Introduction
Security is perceived a particularly valuable and safe value; it is the primary, essential and fundamental requirement. Security treated as an important subjective good which can be seen in the following categories: individual, group, national or international. Security involves fulfilling the requirements within the context of the general public: life, security, dignity, identification, freedom, tranquility, possession and confidence of development. From an individual perspective, gratifying necessity security is a circumstance of the human race’s survival, but it can also be an incentive for action and development. It is the main and important aim of its foreign policy from the point of view of the state. Pursuing certain aims is difficult, or it is always impossible, if the life of the state is threatened. The main goal of international relations is to maintain security and peace on a global scale, too.

National security is the efforts of governments to preserve the security of the nation, including people, economy, environment and etc. In general, it means the acts or obligations of state to protect the nation. National security was perceived as only military security in 15th century. It is the responsibility of the nation or state to protect its borders against the possible military or terror attacks. However, now there are many dimensions of national security besides military security. They are categorized as political, economic, information, ideology, environmental and lastly energy security.
National security depends on political security which refers to political stability. Another dimension of national security is ideological security. It is closely linked with national security since it is the security of a system of values and believes. Most important element of information security is a cyber security as a result of digitalization of the society. Cyberattacks are becoming more and more common and usually aimed at accessing confidential information; stealing money from consumers; or controlling business and economic processes. This is the reason why we should have protective systems, and programs. There is also an environmental security which is about achieving full safety from environmental dangers that occurred as result of human actions, such as ignorance, overuse of fossil fuels, mismanagement of natural resources and so on. Lastly, energy security is another significant dimension of national security. All of those dimensions of national security are important due to the fact that they all are interdependent. In this paper, the author is going to focus more on the energy security as a part of national security.

Energy Security Perceptions:
Energy security may seem like abstract, at the same time absolutely important phenomenon to describe. Current obvious risks in modern life make us think how fundamental it is. Without oil and in the next stage energy which generates electricity there would be no Internet age that is hard to imagine our modern life. All these dependences on energy security make us understand risks and requirements of it in the twenty first century. When energy cross the national borders then the term energy security emerges. While talking about the energy security it shouldn’t be understood only risks that energy affects, but also the interrelations of states how energy influences their whole national security. First glimpses on the importance of energy security was seen in 16th century when there emerged the need for wood for construction, but most dominantly for heating purposes, however energy security emerged as a crucial and fateful phenomenon during first world war when Winston Churchill made a historic decision on shifting their ships from coal to oil. However, this shift was not only about supplying ships with oil, but also to insecure oil supplies from then Persia currently Iran. Since 21st century there have been several concerns about energy security such as tight oil market, volatile prices, instability in some oil exporting countries, jihadist terrorism, the rebirth of resource nationalism, fears of scramble for supplies, the costs of imported energy and geopolitical rivalries. Energy security concerns are not limited with oil. If previously natural gas was seen as a national or regional fuel, nowadays with the extension of pipelines it becomes more global commodity. Electric power blackouts in North America in 2013, in Europe and in Russia increased the worries about the reliability of electricity supply systems. In China, India or in other developing parts of the world small shortages of electricity make us think about the security seriously. (5)
Referring to Daniel Yergin, characterizations of energy security range from the availability of primary energy sources to the stability of internal markets to the affordability at consumer level. However, this should be split for consuming states and producing states:
Energy Security for Producing States:
The typical definition of energy security for energy-exporting countries is to sell their energy resources as expensive as it can be so that they can take a benefit and create economic dominance. When we talk about the energy security for producing states, we should also mention four main elements which are protection of the infrastructure, diversification of the market, diversification of export routes, and lastly availability of empty storage capacity. Energy infrastructure enables the large-scale transportation of energy resources from exporting to importing countries. In addition, it makes possible to direct and manage the energy flow. So, anything that serves for transportation of energy resources from terminals to delivery places, including pipelines are called a system of infrastructure. This infrastructure needs to be protected from both possible physical and cyber-attacks. Diversification of market is another important element which should be taken into account in the energy security. Multiplying the energy markets eliminates the impact of possible disruptions by providing alternatives. Energy-exporting countries consider diversification process in terms of “security of demand” for their exports, so that they can generate economic growth and make revenues. (5) Diversification of market is not enough; there is also need for diversification of export routes. If producing state has a diversified market, but depends on single pipeline or route, then it means there is a serious energy security threat.

Energy Security for Consuming States:
Energy security for consuming states means to buy energy resources as much as they can with as cheap as it can be. So, their focus is first of all, on quantity, and secondly, on cheap prices. For consuming states, there are four energy security elements. It is almost the same with elements for producing countries, but they have some minor differences. First element is protection of infrastructure as it was for producing states. Again, importing countries need to protect that infrastructure from both physical and cyber-attacks because they use this infrastructure for receiving energy resources. Otherwise, in the failure of protecting infrastructure, consuming states will not be able to get their resources. For instance, if some armed conflict occurs in the territory of consuming states, it is a threat in states’ energy security policy. The second one is diversification of the sources. It has a significant role for particularly importing states concerning price factor. Another significant element of energy security is the diversification of import routes. It is about having diversity of import routes and pipelines for importing oil and other energy resources. Here as well, if consuming states depend on single route or pipeline, it means there is a serious challenge in the energy security of the importing countries. The reason is the fact that if the pipeline gets damaged, they will not be able to import anymore, and will use from the storage, of course in case they have. Final element in the energy security is availability of storage capacity. Unlike producing states, importing countries need a full storage capacity to use it in the case of any disruption. In case importing countries have only one importing route or pipeline and for some reason, for instance, natural disasters occur in the territory of consuming states and their supply has stopped, only way to deal with that challenge is to use from the storage. OECD countries has been practicing this strategy for many years, and in fact the main reason for establishing IEA was related to stockpiling strategy. (7)

