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Crawford School of Public Policy · ANU College of Law, Governance and Policy
On-campus & remote (online) learning available. Students participate in interactive, real-time classes. This course provides a critical understanding of energy security - its various conceptualisations, its relationship to other forms of security, and its embeddedness in the structures of the modern state. In the format of an intensive unit, this course examines energy security in terms of supply, demand, critical infrastructure, environment, as well as the flow on effects for the political, economic, commercial and military realms. It considers a range of potential threats from geostrategic tensions to the destabilising consequences of global climate change. The course examines energy security from the perspective of diverse states, and traces their divergent paths to achieve it, especially with regard to current challenges in energy transition. Throughout, students will engage in analysis of contemporary energy security challenges and the implications for national and international security. The focus of the readings, lectures, class conversations and projects will be more political, economic and strategic than technical in nature, though there may be a small technical component to each topic. The course will engage with practitioner perspectives alongside academic insights.
Research Plan (500-1000 words)
Learning outcomes 2, 3
Research Essay (2000 words)
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3
The standard workload for a 3 unit course is 65 hours including class time and independent study.
A list of readings will be provided in lieu of a prescribed text. Preliminary Reading Patrick Gasser, “A review of energy security indices to compare country performances” Energy Policy (April 2020). Victor, David G. and Kassia Yanosek. “The Next Energy Revolution: The Promise and Peril of High-Tech Innovation” Foreign Affairs (July/August 2017): 124-131. Daniel Yergin, “The Oil Collapse” Foreign Affairs, April 2020. Meghan O’Sullivan. “The Entanglement of Energy, Grand Strategy and International Security” in The Handbook of Global Energy Policy, edited by Andreas Goldthau (John Wiley & Sons, 2013), pp. 30-47. Karen Stegen. "Deconstructing the energy weapon: Russia's threat to Europe as a case study" Energy Policy 39 (2011): 6505-6513. Christian Winzer, “Conceptualising Energy Security” Energy Policy 46 (2012): 36-48. Klare, Michael T. “There Will be Blood: Political Violence, Regional Warfare, and the Risk of Great-Power Conflict over Contested Energy Sources,” in Energy Security Challenges in the 21st Century, ed. Gal Luft and Anne Korin (Santa Barbara: Praeger Security International, 2009): 44-65. Fettweis, Christopher J. “No Blood for Oil: Why Resource Wars Are Obsolete,” in Energy Security Challenges in the 21st Century, ed. Gal Luft and Anne Korin (Santa Barbara: Praeger Security International, 2009): 66-77.