Energy security has emerged as one of the most important contemporary geopolitical issues. Access to reliable, cheap energy has become essential to the functioning of modern economies but the uneven distribution of energy supplies has led to perceptions of significant Western vulnerability. At the same time, many in the West have become wary of China’s re-emergence as a major power in global politics, with its impact on Western foreign policies and potential threat to Western energy security. This book offers fresh insights into the rise of China as a global superpower and the ways in which its rise is perceived to threaten Western energy security, engaging specifically with how the idea of the China threat has emerged in popular discourse. The author questions how recent US foreign policy has sought to position China as an antagonist to Western energy interests and explores how this image has become the dominant understanding of China by the West. Rather than treating these issues as given, which orthodox approaches tend to do, this book analyses the discursive relationship between US identity, foreign policy and energy security, which leads to a more nuanced and critical understanding of perceptions of China’s potential threat to Western energy security. Filling an important gap in the emerging corpus of research on energy security, this book will be particularly valuable to students and scholars of Politics, International Relations and Chinese Studies.

Energy security has emerged as one of the most important contemporary geopolitical issues. Access to reliable, cheap energy has become essential to the functioning of modern economies but the uneven distribution of energy supplies has led to perceptions of significant Western vulnerability. At the same time, many in the West have become wary of China’s re-emergence as a major power in global politics, with its impact on Western foreign policies and potential threat to Western energy security. This book offers fresh insights into the rise of China as a global superpower and the ways in which its rise is perceived to threaten Western energy security, engaging specifically with how the idea of the China threat has emerged in popular discourse. The author questions how recent US foreign policy has sought to position China as an antagonist to Western energy interests and explores how this image has become the dominant understanding of China by the West. Rather than treating these issues as given, which orthodox approaches tend to do, this book analyses the discursive relationship between US identity, foreign policy and energy security, which leads to a more nuanced and critical understanding of perceptions of China’s potential threat to Western energy security. Filling an important gap in the emerging corpus of research on energy security, this book will be particularly valuable to students and scholars of Politics, International Relations and Chinese Studies.

Renewables are a game changer for interstate energy relations. Their abundance and intermittency, possibilities for decentral generation and use of rare earth materials, and generally electric nature of transportation make them very different from fossil fuels. What do these geographic and technical characteristics of renewable energy systems imply for infrastructure topology and operations, business models, and energy markets? What are the consequences for the strategic realities and policy considerations of producer, consumer, and transit countries and energy-related patterns of cooperation and conflict between them? Who are the winners and losers? The Geopolitics of Renewables is the first in-depth exploration of the implications for interstate energy relations of a transition towards renewable energy. Fifteen international scholars combine insights from several disciplines - international relations, geopolitics, energy security, renewable energy technology, economics, sustainability transitions, and energy policy - to establish a comprehensive overview and understanding of the emerging energy game. Focus is on contemporary developments and how they may shape the coming decades on three levels of analysis: · The emerging global energy game; winners and losers · Regional and bilateral energy relations of established and rising powers · Infrastructure developments and governance responses The book is recommended for academics and policy makers. It offers a novel analytical framework that moves from geography and technology to economics and politics to investigate the geopolitical implications of renewable energy and provides practical illustrations and policy recommendations related to specific countries and regions such as the US, EU, China, India, OPEC, and Russia

Ever since the Industrial Revolution energy has been a key driver of world politics. From the oil crises of the 1970s to today’s rapid expansion of renewable energy sources, every shift in global energy patterns has important repercussions for international relations. In this new book, Thijs Van de Graaf and Benjamin Sovacool uncover the intricate ways in which our energy systems have shaped global outcomes in four key areas of world politics: security, the economy, the environment and global justice. Moving beyond the narrow geopolitical focus that has dominated much of the discussion on global energy politics, they also deftly trace the connections between energy, environmental politics, and community activism. The authors argue that we are on the cusp of a global energy shift that promises to be no less transformative for the pursuit of wealth and power in world politics than the historical shifts from wood to coal and from coal to oil. This ongoing energy transformation will not only upend the global balance of power; it could also fundamentally transfer political authority away from the nation state, empowering citizens, regions and local communities. Global Energy Politics will be an essential resource for students of the social sciences grappling with the major energy issues of our times.

Debunks the view that natural resources lead to terrible outcomes by demonstrating that oil and minerals are actually a blessing.

From the author of Resource Wars, a landmark assessment of the critical role of petroleum in America's actions abroad In his pathbreaking Resource Wars, world security expert Michael T. Klare alerted us to the role of resources in conflicts in the post-Cold War world. Now, in Blood and Oil, he concentrates on a single precious commodity, petroleum, while issuing a warning to the United States-its most powerful, and most dependent, global consumer. Since September 11th and the commencement of the "war on terror," the world's attention has been focused on the relationship between U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and the oceans of crude oil that lie beneath the region's soil. Klare traces oil's impact on international affairs since World War II, revealing its influence on the Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon, and Carter doctrines. He shows how America's own wells are drying up as our demand increases; by 2010, the United States will need to import 60 percent of its oil. And since most of this supply will have to come from chronically unstable, often violently anti-American zones-the Persian Gulf, the Caspian Sea, Latin America, and Africa-our dependency is bound to lead to recurrent military involvement. With clarity and urgency, Blood and Oil delineates the United States' predicament and cautions that it is time to change our energy policies, before we spend the next decades paying for oil with blood.