Is the quest for true energy security a fool’s errand? In recent years, the efforts of nations to promote energy security have been hotly debated. Fuels Paradise examines how five major developed democracies—Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and the United States—have sought to enhance their energy security since the oil shocks of the 1970s and in response to the more diverse set of challenges of the early twenty-first century. Drawing on a vast range of primary and secondary sources, John S. Duffield explains the actions taken—and not taken—by these countries to address their energy security concerns. Throughout the book, Duffield argues that state strength and policy legacies are essential for understanding national responses to energy insecurity. In addition to identifying feasible energy policies and the constraints faced by policy makers, he evaluates the prospects for international cooperation to promote energy security and considers the implications of recent advances in the production and distribution of energy, particularly the fracking revolution. An ambitious cross-national and longitudinal study grounded in promising theories of national behavior, Fuels Paradise will contribute substantially to broader debates about the determinants of state action and public policy.

Is the quest for true energy security a fool’s errand? In recent years, the efforts of nations to promote energy security have been hotly debated. Fuels Paradise examines how five major developed democracies—Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and the United States—have sought to enhance their energy security since the oil shocks of the 1970s and in response to the more diverse set of challenges of the early twenty-first century. Drawing on a vast range of primary and secondary sources, John S. Duffield explains the actions taken—and not taken—by these countries to address their energy security concerns. Throughout the book, Duffield argues that state strength and policy legacies are essential for understanding national responses to energy insecurity. In addition to identifying feasible energy policies and the constraints faced by policy makers, he evaluates the prospects for international cooperation to promote energy security and considers the implications of recent advances in the production and distribution of energy, particularly the fracking revolution. An ambitious cross-national and longitudinal study grounded in promising theories of national behavior, Fuels Paradise will contribute substantially to broader debates about the determinants of state action and public policy.

Monograph on energy usage and energy policy options for the UK - examines power consumption, fuel supply efficiency, environmental effects, etc., And describes three possible future scenarios. Bibliography pp. 231 to 233 and graphs.

The idea that energy shapes and is shaped by geopolitics is firmly rooted in the popular imagination – and not without reason. Very few countries have the means to secure their energy needs through locally available supplies; instead, enduring dependencies upon other countries have developed. Given energy’s strategic significance, supply systems for fuels and electricity are now seamlessly interwoven with foreign policy and global politics. Energy and Geopolitics enables students to enhance their understanding and sharpen their analytical skills with respect to the complex relations between energy supply, energy markets and international politics. Per Högselius guides us through the complexities of world energy and international energy relations, examining a wide spectrum of fossil fuels, alongside nuclear and renewable energies. Uniquely, the book also shows how the geopolitics of energy is not merely a matter for the great powers and reveals how actors in the world’s smaller nations are as active in their quest for power and control. Encouraging students to apply a number of central concepts and theoretical ideas to different energy sources within a multitude of geographical, political and historical contexts, this book will be a vital resource to students and scholars of geopolitics, energy security and international environmental policy and politics.

This book sets forth a set of truly controversial and astonishing theories: First, it proposes that below the surface of the earth is a biosphere of greater mass and volume than the biosphere the total sum of living things on our planet's continents and in its oceans. Second, it proposes that the inhabitants of this subterranean biosphere are not plants or animals as we know them, but heat-loving bacteria that survive on a diet consisting solely of hydrocarbons that is, natural gas and petroleum. And third and perhaps most heretically, the book advances the stunning idea that most hydrocarbons on Earth are not the byproduct of biological debris ("fossil fuels"), but were a common constituent of the materials from which the earth itself was formed some 4.5 billion years ago. The implications are astounding. The theory proposes answers to often-asked questions: Is the deep hot biosphere where life originated, and do Mars and other seemingly barren planets contain deep biospheres? Even more provocatively, is it possible that there is an enormous store of hydrocarbons upwelling from deep within the earth that can provide us with abundant supplies of gas and petroleum? However far-fetched these ideas seem, they are supported by a growing body of evidence, and by the indisputable stature and seriousness Gold brings to any scientific debate. In this book we see a brilliant and boldly original thinker, increasingly a rarity in modern science, as he develops potentially revolutionary ideas about how our world works.

Black Gold and Blackmail seeks to explain why great powers adopt such different strategies to protect their oil access from politically motivated disruptions. In extreme cases, such as Imperial Japan in 1941, great powers fought wars to grab oil territory in anticipation of a potential embargo by the Allies; in other instances, such as Germany in the early Nazi period, states chose relatively subdued measures like oil alliances or domestic policies to conserve oil. What accounts for this variation? Fundamentally, it is puzzling that great powers fear oil coercion at all because the global market makes oil sanctions very difficult to enforce. Rosemary A. Kelanic argues that two variables determine what strategy a great power will adopt: the petroleum deficit, which measures how much oil the state produces domestically compared to what it needs for its strategic objectives; and disruptibility, which estimates the susceptibility of a state's oil imports to military interdiction—that is, blockade. Because global markets undercut the effectiveness of oil sanctions, blockade is in practice the only true threat to great power oil access. That, combined with the devastating consequences of oil deprivation to a state's military power, explains why states fear oil coercion deeply despite the adaptive functions of the market. Together, these two variables predict a state's coercive vulnerability, which determines how willing the state will be to accept the costs and risks attendant on various potential strategies. Only those great powers with large deficits and highly disruptible imports will adopt the most extreme strategy: direct control of oil through territorial conquest.