INDIAN SECURITY ENVIRONMENT AND WEST ASIA: THE CHALLENGE OF ENERGY SECURITY

Security in the contemporary context is a contested concept. The conventional notions of security today stand juxtaposed with non-military, comprehensive security studies including challenges like social security, economic security, environmental security, food security and ?Energy Security?. For a developing country like India, the geo-strategic location, regional equations, level of advancement and perceived notions of national interest, all impinge on security considerations. The trajectory of India's rapid economic growth is linked to the struggle to ensure energy security. The core problem is that India possesses only about 0.5% of the world's proven reserves of oil and 0.4% of the world's proven gas reserves, and hence is dependent on importing the same. The challenge therefore, is to ensure that this dependence on external supplies does not become vulnerability, increasingly because over 70% of these imports are from West Asia. The book therefore tries to unravel the entire Indian energy security quagmire in the backdrop of West Asian geo-politics and internal dynamics.