WASHINGTON (May 15 2012) — A study released this week by the Transatlantic Academy reveals that severe market disruptions and violent conflict at the interstate and local level in many hot spots -- especially in Asia, Africa, and Latin America -- are increasingly likely unless the transatlantic community takes the lead in addressing the challenges of unprecedented global demand for a nexus of resources.

Individual success has long been equated with consuming more. Building a larger house translates into extracting more resources to build, heat, and cool it. Fossil fuels are consumed to drive us to our workplaces, to power a multitude of home electronic devices, and to fuel the container ships and trucks that bring us furniture from far afield.

We are witnessing a period of increased resource nationalism, in which governments begin to seize control over natural resources, often leaving private corporations out in the cold. Currently this phenomenon hits troubled Spain the hardest.

International disputes over offshore resources are on the rise. From the Arctic to the Falkland Islands and the Eastern Mediterranean, quarrels over access rights for fish, minerals, oil, and natural gas are becoming increasingly heated and potentially violent, as detailed in the Transatlantic Academy’s recent report, The Global Resource Nexus .