As energy has become one of the crucial factors in ensuring the economic growth and the sustainable development of people, nations, societies and, ultimately, human civilisation in the 21st century global scenario, there is a pressing need for treating energy as a strategic commodity and for analysing national, regional and global strategies concerning energy. This is an attempt to debate and discuss various facets -- economic, technological and political -- of such strategies, and at the same time, to encompass concepts, like energy security and energy diplomacy, that form significant components of such strategies. Strategising of energy is an issue that is inextricably linked with the domestic and foreign policies of a nation or a region, and it is characteristically futuristic, as strategies are supposed to be made with a long-term perspective. Contemporary Asian realities serve as the perspective of such an analysis for several reasons. Asia is the home of two fast growing and energy-thirsty countries like China and India, as well as Japan and the ASEAN countries. There are at least three energy-producing regions in Asia that are crucial for global energy security, like West Asia, the traditional one, two upcoming regions of Central Asia and the area around South China Sea. The Indian Ocean is one of the most important energy transit routes for international energy transport. Even the smallest disruption in the production and transport-chain of energy within Asia has the potential of upsetting the global energy balance. This volume attempts to focus on a number of significant issues concerning the theme of strategising of energy. Contributors analyse, debate and discuss the questions from different viewpoints and different angles. Thus, this volume represents a wide spectrum of views-from a scientist's vision of a world with cleaner energy, to the strategist's comments on solutions to national energy issues; from journalists' views on the development of governmental policies on energy, to academicians' analyses of regional energy strategies; and from historians' analyses of the restructuring of the national energy infrastructure and the re-prioritising of national energy strategies, to debates on national, regional as well as maritime energy strategies by specialists on international relations.

For the world, the disintegration of the Soviet Union means the end of the Cold War rivalries between two rival power-blocs, led by the US and the Soviet Union. For Russia, it means, the loss of its earlier superpower status and the beginning of the process of adjusting itself with a new world order. But, most important, Russia became one of the fourteen member-states of the organization, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a new entity that was born in place of the USSR. The post-Cold War era signifies, for Russia, a journey to adjust itself to new realities- a new international strategic scenario, the rise of new powers, and its own diminished strength. At the same time, the journey marks Russia's search for a new status in the international order of powers. To attain that goal, Russia felt it absolutely necessary to stay relevant in its immediate neighbourhood and the focus of attention became the Central Asian region, with which Russia shared a common history for nearly two hundred years and still now, they are interdependent and interlinked by their common security concerns in various ways. This book attempts to study the development of Russia's relations with the newly independent, sovereign states of Central Asia in the post-Soviet, post-Cold War context. It argues that unlike during the Tsarist past, in the post-Soviet era, Russia tries to engage the Central Asian Republics in multifarious ways and the development of three such bondings between Russia and these Republics in the spheres of security, energy and migration is analyzed in this study. This book also focuses on the post-Cold war context, as a number of global and regional powers are involved in the Central Asian region as the region is rich in energy resources and can act as a viable trade and transport corridor between Asia and Europe. So, Russia now does not enjoy the advantage of being the only power as the countries of the region have the option of choosing partners, according to their own choices and necessities. This changed context of competition adds a significant dimension to the development of Russia's engagements with these states.