Welcome to the first EUCERS newsletter – please find in this month’s edition… (click the stars to access the full-text version)
PREFACE
By Professor Dr Friedbert Pflüger, Director EUCERS
Every year thousands of students enrol on courses that aim to study the multitude of facets characterising the dynamics of current international relations. Their curiosity about the world stems, perhaps, from an instinctive understanding that the political, economic and social changes, which are taking place internationally have the
potential to affect their lives directly and profoundly. Armed conflicts, the threat of terrorism or weapons of mass destruction, the menace of global warming – are aspects of the same topic – international relations.
And so is resource security.
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EUCERS – FOCUS PIECE
Iraq, Oil and the Nobel Peace Prize
by Aura Sabadus
Iraq said at the beginning of December that it would join China and another 16 countries in boycotting the Nobel Peace prize ceremony for the Chinese human rights activist and dissident Liu Xiaobo.
The announcement did not seem to cause a stir in Western political, academic and journalistic circles who generally relish any opportunity to lecture against the world’s more benighted places where freedom of speech or individual liberty are yet to find a home.
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EUCERS ACTIVITIES
ENERGY SECURITY FOR EUROPE: THE EU AGENDA UNTIL 2050 – WORKSHOP 10.02.2011
The third workshop organised by the European Centre for Energy and Resource Security set out an ambitious aim – to articulate in clear terms the EU’s agenda for Energy Security to 2050. As the ongoing discoveries of conventional and non-conventional gas resources could cover 250 year worth of global gas production, while Europe itself is within reach of 70% of those proven gas reserves one question prevails: How to ensure that Europe gets a fair share of these resources which are equally coveted by southeast Asia?
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EUCERS DOCUMENTATION
EU Commissioner Günther Oettinger 10 February 2011 at EUCERS, Edmond J Safra Lecture Theatre, King’s College London, Strand Campus
Minister, Professor Frost, Professor Pflüger,
Distinguished guests,
Europe has been living in peace for the past 60 years. Our founding fathers understood long ago that energy security was key in creating and maintaining a peaceful Europe. Today, with our conventional energy resources becoming scarcer, we have to keep that spirit alive more than ever.
That is what you are doing, here, at King’s College where the energy security challenge is well understood. The fact that the European Centre for Energy and Resource Security is located at the Department of War Studies says it all: energy can be a powerful vector of cooperation and integration or a major source of conflict. In my address to you this evening, I will try to show how the EU energy policy is contributing to further integrating our continent and, at the same time, providing international stability through what I would call a “responsible use of energy”.
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EUCERS ANNOUNCEMENT
Expert Roundtable on Shale Gas – Shale Gas Strategy Paper
On 15 March 2011 EUCERS together with the Research Analysts Foreign and Commonwealth Office organise an expert roundtable on Shale Gas in Europe. 25 Experts from academics and business will discuss the potential of Shale Gas in Europe. The event is by invitation only; a policy paper on shale gas will be published after the event on our homepage www.eucers.eu.
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