| Summary/Abstract |
On the eve of the World War First, Winston Churchill made a historic decision to shift the power source of the British navy’s ships from coal to oil. He intended to make the fleet faster than its German counterpart. But the switch also meant that the Royal Navy would rely not on coal from Wales but on insecure oil supplies from what was then Persia. Energy security thus became a question of national strategy. He said, “Safety and certainty in oil lie in variety and variety alone and the key to energy security has been diversification.” Since Churchill’s decision, energy security has repeatedly emerged as an issue of great importance and it is so once again today.
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