Energy and Geopolitics (original) (raw)
Related papers
Geopolitics of Energy: Political Strategies, Conflicts, and Cooperation
Geopolitics of Energy: Political Strategies, Conflicts, and Cooperation, 2023
Understanding the geopolitics of energy is essential for comprehending contemporary international relations. In a world deeply concerned about the state of the environment in the 21st century, efficient resource management has become crucial for human survival. Energy assets are pivotal in power dynamics, often leading to territorial conflicts. This article delves into how commodities shape global interactions, fostering both collaboration and conflict.
From Scarcity to Abundance: The New Geopolitics of Energy
Revista de Estudos e Pesquisas Avançadas do Terceiro Setor, 2018
For most of the Petroleum Age, and even as recently as ten years ago, the politics of energy were largely governed by perceptions of scarcity: the assumption that global supplies of most primary fuels were finite and would eventually prove insufficient to satisfy rising worldwide demand, resulting in intense competition over what remained. The enduring prevalence of this view led many oil-importing nations to establish close ties with their major foreign suppliers and to employ force on occasion to ensure the safety of overseas supply lines. This outlook guided American foreign policy for over half a century, resulting in several U.S. interventions in the Persian Gulf area. Recently, however, a combination of technological and political considerations – the introduction of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) to extract oil and natural gas from previously inaccessible shale formations on one hand and rising concern over climate change on the other – has largely extinguished the perc...
Industrialized nations in general have not had energy policies appropriate to their degree of dependence. It is not surprising, therefore, that in the early 1960s, when oil consumption really began to soar and rank high on the list of nations' strategic interests, political changes in producing countries destroyed the imperialist system; control of oil passed to the other side. The change was too rapid to allow industrialized countries to calmly examine the alternatives available to them to recover the necessary guarantee of supply. Energy needs change
Geopolitics of Energy versus Geoenergy of Politics
2017
This study focuses on the significance of energy resources, supply networks and security, recognizing their key role in the analysis and interpretation of national and international politics and economics. Furthermore, the pursuit of ensuring guaranteed availability of oil and natural gas in the desirable quantities is gradually expected to play a pivotal role in the foreign policies and priorities of all the countries on the planet, especially those of the iGreat Powersi having increased dependence on hydrocarbons. Due to the consequent high stakes of energy security, governments and businesses are strategically required to focus on and cope with rivalries as well as partnerships on a national, multinational and global scale. This development has led authors to revise the assessments of iGeopoliticsi and iGeoeconomicsi and look for a successful substitute approach. In the paper authors continue to discuss about own proposed new term and concept of iGeoenergyi (Geoenergeia), justify...
The changing geopolitics of energy
Journal of the Geographical Institute Jovan Cvijic, SASA, 2012
The paper discusses the changes in the global energy balance and the resulting geopolitics, which have in the recent years emerged as a result of the interplay of factors such as the rapidly increasing world's energy consumption and the shift of the source of consumption eastwards to China and India. The apparent shortage of oil is exemplified by the "peak oil" theory, signalling a global struggle for oil and the need for new oil production, despite the apparent investor's insecurity to commit under the current geopolitical and economic conditions. Against the backdrop of these disconcerting factors, the authors considered the emergence of shale gas, as a new and abundant energy source that may redirect the energy geopolitics towards more comfortable outcomes.
