Abstract

This study examines the geopolitics of global energy security, defined as the influence of geographical factors, such as the distribution of centres of supply and demand, on state and non-state actions to ensure adequate, affordable and reliable supplies of energy. The first part of this study describes the geographical dimensions of energy supply and demand and the recent global shift in the location of energy production and demand growth. This shift is the result of increasing demand in emerging markets, such as China and India. At the same time, the centres of production are now focused on the Middle East, Africa and the former Soviet Union. These changes present major geopolitical challenges to the energy importing economies of the ‘developed’ world. The second part of the study analyses three of the major issues that now dominate the literature of global energy security: the US addiction to imported oil, the European Union’s reliance on natural gas imports from Russia, and China’s strategy of ‘going out’ to secure equity oil in Africa. In conclusion, it is suggested that there is a need to rethink the geopolitics of energy security to incorporate the interests of both the energy exporting states and new energy importing states and to incorporate the challenge of climate change.

DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-8198.2009.00280.x