|
|
|
Sort Order |
|
|
|
Items / Page
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Srl | Item |
| 1 |
ID:
125517
|
|
|
|
|
| Publication |
2013.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
Energized by service members wounded and killed protecting fuel convoys in Iraq in the mid-2000s and stunned by the oil price spike in 2008, the Department of Defense (DOD) had already started to seriously address energy challenges when the Obama Administration took steps to accelerate these actions. Real-world events, a growing military realization of threats and opportunities, and an Administration intent on fostering American leadership in clean-energy innovation have coalesced to promote change across the military services in the energy domain. This has been particularly evident in the Department's efforts to lessen its oil consumption. However, the ability to turn policy into practice has met numerous challenges from within and without the defense establishment. The question remains whether the DOD will be able to move beyond oil in a significant way. By examining a series of US government policy documents and programs, this article seeks to analyze the motivations behind the drive by the DOD to reduce oil consumption, to identify the challenges in meeting this objective, and to analyze efforts underway by the Department. Given that replacing oil for the largest transport fleet in the world will take several decades, it will require a sustained leadership from senior military officials.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 2 |
ID:
137230
|
|
|
|
|
| Summary/Abstract |
Gazprom's utilization of offshore registration – or the moving of money across national boundaries for reasons other than of direct business benefit – has resulted in the creation of a web of subsidiary companies with opaque leadership and financial arrangements. Some of these subsidiary companies operate as intermediaries in the natural gas trade among the former Soviet states. Given that the gas trade within Eurasia has a long history of fixed contracts that move gas through a network of pipelines, why were intermediaries created, and why register them offshore? Using a critical reading of stateness as a space for transnational networks, and supported by mind-mapping software, we analysed the structure and operations of offshore gas intermediary companies between Russia and Central Asia dating from the break-up of the Soviet Union. We conclude that there were several purposes for using intermediary gas companies, from navigating trade among the newly independent states, to asset stripping, monopolizing markets, and obfuscating finance and ownership. However, the usefulness of intermediary companies to Gazprom may have expired, as a confluence of increased competition among suppliers, diversification of export routes, and economic stagnation has led to exporters and importers calling for their end.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 3 |
ID:
088889
|
|
|
|
|
| Publication |
2009.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
Taking the case of Georgia, this article considers the role of politico-economic networks in weakening the energy sector in a post-Soviet state. It is hypothesised that incentives, from financial gain to the provision of goods and services, encourage a multitude of actors to create an alternative system to the state. It concludes that in a weak state, networks have replaced legitimate channels of communication and no amount of foreign financial or technical assistance can make up for the lack of will among the stakeholders to develop an efficient energy system.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|