Dr. Alexander Mirtchev Lecture - Geopolitics of alternative energy developments – the rethinking of modern resources geography’s reconfiguration of the political topology of energy.

1. Lecture 1: Geopolitics of alternative energy developments –
the rethinking of modern resources geography’s reconfiguration
of the political topology of energy
Dr. Alexander Mirtchev
Fall 2014
Lecture objectives and theses:
1. Energy resources at the crossroads of new capabilities and
benefits and new rivalries and confrontations
2. The role of energy in the reshaping of traditional
geopolitical dichotomies that underpin the path toward a new
equilibrium
3. Alternative energy developments shedding a new light on the
geopolitical disequilibrium
Theses illustrations and arguments:
Figure 1: Alternative energy resources distribution – the new
energy map
a) Solar energy (Average annual ground solar energy 1963-2005,
“Surface meteorology and Solar Energy,” Release 6.0 Data Set,
Clear Sky Insolation Incident on a Horizontal Surface, NASA,
2008, http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/sse/, accessed April 24,
2008)

2. b) Wind power (Global wind map, installed capacity and
production for lead countries, © OECD/IEA, 2013 “Technology
Roadmap: Wind Energy” 2013 Edition, International Energy
Agency, 2013,
http://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/W
ind_2013_Roadmap.pdf accessed June 2, 2014.)

3. c) Biofuels (Global Biofuel Production 2010 - top 7 producing
countries, Martijn Hoogerwerf, “Biofuels China: The Next Major
Producer?” April 12, 2012,
http://chinawaterrisk.org/opinions/biofuels-china-next-major-
producer/, accessed October 1, 2012. Source data from BP
Statistical Review of World Energy 2011)

4. Figure 2: Alternative energy production – regional positioning
Renewable Power Generation by Region (“Tracking Clean Energy
Progress 2013: IAE Input to the Clean Energy Ministerial,”
Report of the International Energy Agency, 2013,
http://www.iea.org/publications/TCEP_web.pdf accessed December
5, 2013)

5. Figure 3: Projected alternative energy production pointing to
the emerging geopolitical powers
Renewable energy capacity – top seven countries 2011
(Renewables Global Status Report, REN21 Issue Paper (Paris:
REN21 Secretariat, 2012)
Recommended reading:
John Agnew, Geopolitics: Re-Visioning World Politics (London: Routledge,
2003)
Simon Dalby, Creating the Second Cold War: The Discourse of Politics,
(London: Pinter, 1990)
Thomas Hobbes, “The Leviathan”, (Abingdon: Oxford University Press, 1998)
Henry A. Kissinger, American Foreign Policy 3rd edition (New York: W. W.
Norton & Company, 1977)
Karen T. Litfin, The Greening of Sovereignty in World Politics, (Cambridge:
MIT Press, 1998)
Alexander Mirtchev, “The Greening of Geopolitics: How the Alternative
Energy Megatrend will impact global geopolitical relations”, European
Energy Review, May 16, 2013
Alexander Mirtchev, “How Will the Ongoing Crisis in Europe Shape its Future
Geopolitical Role?” in Alexander Mirtchev, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Jeff
Lightfoot, Barry Pavel, Jonathan Eyal, Europe's Strategic Future:
Implications of the Eurozone Crisis, (Washington DC: Atlantic Council,
2013)
Peter Taylor, Political Geography: World Economy, Nation-State and
Locality, 3rd ed. (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1993)