Impressum





Ausgabe 4-2009

Themenschwerpunkt:
Sicherheitsaspekte zukünftiger Rohstoff versorgung
Security Aspects of Future Resource Supply

INHALT

Editorial | download full article as pdf
Seite III

Themenschwerpunkt:
Sicherheitsaspekte zukünftiger Rohstoff versorgung
Security Aspects of Future Resource Supply

Beiträge aus Sicherheitspolitik und Friedensforschung

Neuerscheinung
Seite 277

Annotationen | download full article as pdf
Seite 279

Besprechungen | download full article as pdf
Seite 281

ENGLISH ABSTRACTS

Energy Transition and Security of Supply: OECD Countries
Edgard Gnansounou
For many decades, the production of industrial goods was concentrated in the Northern hemisphere, while energy resources were abundantly available in a limited number of developing countries and those with centrally planned economies. In this context, the security of energy supply was mainly understood as a secure procurement of cheap energy resources to the industrialised world. Military forces have been constantly upgraded and deployed to ensure geopolitical interests, including the control of energy resources. Nowadays, the depletion of oil and gas reserves, the growing concerns about global climate change along with the emergence of new energy demand centres in South and East Asia and the continuing political tensions in several major energy-exporting and -transit countries raise the question of possible alternative strategies to safeguard global energy security. It is vital to change the old paradigm. But what could be the new paradigm? This paper attempts to contribute to this debate.

Obama’s Toughest Challenge, America’s Energy Crunch Comes Home
Michael T. Klare
A brief assessment of future options for the supply of energy in the United States demonstrates that President Obama will face an extraordinary challenge in attempting to overcome the nation’s long-term energy crisis. His natural inclination has been to make a series of modest gestures toward ‘green energy independence’. But these have been wholly insufficient. In order to meet the energy crisis, a White House-led initiative on the scale of the Manhattan Project that produced the first atomic bomb is needed. Its principal goals should be to drastically reduce the contribution of oil and coal to energy supply in the United States, increase the contribution of renewable energy and demilitarize the reliance on imported oil.

Die Ressourcensicherung von NATO und EU, Sind die transatlantischen Akteure Partner oder Konkurrenten im auslaufenden fossilen Energiezeitalter?
Thomas Roithner
The war in Iraq was symbolic for a military approach to meeting the demand of western countries for resources. A reduction of global energy policy to military instruments and alliances in global energy policy carries dangers of securitization. Among members of the EU, there is a shift from strategic planning towards concrete military missions, with the EU seeing itself as a ‘global player’. A military dimension to the EU energy policy is increasingly taking shape. Co-operation between the US and the EU within NATO as an ‘Energy-NATO’, however, is not on the horizon. Differences and competing interests on both sides of the Atlantic are too large.

Die geopolitische Dimension der Ressourcensicherheit – eine wachsende Herausforderung für Deutschland und Europa
Heinrich Kreft
Mineral raw materials are a key factor for sustainable growth in Germany and the EU. Unprecedented demand in particular from China has affected an increase in prices – a trend which is likely to continue. Germany and the EU are highly dependent on imports, including many high-tech minerals. Concerns that arise are thus the stability of producer countries, free access to raw materials and how to assist producer countries in managing resource extraction in a sustainable manner and to the benefit of their citizens. Resource security is a responsibility of private companies. But in order to address the growing political issues, an integrated approach is needed at the national, European and international level, which involves diplomacy, trade and development, as well as competitiveness, environmental and social policies.

Präventive Ressourcensicherheitspolitik. Initiativen und Anforderungen an ein Global Governance-System
Raimund Bleischwitz
Resources of strategic importance are supposed to take centre stage in future conflicts. On this background, the author argues for the implementation of a preventive resource security policy in form of a multi-level approach that systematically includes non-governmental stakeholders. The main contribution of this article is the identification of some policy approaches and international initiatives relevant for a preventive resource security policy. In conclusion, the crucial importance of a global governance system is emphasized which includes an international agreement on sustainable resource management. .

‘What’s Mine is Mine, What’s Yours is Negotiable’: Self- Sufficiency versus Interdependence in Energy Strategy
Alyson J. K. Bailes
Energy security presents several paradoxes including the fact that owning large energy resources may be a source of instability, while a properly managed interdependence of producer and consumer can prove stabilizing. Oil and gas wealth is already known to be linked to failings in economic development and security. Countries that seek to maximize native production from nuclear power face physical and proliferation risks, while large-scale renewable projects raise their own issues of safety and civil freedom. Interdependence based on producers’ comparative advantages makes more economic sense and may also force partners to overcome international problems that would otherwise fester into something worse.

Perspectives on War, Disentangling Distinct Phenomena: Wars and Military Interventions, 1990-2008
Sven Chojnacki, Maurice Herchenbach and Gregor Reisch
Military interventions are a common element of wars between and within states. Yet, there is no agreement about how these two phenomena are related and about how to define and code interventions. Departing from the assumption that incorporating military interventions into the scientific study of war allows us to better assess the qualitative transformations of violence over time, we present and compare empirical developments and discuss different concepts of military interventions. In addition, we present our data on wars worldwide for the period from 1990 to 2008 and discuss in more detail the trends and events for 2008.

Die neue US-Strategie für Afghanistan und Pakistan
Thomas Horlohe
The Obama Administration’s new AfPak-Strategy implements the strategy change long asked for by security experts and the military. Striving to integrate military with non-military means, to engage neighbouring and regional powers, and emphasizing the development of Afghan security forces, AfPak offers a far better chance at progress in addressing the security challenges in and around ‘Pashtunistan’ than the non-strategy pursued by the Bush Administration. However, AfPak commits only limited additional military forces, sets very ambitious force-goals regarding the Afghan National Army and struggles to balance and integrate escalating military action with the civilian reconstruction effort. In particular AfPak offers little in terms of fighting corruption or providing alternatives to the poppy-economy. In escalating the anti-Taliban campaign in Pakistan, AfPak takes considerable political risks. Furthermore, AfPak seems to be undecided which strategic objective to give priority: ‘The War on Terror’ or sustained nation-building. Blending both and making the latter the prerequisite for the former has little appeal as an exit strategy.

UNRWA: Challenges for Humanitarian Aid in an Increasingly Sensitive Political Environment
Laura Ryseck and Margret Johannsen
The Gaza War once again highlighted the difficult role of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Since its creation 60 years ago, UNRWA has developed into the largest provider of social services for the Palestinians, as well as into the main employer of Palestinian refugees. However, the agency carries out its work in a highly politicised environment, having led to disapproval of some of its activities and even a general questioning of its work. Especially in the Gaza Strip it has been subject to severe criticism. This article discusses the challenges that the agency is facing in the light of failed peace negotiations, growing demands and a chronic shortage of funds, the increasingly sensitive political environment and the serious humanitarian situation that developed in the aftermath of the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007.

Völkerrechts und Verfassungsbegriffs? Dieter S. Lutz-Vorlesung 2009
Knut Ipsen
The article discusses the current debate on the concept of defense in the context of international law and Germany’s constitutional order. These aspects are often only insufficiently considered, despite their forming the basis for how a state is to react against an attack by another state. Whether or not the attacked state should engage in the use of force or the threat thereof is thereby of paramount importance. The definition of defense plays a role as well. Equally interesting is the question of how collective defense mechanisms such as NATO can be brought together with specific legal norms of single states, especially when different defense concepts are used. The article discusses in particular what can constitute a state of attack, who is an aggressor and whether or not constitutional and international law issues can in principle be combined under common guidelines.