Geopolitics of Energy Transition and Regional Integration

The global energy transition is transforming far more than energy systems. It is reshaping geopolitical relations, regional integration processes, and development strategies across the world. As a region endowed with abundant renewable energy resources, critical minerals, and vast hydropower potential, Latin America occupies a strategic position within this emerging global energy order.This volume examines how the geopolitics of the energy transition is redefining Latin America's place in an emerging global energy order and challenging traditional approaches to regional integration. Moving beyond technological perspectives, it explores how geopolitical competition, political economy, financial structures, infrastructure development, and historically embedded asymmetries shape the region's energy futures and development pathways. At the same time, it investigates how the energy transition creates new opportunities for regional cooperation while exposing persistent tensions between collective interests, national strategies, and external geopolitical pressures.Adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, the chapters explore the multiple dimensions of this transformation. The book analyzes the roles of international financial institutions, energy diplomacy, critical minerals, hydropower, biofuels, green hydrogen, renewable energy technologies, and cross-border electricity systems, while examining how states, corporations. It also explores how international actors influence investment patterns, governance arrangements, and regional development trajectories.A central theme throughout the volume is the relationship between energy transition and regional integration. The book investigates how infrastructures, markets, and cooperative arrangements can strengthen energy security, industrial development, and regional bargaining power, while also revealing persistent challenges associated with unequal development, socio-environmental conflicts, and competing national interests.In addition to addressing questions of infrastructure and markets, it highlights the social and territorial dimensions of the transition. Ultimately, it shows that Latin America's future hinges on more than just its abundant natural resources. It also depends on its ability to strengthen regional cooperation, position itself strategically within an increasingly competitive geopolitical landscape, and influence the development of the emerging energy order in line with its own developmental priorities.