Seminars Series: Abstract

2.00pm
August 20 2009
APCD Lecture Theatre, Ground Floor, Hedley Bull Centre, Bldg # 130, Garran Road, ANU

The 'New' Geopolitics of Energy
Emeritus Professor Stuart Harris, Department of International Relations, Australian National University

The purpose of this seminar is, first, to remind ourselves of the importance of economic change and policies to geopolitics; and, second, to note various new dimensions to energy issues that I refer to as the ‘new’ geopolitics of energy. The reality that oil and natural gas are strategic commodities, as the US rejection, largely on nationalist and security grounds of the Chinese oil company (CNOOC)’s bid for Unocal, reminds us, is by no means new though it now has a new intensity.

We have increasingly accepted that you cannot, or at least should not, look at energy without looking at politics; my point here is to ask whether you can now look at international politics without looking at energy. While these new geopolitics may not lead to the dramatic events seen by some observers there will undoubtedly be consequent and significant changes in the international system and the relations among major states in it including in the Asia-Pacific region.