The impact of energy on global security and economy is clear and profound, and this is why in recent years energy security has become a source of concern to most countries. However, energy security means different things to different countries based on their geographic location, their endowment of resources their strategic and economic conditions. In this book, Gal Luft and Anne Korin with the help of twenty leading experts provide an overview of the world's energy system and its vulnerabilities that underlay growing concern over energy security. It hosts a debate about the feasibility of resource conflicts and covers issues such as the threat of terrorism to the global energy system, maritime security, the role of multinationals and non-state actors in energy security, the pathways to energy security through diversification of sources and the development of alternative energy sources. It delves into the various approaches selected producers, consumers and transit states have toward energy security and examines the domestic and foreign policy tradeoffs required to ensure safe and affordable energy supply. The explains the various pathways to energy security and the tradeoffs among them and demonstrates how all these factors can be integrated in a larger foreign and domestic policy framework. It also explores the future of nuclear power, the complex relations between energy security and environmental concerns and the role for decentralized energy as a way to enhance energy security.

The International conference on Energy Security Challenges–Non Traditional Security planning in India was yet another attempt by the Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR), to focus on one of the most challenging themes of current times. Given its global outlook and ramifications, energy security demands an integrated approach and strategic positioning, especially for a country such as India.Several factors have contributed to the unprecedented predominance that the energy security debate has achieved in international dialogue and diplomacy: the growth of new economic power centres; the fluctuating price of fossil fuels over the last three years; global warming due to climate change; the threat of terrorism, instability in some exporting nations; power blackouts and chronic shortages of power in several countries. Power blackouts have occurred on the east and west coasts of the United States, in Europe and in Russia while chronic shortages of electric power are being faced by China, India and other developing countries.Given the fundamental need for energy to fuel a country’s economic growth, these power crises have caused concern not only about the reliability of electricity supply systems, but also raised fears of a scramble for energy supplies and heightened geopolitical rivalries. Thus the situation at the global level does not seem very positive. However, there have been attempts by several countries to streamline and reassert state control by installing new transportation channels and pipelines, hoping to offset the stark scarcity of their domestic resources through diversification, trade and investment in the energy sector.“Energy independence” is a phrase that has become a mantra since it was first articulated by Richard Nixon four weeks after the 1973 oil embargo was put in place. This national aspiration had long been at odds with reality for the United States. The real mood and the state of the nation was captured by President Obama in 2009 when he stated, “At a time of such great challenge for America, no single issue is as fundamental to our future as energy” In recent years, new energy suppliers, technological developments like hydraulic fracturing and the US shale gas boom have redrawn the global energy scenario and caused significant geopolitical shifts.That energy issues are fundamental to India’s future is an undeniable fact. The country’s energy imports come at the cost of 7% of its GDP and is more often ruptured by the country’s balance of payment, which takes an ugly turn with the fluctuations in the energy market.India, the world’s fourth largest energy consumer, imports 80% of its crude oil and 25% of its natural gas requirements. Around 600 million Indians do not have access to electricity and about 700 million Indians use biomass as their primary energy source for cooking, according to Indian Government sources. India’s energy demand is expected to become more than double, from below 700 million tonnes of oil equivalent (mtoe) in 2013 to around 1,500 million tonnes of oil equivalent by 2035, according to estimates made by the oil ministry. Hence, the issue of energy security is undoubtedly a major concern for India as well as the United States.

Researchers and practitioners explore the effect of evolving global economic and political powers on energy security within the UK and puts forward practical options for moving towards a more energy secure system over both the short and long terms.

This book shows how the links between energy security and national and international law and policies on green energy pose challenges to a transition towards a green energy system. Based on empirical work carried out in two very different country case studies – Great Britain and Brazil – this book attempts to foster a better understanding of the role played by energy security in constructing and deconstructing green energy policy initiatives. The broad range of views raised in national contexts leads to legal disputes in international forums when attempts are made to address the issues of this energy security/green energy interplay. As such, building on the findings of the case studies, this book then analyses the interplay between energy security and green energy development in international trade law as encapsulated in the law of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Finally, the author proposes a way forward in creating the legal space in the law of the WTO for trade restrictive measures aimed at ensuring green energy security.

For a country already uneasy about energy security, the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which caused a nuclear catastrophe at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, turned pre-existing Japanese concern about the availability of energy into outright anxiety. The subsequent closure of many nuclear reactors meant Japan needed to replace lost power quickly and so had no choice but to secure additional fossil fuels, undermining Japanese diversification policy and increasing global and regional competition for energy. This switch has been at a cost to the already weak Japanese economy whilst the increase in fossil fuel consumption has caused a significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions. In this book Vlado Vivoda examines the drastically changed environment following the disaster in order to analyse Japan’s energy security challenges and evaluate Tokyo’s energy policy options. Looking at how the disaster exacerbated Japan’s existing energy security challenges, Vivoda considers the best policy options for Japan to enhance national energy security in the future, exploring the main impediments to change and how they might be overcome.

This book examines energy security as one of nontraditional issues that are strategic for Indonesia’s foreign policy. It argues that energy has not been considered as a strategic commodity in the foreign policy to support the effectiveness of Indonesia’s diplomacy at the regional and international levels. International and outward looking perspectives have not been much visible both in the policy and political realities. Since foreign policy is a reflection of domestic politics under the influence of international developments, this study focuses its analysis on the domestic and international aspects of the energy security issues.

This Handbook examines the subject of energy security: its definition, dimensions, ways to measure and index it, and the complicating factors that are often overlooked. The volume identifies varying definitions and dimensions of energy security, including those that prioritize security of supply and affordability alongside those that emphasize availability, energy efficiency, trade, environmental quality, and social and political stewardship. It also explores the various metrics that can be used to give energy security more coherence, and also to enable it to be measured, including recent attempts to measure energy security progress at the national level, with a special emphasis placed on countries within the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), countries within Asia, and industrialized countries worldwide. This Handbook: • Broadens existing discussions of energy security that center on access to fuels, including "oil security" and "coal security." • Focuses not only on the supply side of energy but also the demand, taking a hard look at energy services and politics along with technologies and infrastructure; • Investigates energy security issues such as energy poverty, equity and access, and development; • Analyzes ways to index and measure energy security progress at the national and international level. This book will be of much interest to students of energy security, energy policy, economics, environmental studies, and IR/Security Studies in general.

Critical energy infrastructure such as oil and gas pipelines, storage facilities and electricity grids are increasingly becoming the target of criminal and terrorist attacks. This book contains the papers presented at the NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) ‘The Protection of Critical Energy Infrastructure against Emerging Security Challenges’, held in Tbilisi, Georgia, in November 2014.The main objective of this ARW was to investigate the security risks to critical energy infrastructure, namely cyber and terrorist attacks, as well as to identify opportunities for public-private partnerships to meet these risks. The workshop served as a forum for experts and stakeholders from government, academia and the private sector to exchange information and best practice and to produce findings and recommendations for integrated security solutions involving close cooperation between public and private stakeholders. Underlining the importance of a holistic approach to European energy security, this book will be of interest to all those involved in protecting critical energy infrastructure from a diverse range of threats.