Lexington Books American and Chinese Energy Security: A Grand Strategic Approach

This book explores the complex relationship between grand strategy and energy security by conducting a focused, comparative study on the United States and China. By including energy security as a component of grand strategy, the author is able to present an analysis of the complex, multifaceted approaches large consuming states take to secure their critical energy supplies. Inclusion of energy as part of the core strategic agenda increases explanatory power and provides insights as to how states may elect to pursue supply security under times of greater scarcity, or increased conflict. A ranking system is also developed, allowing a more systematic approach to inform this qualitative study. Review The survival of any country as a functioning society depends on having reliable sources of energy. Preserving access to energy is not simply an economic matter but a question of grand strategy. This informative book focuses on how China and the United States, both large importers of oil, secured their energy supplies between 1992 and 2013. It compares the evolution of both countries' strategies for guaranteeing oil security through shifts in policy and advances in technology. Opsal claims that the United States is well ahead of China in oil security on many fronts, but China is rapidly catching up.--Foreign Affairs American and Chinese Energy Security is an astutely analyzed and historically insightful investigation of how questions of energy security have fundamentally informed American and Chinese formulations of grand strategy. Opsal convincingly argues that oil-based security dilemmas will place these two nations on a collision course that will shape global geopolitics for decades to come.--Tyler Priest, University of Iowa Opsal emphasizes the importance of energy security in the grand strategy of great powers. Framed within grand strategy theory, the author focuses exclusively on oil and lucidly analyzes how divergent state structures, societies, market practices, and competing geostrategic objectives lead China and the U.S to secure supply via radically different state and market policies: China relies on a centralized, state-driven, neo-mercantilist approach; and the U.S.A. depends on a decentralized, market-driven, neoliberal method. These competing practices and geostrategic objectives from radically different societies may prove difficult to coexist peacefully. This is a superbly argued and written book that merits serious reflection.--Félix E. Martín, associate professor of politics and international relations, Florida International University About the Author Ryan Opsal is an energy policy manager for the State of Maryland and adjunct professor in international relations at Florida International University.