ABSTRACT
A combination of rapid economic growth and expansion of the middle class in many Asian countries has fueled sharp increases in energy demand. Naturalresource scarcity at home has led to increased energy imports, and sharpened concerns over energy security among the public and policymakers in these countries. 1 The focus in this chapter is on a single, important, and controversial dimension of energy security: overseas resource acquisition. The dramatic rise of Asian countries as acquirers of energy resources around the world has garnered intense media attention and policy debate, both at home and in two other groups of nations – those where they seek to buy energy resources, and those with which they compete for these resources in the global arena. The objective of the chapter is to take some of the heat out of the discussion and substitute this furor with the focused light of scholarly analysis.
