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Introduction 1 1 INTRODUCTION Hooman Peimani Perhaps the twenty-first century could be named the energy century for at least two major reasons. On the one hand, global energy requirements are expanding on a steady basis, corrected for short periods of fluctuations in demand caused by ups and downs in the performance of all economies, especially the large and/or growing ones. All projections for the foreseeable future suggest the continuity of this trend, reflecting the predictable enlarging of the world’s economies, the growing population worldwide, and, by and large, improving living standards, which will all surely encourage more energy consumption. Meeting the phenomenal increase in energy requirements of all countries will be a herculean task in itself and will require a long-term solution since the bulk of the currently used energy is non-renewable and thus finite. Thus, at least because of the rapid depletion of the global oil, gas, and coal resources, the current pattern of consumption will not be sustainable. This will therefore demand finding practical alternatives to fossil energy — a major challenge given that clean and renewable energies as a whole are at the stage of infancy for various reasons. On the other, there are major environmental challenges with dire consequences for life in all forms on earth should our current wrong pattern of life, environmentally speaking, continue. In particular, our large and growing energy consumption has been the single major factor causing global warming, which is destroying our nature steadily and rapidly. Today, it is quite clear that continuing with this way of life, which reflects a thoughtless 01 EnergySecurity 4/18/11, 3:30 PM 1 2 Hooman Peimani and irresponsible pattern of energy consumption, will not be sustainable because of its devastating impact on the environment. Consequently, for these two reasons at least, energy will be the single major challenge of the twenty-first century. Energy is no doubt important as all countries now put it on their agenda as the top, if not, one of the top issues. Obviously, its degree of importance varies from one country to another since it is directly geared to the scale of economic development and prosperity of a given country, which determines the type and amount of required energy. Against this background, energy security has become a major preoccupation of every country. This is true for energy-rich and energy-poor countries alike, although it has different manifestations for both categories of countries. Countries depending on energy imports are concerned not just with the availability of their required types of energy, but also the security of supply routes, and thus, the means of transportation of energy to their countries. On the other hand, energy-rich countries that have their needed types of energy within their territorial boundaries and are not concerned about the availability of supply, concern themselves with their uninterrupted and timely distribution inside their countries. In both cases, meeting their energy demands through imports, production, and/or both, is a major issue to address as success or failure in this regard determines their ability to continue, and/or expand, their economic activities and meet the daily demand of their respective peoples. In this context, many factors affect their energy security. Of course, the starting point is to determine the type of required supplies (fossil/nonfossil ), the availability of adequate supplies, the uninterrupted access to them (whether inside one’s country or outside) and their distribution in the designated areas of a country over a given period of time. However, achieving energy security takes place within a national, regional, and/or global context, which is affected by political, economic, military/security, social, and environmental factors. Hence various factors could affect such an objective even when adequate supplies at an affordable price are available. In short, energy security is in fact a multidimensional subject of crucial importance for all countries, regardless of the type of their required energy. Given this reality, the traditional approach to this subject, which focuses mainly on the security of supplies, is no longer sufficient to prepare energy consumers for the challenges of the twenty-first century. Consequently, energy security is affected by the various factors spelled out above. They act as parameters directly influencing the attainment of this objective for any given country. They also contribute to the formation of trends in energy markets, which have an impact on their immediate 01 EnergySecurity 4/18/11, 3:30 PM 2 [52.14.126.74] Project MUSE (2024-04-23...

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