Britain's Energy Security in a Multipolar World

能源政策旨在实现与环境、社会、经济和安全问题有关的一些相互联系但不一定互补的目标。能源安全的重要性源于能源在日常生活和商业生活的各个方面所起的关键作用。化石燃料，特别是石油和天然气，是支撑现代社会的能源资源。这些资源既可作为燃料（使运输、光和热成为可能），也可作为生产和分配经济福利和发展所必需的商品和服务的基本投入以及其他资源。能源供应链中断或不安全的经济和社会影响可能非常严重。能源世界正在迅速变化。对气候变化的担忧正在制约能源政策。与此同时，新的世界经济和政治参与者，如俄罗斯、印度、中国和巴西，已经导致了全球范围内的多极力量平衡。这些权力需要更多的资源，包括石油和天然气。这导致了油价的上涨，以及人们对未来油气供应和价格的担忧，并加速了战略联盟微妙平衡的变化。本提案旨在分析英国能源安全的能源政策、国际关系和供应链政策之间的相互关系。它分析了这些学科中的能源安全政策在多大程度上表现出弹性、稳定性、持久性和稳健性（斯特林，2008年之后）。从某种意义上说，能源安全是一个非常现实和紧迫的问题。灯必须一直开着；石油必须流动才能满足需求。然而，维持石油供应的经济和技术需求，以及维持石油供应的国际关系和政治问题，通常是分开处理的。该提案的假设是，如果以一种更加相互关联的方式处理这些问题，英国的能源安全将得到改善。通过将能源政策、国际关系和供应链分析的不同学科结合在一起，该研究集群将分析能源安全的各种时间和维度方面，这是能源政策的一个复杂领域。该提案的“新”或“独特”元素是将三个重叠的学科研究领域的专业知识结合起来，以解决能源安全问题：能源政策、国际关系和供应链研究。如上所述，长期以来，在能源界讨论能源安全或不安全的内部和外部来源之间一直存在着区别。这导致了英国能源安全政策的以下逻辑：(1)必须处理短期能源安全问题，主要是经济和技术问题，以便维持电力供应：例如，可变功率输出问题；并确保适当的激励措施，以鼓励在运营和维护以及新基础设施方面的投资。与此同时，(2)它试图通过(a)减少能源需求和(b)转向低碳技术，包括在特别重要的运输部门，来摆脱对石油和天然气的依赖。然而，能源政策辩论在纳入新的或替代的方法来分析和解释不断变化的国际环境及其对国内能源安全的影响方面的能力仍然有限。该研究集群将探索英国如何改善与能源供应国的战略、灵活关系；并在战略能源供应链(a)石油和天然气（正如它已经尝试的那样）以及(b)短期到长期的资源和低碳技术（及其组成部分）中发展更大的弹性，以实现从化石燃料向低碳经济的转变。

Energy policy aims to fulfil a number of inter-linked, but not necessarily complementary, goals related to environmental, social, economic and security concerns. The importance of energy security derives from the critical role that energy plays in all aspects of every day and business life. Fossil fuels, particularly oil and gas, are the energy resources which underpin modern society. These serve both as fuels (to enable transport, light and heat) but also as the basic inputs, along with other resources, for manufacture and distribution of goods and services necessary for economic well-being and development. The economic and social implications of breakdown in, or perceived insecurity of, energy supply chains can be very severe. The energy world is rapidly changing. Climate change worries are constraining energy policies. At the same time, new economic and politcial world actors, such as Russia, India, China and Brazil, has led to a multipolar balance of power within the globe. These powers require more resources, including oil and gas. This has led to increasing prices and concerns over the future availability and price of oil and gas, and has precipitated changes in the delicate balance of strategic alliances.This proposal aims to analyse the inter-relationships between energy policy, international relations and supply chain policy for Britain's energy security. It analyses the extent to which energy secure policies within those disciplines exhibit resilience, stability, durability and robustness (after Stirling, 2008). Energy security is, in one sense, a very practical and urgent issue. The lights have to be kept on; oil has to flow to meet demand. However, the economic and technical demands of keeping the lights on and the international relation and political aspects of keeping the oil flowing are generally dealt with seperately. The hypothesis of this proposal is that Britain's energy security would improve if they were dealt with in a more inter-linked manner. By bringing the different disciplines of energy policy, international relations and supply chain analysis together, this research cluster will analyse the various temporal and dimensional aspects of energy security, a complex area of energy policy. The 'new' or 'distinctive' element of this proposal is to bring together three overlapping disciplinary research areas of expertise to address the problem of energy security: energy policy, international relations and research about supply chains. As discussed above, there has long been a distinction within the energy world's discussions between internal and external sources of energy security or insecurity. This has led to the following logic of British policy towards energy security: (1) short-term energy security questions, primarily economic and technical, have to be dealt with so that the lights stay on: for examples, questions of variable power output; and ensuring appropriate incentives to encouraging investment in operation and maintenance and new infrastructure. At the same time, (2) it atempts to move away from dependence on oil and gas by (a) reducing energy demand and (b) moving over to low carbon technologies, including within the particularly important transport sector. However, the energy policy debate is, as yet, limited in its ability to incorporate new, or alternative, approaches to analysing and explaining evolving international contexts and their implications for domestic energy security. The research cluster will explore how Britain could improve their strategic, flexible relationships with energy supply countries; and also develop greater resilience in the strategic energy supply chains (a) for oil and gas (as it already attempts to) but (b) for the resources and low carbon technologies (and their components) in the short through to long term to enable the move from the fossil to low carbon economy.