Concepts of Geopolitics and Energy Security
Geopolitics is the study of how geography affects international relations, power and vulner-abilities. Rudolf Kjellén (1905) first coined the term, and defined it as the studies of the way geographical (and often also historical and social) factors help explain the power and role in international affairs of nation states. In classical formulations, the links and causal relationships between political and physical power over geographic space were emphasized. Halford Mack-inder (1904) described much of the 20th century's geopolitical thought, great power strategies, alliances and military events based on geographic and historic factors. Geopolitics was often considered a competitive zero-sum game played by nation states in their pursuit of power and security, and gains from trade and investment relative to other national competitors (Victor, Jaffe & Hayes 2006:4). Geopolitics was a study of the dynamic or evolving political structuration of space. Greater territory and more resources was the win for one and loss for the other. The outset was that geography (or nature) created various types of societies and cultures as their spatial dimensions implied different opportunities and limitations. Often rivers, mountains, forests, lakes and coasts were borders to human societies. Because geopolitical thinking was used to defend Lebensraum for Nazi-Germany, social scientists and politicians more or less abandoned the concept after WWII, claiming there was no geopolitical science anymore, only geoideologies, such as Nazism and fascism (Haushofer 1924, Bingen 2014). For more decades, borders and the established geopolitical structures were considered permanent sacrosanct. After the break-up of the Soviet Union, the market became more or less the sole mechanism for allocation of economic resources. Francis Fukuyama (1993) even declared the " End of History ". Nevertheless, a rebirth of geopolitical studies emerged in the economically and politically interdependent world of the 1990s, and beyond. Now the concept was adjusted to the international economic and political integration that had taken place, and included how political control over a territory influences power and political and economic outcomes through factors, mechanisms and institutions in the international economic and political system (Agnew & Corbridge 1989). Modern geopolitics became concerned with the political discourse among international actors resulting from all factors that determine the political and economic importance of a country's geographic location. " Relative gains matter, but so (also) joint gains from possible cooperation " (Victor, Jaffe & Hayes 2006:5). As part of geopolitics is geoeconomics and geostrategy. Geoeconomics describes and analyzes the distribution of resources in and between states, focusing on industrial capacity, technologic, scientific and administrative competence and capacity, finance and the flows of trade in space. Geopolitics is very much a geoeconomic phenomenon and vice versa. Any state's control of a given territory is in the end a question of " economic gain " – how to finance the costs and how to gain an optimal share of the values created or transmitted in/on that territory. Geostrategy has mostly been used as a military concept and describes plans for obtaining physical control of certain areas, or the capability to deny others to control them, irrespective of prevailing geopolitical and geoeconomic structures. Together they presuppose intentionality and are thus not natural phenomena. Geopolitics and enerGy The energy geopolitics of any region must be understood by both the size and location of own and other natural resources, how available they are, who controls them, their cost, alternative transportation routes, how regional and global markets balance, market mechanisms and regulations, political decisions, and prices in general. Furthermore, as national and international policy-making and business is intertwined, the state is not anymore the only actor that shapes political outcomes. The geopolitical role of a country is influenced by the scale and scope of the dependence it represents for other actors (businesses, countries). Resources affect national policy making by acting upon domestic actors, which in turn affect the domestic political system through associations, state structure and ideology and, hence, business-to-business and business-to-government relations, must be included in the analysis (Austvik & Lembo 2017: 663-666).. Energy and geopolitics have been closely linked in both old and new formulations. Countries have made and make national strategies and geostrategies to meet their energy needs, reach markets and secure national positions and interests. The securitization of energy policy have contributed to shape
This month's Geopolitics of Energy is devoted to a discussion of a concept called " geoenergeia " , which is a neologism created by the authors, Ioannis Vidakis and Georgios Baltos. Noting that geo-economics, and of course, geopolitics, have been areas of scholarly research for a hundred years or more, the authors contend there should be a term, perhaps even a field of study, to describe the intersection of geography and energy. Thus, they have come up with " geoenergeia ". The authors explain why a geoenergic point of view can be useful in deciphering contemporary world events and use the analytical tools of geoenergeia to shine light on several historical episodes, both from this century and the last.
Geopolitics of Energy. Postgraduate Syllabus
University of Piraeus School of Economics, Business & International Studies Department of International & European Studies Postgraduate Program Geopolitics of Energy 2021-2022
Geopolitics of Energy. Module 1, 2nd Semester, Course Convenor Professor Athanasios Platias, The course on the Geopolitics of Energy explores the intersection of energy, security, and international politics. This course aims to improve our understanding of how energy demand and supply shape international politics and vice versa. It also endeavors to inform students about major challenges to global energy security. The course focuses both on conventional and alternative energies, as both will influence and be influenced by geopolitical realities.
The GeoPolitics of Energy: Engaging the Public and Policymakers - 9557
2009
If the world is to attain global peace and prosperity in this century, a rational mix of energy sources must be achieved quickly, by about 2040. This mix should be about 1 /3–fossil fuel, 1 /3–renewables and 1 /3– nuclear, each source generating over 10 trillion kW-hrs/year, the amount generated by all fossil fuels in the world today. Without a comprehensive push for both renewables and nuclear, humanity will not avert environmental and economic catastrophe by mid-century, and we will not be able to prevent worldwide weapons proliferation. Public misperception of nuclear energy is probably the greatest hurdle to achieving a third of this mix by nuclear energy, while a similar but opposite overly optimistic perception of renewables may cause renewables to fail in achieving their third of this mix. This 1 /3- 1 /3- 1 /3 mix requires committed leadership among the nations of the world, and full understanding and support from their citizens, with an understanding that failure will resul...