Ukraine Essay

a. Primary National Interest: Republic of Azerbaijan works to ensure sustained economic growth by protecting and exploiting proven oil reserves from deepwater Caspian Basin oilfields and its transport to growing western markets via the Baku-Tblilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil and associated South Caucasus (SCP) gas pipeline. Azerbaijan leverages this energy development to build strategic partnerships & ensure international attention for its independence, and attempt to influence attitudes toward the Nagorno-Karabakh (NK) conflict.

Since 2004 the UK has been a net importer of natural gas, as the North Sea reserves have been exploited and nearly exhausted. Today, ten years later, the UK has become even more dependent on foreign gas with over 50% of demand for gas satisfied by foreign supply (Gloystein, 2013). This increasing dependence on foreign countries is a worrying trend, due to the adverse effects it can have, which include being subjected to price shocks, supply shortages and manipulation both economically and politically. Energy insecurity has arisen through a lack of investment in other

is far from independent when it comes to energy, “about 40 percent of U.S. imported petroleum, a significant portion of all the petroleum that provides a third of national energy consumption flows from insecure, progressively more competitive foreign supplies, primarily in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa” (Rosenbaum, 2014 p. 279). This is inherently problematic as the nation relies on this imported oil to power everything from the electrical grid to the military. Sourcing this oil from unstable regions allows for these suppliers to have an unprecedented impact on the everyday operations of both the government and citizens. Furthermore the U.S. must keep good relations with the often-uncooperative nations that supply our foreign oil in order to maintain the supply flow, making this an issue of national security.

Energy is more than a utility that keeps the lights on in our homes or the gas in our cars; it’s a foundational resource that plays a key role in a nation’s ability to provided economic opportunity and basic services and security to its people. As such, it is imperative to a nation’s overall security that it develops/acquires access to energy, ensures energy needs are properly met and supplies are readily available, and disruptions minimized. Policy directs that the U.S. has a role in developing energy security throughout the world. For the U.S., we’ve long recognized the importance of energy security and have gone to great lengths to ensure its protection by developing depth and breadth in energy capabilities,

The region is now a focal point due to the “eagerly anticipated Arctic economic bonanza.” This is because the area “holds 22% of the world’s undiscovered unconventional oil and natural gas resources” and this will cause “competitiveness of the resources in the area.” These resources are Russia’s “most important hydrocarbon resource.” The US must prevent Russia “from dominating the region in terms of economics or security.” Ensuring energy security in the Arctic region will require significant political cooperation; fortunately the US assumed chairmanship of the Arctic Council in

Daniel Yergin is the chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Association and a highly respected individual in international politics, economics and power. Despite being a Pulitzer Prize Winner, he is also the recipient of the 1997 United State Energy Award for his achievement in power and the promotion of international understanding. He has written extensive accounts on the global changes towards political and economic destiny of the world since WWII. His book ‘The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power’ published in 1992, which depicted the turmoil in Russia’s move to a market economy became a hit such that it was made into an eight hour series and translated into twelve languages. Yergin is a member of the Board of the United States Energy Association, US Secretary of Energy’s Advisory Board and National Petroleum Council among others. He is a BA holder from Yale University and holds Ph.D. from Cambridge University among other honorary degrees.

The geopolitics in Eurasia along with the implications of energy security as well as the risks and opportunities it creates for the U.S. is understood when the layers of conflict and negotiations are analyzed through the various topics that affect international policies. Through the concepts based on energy, politics, security pipelines in Eurasia, international transit integration, and the energy world order, can the conceptual argument be made that natural resources are temporary allocations and not solutions to energy or security. The research and material covered through The Politics of Energy Security as a course, exposes and substantiates why the geopolitics in Eurasia are only business opportunities and offer no final

