First Forum Press, Boulder, CO, 2009, pp. 187, $59.00, ISBN 978-1-935049-05-0

• Avinash Godbole |
• November 2010 |
• Strategic Analysis

Nuclear energy, as we know it, was unleashed by nature at Oklo in Gabon, Africa, when uranium formed rings on its mountains billion of years ago. Natural uranium contains at least three per cent uranium. This uranium formed rings around the mountain and acted as fuel rods in a reactor. When rain water was run across the fuel rod, it acted as a reactor. The Oklo phenomenon was discovered only in 1972. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) saw fit to run an international conference on the subject.

• R. R. Subramanian |
• November 2010 |
• Strategic Analysis

Development prospects and economic growth in Pakistan, like in most other countries, will hinge on securing sustainable energy supplies. The Pakistan government has developed a strategy to enhance its energy production by 2030. This article explores the problems faced by the Pakistan government in optimising its use of indigenous energy resources and the implications that future plans to strengthen its energy security may have for its domestic and foreign policy.

• Sumita Kumar |
• November 2010 |
• Strategic Analysis

The eradication of poverty and prosperity depend upon the economic development of a nation which in turn is dependent on an adequate and continuous supply of energy sources. Hence, energy is the lifeline of economic development. The rise of South Asia in general and India in particular as a force on the economic scene is now widely acknowledged. India's growing population and expanding economy with the shift in focus from agriculture to the manufacturing and services sectors have led to an increase in energy intensity which has resulted in an unprecedented demand for energy sources.

• Bhupendra Kumar Singh |
• November 2010 |
• Strategic Analysis

India has embarked on a policy to balance its need for accessing strategic energy resources from the African continent with Africa's aspirations for greater skills and sustainable development. Sudan has turned out to be the gateway for India's energy quest in Africa. India's age-old ties with Sudan have been crucial in accessing oil from the country. New Delhi's close relations helped to assuage the initial hiccups

• Ruchita Beri |
• November 2010 |
• Strategic Analysis

What are the major trends that will shape the global energy future in the medium to long term, say up to 2030? The authoritative report of the International Energy Agency (IEA) issued in 2007, before the global economic slowdown of 2008–09, had predicted the world's primary energy demand growing by 55 per cent at an average annual rate of 1.8 per cent between 2005 and 2030. This was before the global economic crisis of 2008–09.

• Arvind Gupta |
• November 2010 |
• Strategic Analysis

The energy sector since the mid-2000s has acquired top priority in Russian state affairs, but since late 2008 it has also become the epicentre of the economic disaster that still continues to affect Russia. President Medvedev has effectively discarded the notion of Russia as an 'energy super-power' and is now focusing on 'modernisation' for Russia's development. But coherence of this course is problematic because the bulk of new investments must go into the energy sector in order to sustain the high revenues.

• Pavel K. Baev |
• November 2010 |
• Strategic Analysis

Following the recent economic crisis, concerns over the revival of trade protectionism have surfaced, with some countries imposing or threatening to impose highly trade-distorting legislation to help their domestic industries compete in world markets, raising the spectre of a potential trade war. This paper looks at the attempts by some of the developed countries to introduce trade measures using the issue of climate change as a Trojan horse, to ensure that they do not lose out to the emerging economies.

• Shebonti Ray Dadwal |
• November 2010 |
• Strategic Analysis

Katherine T. Harris (ed.), Geopolitics of Oil , Nova Science Publishers, Hauppauge, New York, 2009, pp. 165, US$69, ISBN 978-1606928103

Peter Maass, Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil , Allen Lane, London, pp. 228, £20, ISBN 978-1846142468

• Prashant Hosur |
• November 2010 |
• Strategic Analysis

With the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol expiring in 2012, time seems to be running out for a new successor agreement. The Protocol remains the most comprehensive attempt to negotiate binding limits on anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The long-term challenge, defined by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is to stabilise GHG concentration in the atmosphere at levels that would prevent interference with the climate system. There are, however, economic and social realities that drive anthropogenic GHG emissions.

• Uttam Kumar Sinha |
• November 2010 |
• Strategic Analysis