Book description
It is not uncommon to hear states and their leaders criticized for
"mixing oil and politics." The U. S.-led Iraq War was
criticized as a "war for oil." When energy exporters overtly
use energy as a tool to promote their foreign policy goals, Europe and
the United States regularly decry the use of energy as a
"weapon" rather than accept it as a standard and legitimate
tool of diplomacy.
In Energy Politics, Brenda Shaffer argues that energy and
politics are intrinsically linked. Modern life-from production of
goods, to means of travel and entertainment, to methods of waging
war-is heavily dependent on access to energy. A country's ability to
acquire and use energy supplies crucially determines the state of its
economy, its national security, and the quality and sustainability of
its environment. Energy supply can serve as a basis for regional
cooperation, but at the same time can serve as a source of conflict
among energy seekers and between producers and consumers.
Shaffer provides a broad introduction to the ways in which
energy affects domestic and regional political developments and
foreign policy. While previous scholarship has focused primarily on
the politics surrounding oil, Shaffer broadens her scope to include
the increasingly important role of natural gas and alternative energy
sources as well as emerging concerns such as climate change, the
global energy divide, and the coordinated international policy-making
required to combat them. Energy Politics concludes with
examinations of how politics and energy interact in six of the world's
largest producers and consumers of energy: Russia, Europe, the United
States, China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.
"An excellent introduction to the international politics of
energy."-Charles Doran, Johns Hopkins University
Brenda Shaffer served as Research Director of the Caspian Studies
Program at Harvard University from 2000 to 2006. She currently teaches
political science at the University of Haifa.
