ABSTRACT
According to Daniel Yergin (1988: 11), energy security “is to assure adequate, reliable supplies of energy at reasonable prices and in ways that do not jeopardize major national values and objectives” (quoted in Downs, 2004: 22-23). The national values and objectives emphasized in the traditional study of energy security are state sovereignty and the proper functioning of the economy. As Erica Downs has noted, “Traditional thinking on energy security is state-centric, supply-side biased, overwhelmingly focused on oil and tends to equate security with self-sufficiency” (Downs: 2004: 23; also Fried and Trezise, 1993). As it will be seen, mainstream thinking in India and also China is characteristic of such a calculation.
