Activities
'Energy Security' section of the IIPS is dealing with energy-related issues, such as energy security and energetics in general, within both Czech and global contexts. Emphasizing on keeping scholarly objectivity, its researchers publish scholarly and popular outcomes - scholarly papers, analyses and conferences among others. These activities are led by respect of multidisciplinary nature of energy-related issues. Energy security section attempts to step outside one narrowly defined field and use knowledge from diverse fields of international relations, political science, economics and technology to achieve best possible results.
As a part of the IIPS MU, the Section often works on research projects for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, as well as Ministry of Industry and Trade, but also Visegrad Fund.
Thanks to connections between IIPS and Masaryk University, members of the Section are also teaching courses focused on energy issues at the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University. These courses include Energy Security in the Globalization Era, Energy Security of the EU and USA, Energy Security of the Asian Countries and Russia and Energy Security of the Czech Republic.
Research Areas
Theory and Conceptualization of Energy Security
The research focuses on the definition of the concepts and theories linked with energy security in a way that would be practically applicable within number of approaches, including economic, technical and political science.
Energy Security of the European Union
Emerging common energy policy of the EU influences energy situation of the Mem-ber States up to a significant extent. Its thorough reflection is therefore one of our priorities.
Energy Security of the Czech Republic and the V4 Countries
The Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia share many energy-related priorities and interests, starting from securing energy supplies up to prospective
cooperation on the EU level. The Energy Section analyzes these issues using numerous contacts for partner institutions and companies in particular countries.
Energy Security of Asia and Russia
World oil and natural gas markets are not a domain of traditional Western consumers anymore. Due to the economic growth of China and India, the need of these
countries to support their economic boom by sufficient and reliable energy supplies at affordable prices grows. The position of Russia as an energy great power between Europe and Asia is getting more important as well. The Section therefore also focuses on mutual interactions of these players.
Unconventional Natural Gas Sources and the LNG
New sources of natural gas led by shale gas and LNG substantially shape the economic and geostrategic balance between suppliers and consumers. The Energy Section has monitored this topic since its beginning and significantly influences its discourse.
Current Projects
Unconventional natural gas in Eastern and Central Europe
The aim of the project is to analyze potential, circumstancies, and consequences of unconventional natural gas production in the region. Special attention is paid to Poland as a crucial actor for the Czech Republic in the given context and as a country with relatively highest potential for unconventional natural gas production in Europe. The final outcome of the research will provide various potential scenarios of the future development concerning unconventional natural gas production in the region. Finally, possible consequences and concrete recommendations will be formulated for the Czech Republic.
Energy Security of the Czech Republic and EU Energy Policy
The project assesses the impacts of new transit gas pipeline infrastructure on the security of supplies to the Czech Republic and other V4 countries. It also deals
with the impacts of Treaty of Lisbon on energy policy as such. The Section presented number of scenarios corresponding with particular routes of supplies and further evaluated them using formal modeling. The study resulted in the choice of economically optimal distribution of supplies within the infrastructure network.
Russian Activities in LNG-Exporting Countries
The Energy Section assesses the strategy of Russian Federation for the purposes of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic. It deals with Russian
strategy on the natural gas and LNG markets as well as in countries that belong to the most important LNG producers (f. e. Qatar and Northern African exporters).
Energy Cooperation between the Czech Republic and Poland
The topic of Polish-Czech energy relations belongs to the long-term interests of the Section. In 2010, this research was supported by the Czech-Polish Forum.
The aim of this branch of our research is to analyze both bilateral cooperation on particular topics and multilateral cooperation on the EU level.
The Future of Druzhba Oil Pipeline
The Energy Section follows up to a successful project from 2010 and deals with the topic of the future of Druzhba pipeline with regard to Polish and Czech interests. The project is supported by the Czech-Polish Forum and its aim is to evaluate the level of threat to national interests of both countries and to come up with possible scenarios.
Trilateral Conference
The core of the project is organization of a trilateral international conference of the Czech Republic, the Republic of Poland and the Federal Republic of Germany
which will open the debate of prospective development of nuclear power plants in the Czech Republic and Poland. It will also communicate essential information
on the construction to the media representatives from given countries.
V4 Working Group on Energy Security
The Energy Section participates in the activities of a Working Group within the wider initiative named „V4 Think Tank Platform". Its goal is to formulate recom-
mendations for increase in energy security of the Visegrad countries.
