cent of world reserves, far surpassing Saudi Arabia as well as more than five times the reserves of the United States. However, with this gift, its production has collapsed to fewer than 1 million barrels per day or about 0.8 per cent of world production, because of decades of mismanagement, corruption, sanctions and under-investment. This is the paradox of the situation- a massive potential with minimal output, that highlights the reasons why Venezuela is an attractive target and a thorn in the flesh of world powers. In the terms of international security, Venezuela has emerged to be a platform of resources in which energy, minerals, and finance intersect to create a special form of geopolitical calculus.

In my opinion, the crisis involving Venezuela, such as the allegations of the US attacking Maduro is a classic example of hybrid coercion and great power assertion. It is quite similar to the Power Transition Theory that posits that the threat of conflict escalates when emerging powers are likely to change the status quo. The case of Venezuela is not a military threat in the traditional sense, but its alliance with China and Russia alongside its noncompliance with the Petrodollar system is a structural threat to the US hegemony. The oil reserves of the country are massive, but technically they are of lower quality, and it is not possible to justify with the........

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