Eleventh Global Studies Conference

Abstract

As new national centers of economic and military power develop and as status quo powers seek to maintain their power position in the world, the search for energy security (having access to adequate and predictable energy supplies at reasonable and predictable price levels) is a dominant feature of international politics. Nations cannot possess and project power unless they have energy security. Energy inferiority is nationally unacceptable. As is the case with the United States, Europe, and Japan, much of Chinese foreign policy is centered on the search for energy security. This search for energy security has significant implications for the possibilities of peace in East Asia as well as the world. The politics of scarcity brought on by the search for energy security can be as great a threat to peace as is military aggression. The paper examines how China’s search for energy security produces international conflict and how it can possibly promote regional integration and peaceful cooperation. It also addresses the international implications of China’s search for energy security, the potential clash between China’s and the Unites States’ search for energy security, and the extent to which the Chinese search for energy security can serve as a model for other countries.