"This monograph explores the safety and security risks associated with the massive expansion of offshore oil and gas exploration and exploitation activity in the Asia-Pacific region. The pursuit of national and commercial objectives is generating the convergence of wider interests and uncertainties, and therefore significant and often shared risks. Risk mitigating options for action are presented that need to be urgently and collaboratively considered by all stakeholders." --Back cover.
Oil and natural gas, which today account for over 60% of the world’s energy supply, are often produced by offshore platforms. One third of all oil and gas comes from the offshore sector. However, offshore oil and gas installations are generally considered intrinsically vulnerable to deliberate attacks. The changing security landscape and concerns about the threats of terrorism and piracy to offshore oil and gas installations are major issues for energy companies and governments worldwide. But, how common are attacks on offshore oil and gas installations? Who attacks offshore installations? Why are they attacked? How are they attacked? How is their security regulated at the international level? How has the oil industry responded? This timely and first of its kind publication answers these questions and examines the protection and security of offshore oil and gas installations from a global, industry-wide and company-level perspective. Looking at attacks on offshore installations that occurred throughout history of the offshore petroleum industry, it examines the different types of security threats facing offshore installations, the factors that make offshore installations attractive targets, the nature of attacks and the potentially devastating impacts that can result from attacks on these important facilities. It then examines the international legal framework, state practice and international oil and gas industry responses that aim to address this vital problem. Crucially, the book includes a comprehensive dataset of attacks and security incidents involving offshore oil and gas installations entitled the Offshore Installations Attack Dataset (OIAD). This is an indispensable reference work for oil and gas industry professionals, company security officers, policy makers, maritime lawyers and academics worldwide.
Critically surveying the power of narratives in shaping the discourse on the post-Cold War Asia Pacific, See Seng Tan examines the purposes, practices, power relations, and protagonists behind policy networks such as the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific and the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council. The author argues that, filled with economic, social, and political meaning, the policy and academic discourses regarding the Asia Pacific and its subregions authorize and provoke certain understandings while preventing counternarratives from emerging.
This book uniquely employs risk and vulnerability approaches to advocate international policy options for enhancing maritime security cooperation in the Indian Ocean region. Understanding shared risks and common vulnerabilities that impact the achievement of mutual objectives in the oceanic domain present practical bases for progressing collective action. The Indian Ocean sea lanes are the world’s most important thoroughfares for energy resources (oil, gas and coal) and other cargoes. Secure maritime trade routes are vital to global, regional and national economies. Further, security challenges resulting from marine environmental degradation impacted by climate change are rising. Regional and extra-regional actors need to work more closely together to impose law and order at sea, control regional conflicts, respond to humanitarian crises and natural disasters, and conserve the marine environment. This book provides an invaluable resource for political leaders, policy advisers, academic researchers, military professionals, and students of international security and strategic studies.
Complexity, Security and Civil Society in East Asia offers the latest understanding of complex global problems in the region, including nuclear weapons, urban insecurity, energy, and climate change. Detailed case studies of China, North and South Korea, and Japan demonstrate the importance of civil society and ‘civic diplomacy’ in reaching shared solutions to these problems in East Asia and beyond. Each chapter describes regional civil society initiatives that tackle complex challenges to East Asia’s security. In doing so, the book identifies key pressure points at which civil society can push for constructive changes¯especially ones that reduce the North Korean threat to its neighbors. Unusually, this book is both theoretical and practical. Complexity, Security and Civil Society in East Asia presents strategies that can be led by civil society and negotiated by its diplomats to realize peace, security, and sustainability worldwide. It shows that networked civic diplomacy offers solutions to these urgent issues that official ‘complex diplomacy’ cannot. By providing a new theoretical framework based on empirical observation, this volume is a must read for diplomats, scholars, students, journalists, activists, and individual readers seeking insight into how to solve the crucial issues of our time.
Multilateral security forums in the Asia Pacific region have evolved, but bilateral defence alliances continue to form the principle pillars of national security for most nations in the region. This text presents a survey of issues confronting the Asia-Pacific region as it enters year 2000.
Asia-Pacific and the Implementation of the Law of the Sea reviews the legislative and policy approach taken by selected States to fulfil their obligations under the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention (LOSC). Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam are examined in detail together with an analysis of the United States’ prospects of ratifying the LOSC and its current approach to implement the international law of the sea. The book reveals areas of regional variation and consensus in legislative approaches to implement LOSC obligations, contributing to the progressive development of the law of the sea.
The Routledge Handbook of the South China Sea presents a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of South China Sea issues. It evaluates the dynamics of the latest developments and identifies factors that contribute to dispute settlement and a cooperative management regime of one of the most important seas in the world – one which not only contains rich marine resources and distinctive biodiversity but is also a critical sea route for global trade and communications. The Handbook is divided into six parts, each representing a focused area of enquiry: • History and geostrategic landscape • Sovereignty and maritime entitlements • South China Sea policies of major claimants • Natural resources and environment • Cooperation and institutions • Challenges and prospects Written by world-renowned experts and scholars, with specialisms from geography to international law, the volume’s 25 chapters contribute interdisciplinary perspectives, reflecting the impact of how South China Sea policies are shaped by national governments and international organizations. As such, the Handbook provides an authoritative reference to South China Sea Studies, useful for students and scholars of international relations, history, maritime and Asian studies.
Oil has long been and will continue to be at the centre of the global economy. This book explores the oil trade, energy (geo)politics, and new trends in regionalising or globalising the oil industry in the new era of international relations and economic competition. Energy pipelines carrying oil and gas from the well-head to the market, generally run through two or more states; and often from one continent to the other. This book maps the oil flowing through international and intercontinental pipelines and unravels the political, commercial and technological considerations behind the mapping of oil routes and forging of trade ties between nation-states. Through case studies from the major oil-exporting regions like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, the USA, Canada and Russia, it analyses the changing trends in their policies around oil trade, bilateral relations, energy, and security. It also considers the environmental protests around the continued dependency on oil, the teapot refineries under the Islamic State, investments, oil lobbies and insurrections to understand the broad picture of shifting regional and geopolitical realities and the scramble for vital resources. This comprehensive book will be of interest to students of the geopolitics of energy, international relations, security and strategic studies, energy studies as well as the media and with policymakers.
Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of figures -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- Part 1 Resource and routes -- 1 Natural gas: geology, geography and markets -- 2 Gas pipeline: commodity, container and carrier -- Part II The gas troika -- 3 Iran: gas pipelines under/after sanctions -- 4 Russia: an energy superpower? -- 5 Turkmenistan: pawn and player in the game of chess -- Part III The home truths -- 6 India: not a single transnational pipeline yet -- Conclusions: legacy, leads and lessons -- Bibliography -- Index
