Hegemony and energy resources: example of Central Asia

Hegemony has been the key concept of political literature after Antonio Gramsci, who was an Italian philosopher, used it. “Hegemony,” which was first mentioned by Gramsci in the context of the practice of hegemony construction by a dominating class on social areas. Basic definition, is the concept of “governing with assent. ” International perspective says that the hegemony, which is built by the dominating class by universalizing its own benefits as common benefits, thus establishing an intellectual/moral/ideological leadership and organizing the public assent, is the realization of a historical project based on the consensus among the dominating classes ofpredominant countries. In this project, the consensus between the financial powers-ideologiesorganizations was achieved.
Energy, especially after oil started to be used in mid 1800s and it has become the most important production and transportation matter after 1900s, brought about its prevailing importance for world politics and world economics. In the 21st century, the energy is the most important factor for public welfare and sustainable development for the countries. Countries are in the race for this important position of energy that have energy resources might provide wealth and welfare. Energy might provide for those countries which possess the resources. On the other hand, energy might cause political and economic instability due to being an area of contest among global powers. Moreover, it is not sufficient to possess energy resources for those countries. These countries need economic and political strength of global powers for supply of energy resources that brings global power contest. As a result of contest, countries control energy supply can increase so those countries strength in global scale. It is possible to that one dimension of energy resources problem can be explained with the concept of “threat” and as for the other dimension, with the concept “interest”. Energy is accepted as indispensable element for continuation of current civilization. In that reason, energy geopolitics and energy security concepts are very important for all world nations.
The example of this work will be the Central Asian States because of that reason has rich energy resources. This paper will define what the hegemonic power is first and than hegemonic powers of the region that Russian Federation (RF), United States (US) and China will be examined on the energy policies.