Energy Development and Export: A Natioanl Security Issue

Energy Development and Export:
A National Security Issue

Sidney E. Dean, Editor

Hampton Roads International Security Quarterly
Volume XIV, Nr. 3 (July 2014)

Energy security has always been a strategic issue, beginning with the need for cavalry-based armies of antiquity to ensure a steady supply of fodder. Both world wars of the 20th Century underscored the essential nature of coal and oil, both to fuel the war machine and to ensure the homefront economy continued to function. The strategic importance of the Middle East which has manifested itself since World War II is largely the result of western economies’ demand for petroleum outstripping their own regional supplies. As non-Western regions’ economies grow, so grows the global demand for energy security.

This issue of Hampton Roads International Roads Quarterly focuses on energy production and supply, including the potential for the United States to improve its geostrategic position though export of Liquified Natural Gas, especially to Asia. The role energy exploration and development plays in the 21st Century iteration of the “Great Game” for influence in Central Asia is also discussed.