For over 40 years, Europe has been relying on Russia for the importation of energy, such as oil.5 One of Russia’s major gas company, Gazprom, is one of the world’s largest gas distributing companies, causing many countries to become dependent on the Russian company for gas. In 2015 alone, Gazprom exported around 158 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe, and of those European countries to have received gas, Germany was the highest, with an import of 45.31 billion cubic meters of Gazprom gas. Countries in the Baltic region and countries in south eastern Europe are usually very dependent on Russian gas. The European Union is Russia’s most involved trading partner, especially when it comes in terms of oil. About 41% of Russia’s exports are sent to EU countries.7 According to Gazprom’s statistics, Western European countries make up 82% of Gazprom’s exports, and Central European countries make up 18% of their exports.3 These numbers are significant because it displays Europe’s major dependence on Russian oil, which is a major problem, because of Russia’s ability to deprive Europe of energy at any given time, as shown from 2006 to 2009, when Russia cut off Ukraine 's gas line due to disputes regarding gas prices.23 If Russia decides to shut off gas to a region, it can lead to people being without ways to heat their homes or cook their food, leaving a big liability on the people. Europe’s vulnerability to these gas shortages gives Russian leverage over many EU countries who heavily

In 2007, the Helsinki Commission held a congressional hearing focusing on energy security in Post-Soviet Eastern Europe. The hearing took place in the wake of the first major Ukrainian-Russian gas dispute in 2006 that not only demonstrated the Kremlin’s motives to use its energy resources, natural gas in particular, as a weapon to meddle in its immediate neighbors’ domestic affairs, but also show the rest of Europe’s, especially Central and Southeastern Europe’s, extreme dependency on Russia’s energy supplies. Back then, experts and policy-makers focused and made recommendations primarily on the enhancement of security of supply through the construction of new energy infrastructure, namely pipelines, which would allow the diversification

Russia's new strength is also based on its vast reserves of oil and natural gas, which as the price of crude exceeds $ 120 per barrel, give the country tremendous bargaining power, not only in its relations with countries directly dependent on its supplies as Ukraine, Germany and Hungary, but, in general, by the capacity of influence that give

The second piece of news I would like to bring to your attention is from BBC “Business Live” reporting on the Europe’s need for Russian gas and the possibility that Russia closes off its supply gas as it did in the past. The EU imports more than half (53%) of all of its energy supplies; in particular, the EU imports more than 90% of its crude oil and 66% of its natural gas. The dependence on gas imports is particularly risky for those countries that are reliant on a single supplier, especially if this gas supplier is Russia. For these reasons, guaranteeing gas supply and cutting dependence on external suppliers are two of the UE’s biggest challenges.

The oil industry is one of great power that countries are invest in. Russia is one of the leading contenders in producing oil and exports the goods to various countries. With great resources comes great strength. Oil is of the utmost important to every country therefore, Russia has an upper hand in some respects. Moreover, the history behind the oil pipelines and how Russia connects to different countries allows for insight into the power they withhold politically and economically, and on the improvements that need to be made to continue growth in this industry.

Nowadays, energy security has turned out to be a very important area under discussions regarding foreign policy ("Energy Security: Advancements in Cooperation in the East Asian Region", 2011). The reliance on foreign energy turns into a compulsion with the globalization of the trade and industry of any country that does not possess adequate resources for its engine to continue working. However, such sort of energy-reliance shall be a combination of the "energy aid" from affluent countries and the domestic industrial sector and consumer demands. For that reason, this modus operandi has set a number of countries in motion in order to search for the different energy suppliers beyond their areas (Barbieri).

In the recent years, the relations between Ukraine and Russia have been hostile. Russia is the largest producer of gas while Ukraine is the largest importer of the same commodity from Russia. Gas fro Russia to the EU countries, east and southern Europe passes through the Ukrainian territory and Russia has to pay transit fee. It is this issue of the supply and prices of gas that precipitated a very big conflict between the two countries and the impact was felt allover Europe. In this paper, the historical background of the issue, the current sate of the conflict, the solutions to the conflict; the future of gas supply and the effects of the 2009 conflict to Europe will be addressed.

Russia is an energy-producing powerhouse whose economic performance is largely correlated with the fluctuations in the general commodities sector. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (“EIA) analysis brief on Russia, the country derived 52% of its federal government revenues from oil and gas production, which also accounted for over 70% of all Russian exports in 2012. Russia is the world’s second largest producer of natural gas and third largest producer of oil. Domestic energy consumption is dominated by natural gas, which, according to the EIA’s