Journal of Energy Security

Energy security is one of the most salient emergent issues that has forced its way onto nations' national security agendas.  From the 2010 US Quadrennial Defense Review to the national security strategies of the United Kingdom and the Russian Federation, energy and its security play a dominant role in shaping the security strategies of these and many other nations.  But integrating energy and national security is not an easy task.  Confusion often comes in weighing the human security impact of national security policy against environmental or climate change imperatives.  While all three issues (energy, environment and climate change) are not mutually exclusive, they all three have different departure points and focus areas.  This article explores how the gap between energy and national security policy can be closed with human security as the defining consideration in integrating energy i...

Violence in and around the Niger Delta has plagued Nigerian oil output for the past decade.  For Africa’s most populous state, this violence has cut oil production by one-third and is a not only an economic but a human tragedy for a country that bases 90 percent of its GDP on its hydrocarbon wealth.  Environmental activism and militancy have been the response from the tribal groups indigenous to the Delta region.   Among the various group active across the region, MEND or the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta is probably the best known.  In August 2009, Dr. Victor Ojakorotu contributed an initial article to the Journal of Energy Security entitled, “Militancy and Oil Violence in the Niger Delta.”  Since then, Victor and twelve other African experts who focus their research on the problems that plague the Delta have assembled their thoughts into a new book entitled, “Checkma...