Conference "Energy Security in Southeast Asia and beyond", 20th until 22nd October, Singapore

The traditional notion of energy security has been based on the affordability, accessibility and adequacy of energy supplies in relation to national and global challenges. However, contemporary energy security focuses no longer solely on the security dimensions of supply, but has expanded to other non-traditional security issues such as environmental impact and socioeconomic developments. These issues cannot be addressed effectively solely on a national level. Ideally, there should be structured engagement between countries and regions on a institutional level. However, the current trend, is for most countries to engage energy security issues on a country-to-country basis. Engagement on a national and regional level is further complicated by competition for energy resources which increasingly underlies global conflicts, and is undermining democracy and human rights around the world. Energy security is one of the most important areas in which the concerns of the marginalized need to be heard. These decisions are increasingly being taken by a few and there is an ever increasing democratic deficit at both domestic and international levels. Therefore, efforts to mitigate this negative trend and the important role of civil society in this effort cannot be overlooked. In ordern to address the gap in democratic participation and to identify the contributions that civil society can make in energy security issues, this conference seeks to provide a platform for representatives from both Asia's and Europe's civil society organizations, decision makers, security analysts as well as leading academics from the field of energy security, with the aim of initiating a critical assessment of the various frameworks, if any, that exist between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and European Union (EU) member countries on energy security cooperation.

Find here as download the conference-program. The report will be soon available on this website.

Last changed: Apr 15 2010 at 12:46 PM