The impact of energy on global security and economy is clear and profound, and this is why in recent years energy security has become a source of concern to most countries. However, energy security means different things to different countries based on their geographic location, their endowment of resources their strategic and economic conditions. In this book, Gal Luft and Anne Korin with the help of twenty leading experts provide an overview of the world's energy system and its vulnerabilities that underlay growing concern over energy security. It hosts a debate about the feasibility of resource conflicts and covers issues such as the threat of terrorism to the global energy system, maritime security, the role of multinationals and non-state actors in energy security, the pathways to energy security through diversification of sources and the development of alternative energy sources. It delves into the various approaches selected producers, consumers and transit states have toward energy security and examines the domestic and foreign policy tradeoffs required to ensure safe and affordable energy supply. The explains the various pathways to energy security and the tradeoffs among them and demonstrates how all these factors can be integrated in a larger foreign and domestic policy framework. It also explores the future of nuclear power, the complex relations between energy security and environmental concerns and the role for decentralized energy as a way to enhance energy security.

Editors Luft and Korin (Institute for the Analysis of Global Security) and 20 co-contributors offer a timely and comprehensive look at the role of energy in modern life and the different approaches countries employ to maintain energy security. The overview of the energy system also examines the growing concern over its vulnerabilities. Essentially, the book provides a debate regarding resource conflicts and control by covering issues such as terrorism, maritime security, the role of multinationals in energy security, security through diversification of sources, and development of alternative energy. It also explores the tradeoffs inherent in domestic and foreign policy required to maintain a safe, affordable energy supply. * Reference & Research Book News *
The book sets out to give the reader a bird's eye view of the world's energy system and its vulnerabilities, and it delivers. Chapters are well structured and to the point. A sense of common purpose and structure is maintained throughout the book, also when authors argue different points and in different ways….This book gives energy security the attention it deserves: right in the middle of international politics. * OGEL *
. . . offers compelling evidence about the scope of energy security as it is perceived by countries and organizations. . . . This book offers plenty of information--covering piracy/terrorism, Russia, Europe, and the US--will give readers a sense of the control to be exerted by those who control energy resources. . . Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers. * Choice *
This should be part of any college-level military or social issues collection. * Midwest Book Review *

GAL LUFT and ANNE KORIN are co-directors of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS) a Washington based think tank focused on energy security. They specialize in strategy, geopolitics, terrorism, energy security and economic warfare. They have published numerous studies and articles on security and energy issues in various newspapers and publications, testified before congressional committees and advised think tanks and news organizations worldwide.