Actors in Energy Security:
States play a significant role as actors in energy security. Attempts made by both producing and consuming states to diversify supply lead to the establishment of new type of countries in the energy sector which are named transit countries, such as Ukraine, Turkey. These countries are between exporting and importing countries and pursue different political interests as one of the main actors in energy sector. Besides states, companies’ role in energy security is also quite significant. Those companies are national oil companies (NOC), transnational oil companies, major and minor companies and lastly service companies. A national oil company (NOC) is an oil and gas company which is owned by state. Transnational or international oil companies are the ones that have transnational nature of the shareholders and have activities around the world. Energy actors are not only state and companies, but also organizations. Here as well, there are two types of organizations which are producing and importing. OPEC is considered as producing type of the organization while International Energy Agency (IEA) is an importing organization. Both of them are major actors in energy security. (4)

4. Threats and Risk Factors:
When we talk about energy security, we should not forget about the risks and possible threats. Risk factors and threats are inalienable part of the energy security issues. Those factors are classified as contingent and structural (2). Contingent risks are the risks that occur in an unexpected situation. We can also name those factors as accidental risks. The examples for contingent risk factors could be energy supply disruptions occurred as a result of terror attacks, armed conflicts, wars, revolutions, or other political matters in major oil exporting and importing countries and the ones caused by natural disasters, including earthquakes, tsunamis, etc. or any other events in the energy supply system. We should not also ignore the fact that cyber security has appeared as a new threat in the energy sector. There are also structural threats and risks factors which refers to the problems related supply-demand structure, as well as global politics and international economy. These types of threats are not occurring in unexpected situation, but formed through a time period.
Furthermore, there are ways to improve energy sector. The global best practices (global benchmark or standards) for energy sector reform can be considered as following:
- Unbundling - (industry restructuring) occurs when state owned utilities are separated into different generation, transmission, distribution sub-sector.
- Competition – to ensure price mechanism determines all prices based on supply and demand. By true economic cost to attract private investors and increase efficiency.
- Regulation – changing the role of state from owner to regulator. Determining incentive structure to attract private investors.
- Privatization – attract private participation and privatization to increase capital investment, competition, and efficiency that leads to lower prices for consumer
Global best practices explain inefficiencies of energy sector and gives solutions for them. However, it has critical arguments such as no real competition because of not being equally open to competition and private investment. A lack of competition may be balanced out by the efficiency gains of bringing experienced private sector management into the energy sector. (3)
There are also principles for maintaining energy security:
1. Diversification of supply
2. Resilience – sufficient spare production capacity, backup supplies…
3. Recognizing the reality of integration
4. Importance of information (6)

5. Conclusion:
Energy security was perceived as a part of economic, political and environmental security back in the days, it is accepted as a seperate notion within national security since it contains different elements. This notion is different for consuming and producing states so that importing countries focus on buying more energy resources as cheap as it can be while exporting countries want to sell their resources as expensive as it can be. If we exclude minor differences between them, we can say that for both producing and consuming states there are four basic elements of energy security, which are protection of infrastructure, diversification of energy markets, diversification of routes and availability of storage capacity. Even though states, including transit countries play a great role in energy sector, they are not the only ones so that companies like NOCs, IOCs, major/minor and service companies, as well as producing and consuming types of organizations are considered as quite significant actors in energy sector. However, we should not ignore the fact that threats and risk factors are inalienable part of energy security. This risk factors and threats are categorized as contingent and structural. While contingent factors are unexpected, structural risk factors are formed through some period of time. All in all, energy security is an important component of national security.

Keywords: national security, energy security, producing states, consuming states, threats and risks.

References:
1. A. Żukowski, M. Hartliński, W.T. Modzelewski, J. Więcławski, “Main Categories of National Security”, pp.366-375
2. Koyama K.,“A Discussion on Energy Security Threat and Risk Factors”, September 8, 2017 https://eneken.ieej.or.jp/data/7518.pdf
3. Macmillan, P., “Dynamics of Energy Governance in Europe and Russia,” Chapter 4: “Re-Thinking EU Energy Security: The Utility of Global Best Practices for Successful Transnational Energy Governance”
4. McPhersonc, C. “National Oil Companies: Ensuring Benefits and Avoiding Systemic Risks”
5. Yergin D., “The Quest”, 2005, p.56
6. Yergin D., “Ensuring Energy Security” , 2006, p. 69-82
7. Energy Charter Secretariat, “International Energy Security: Common Concept for Energy Producing, Consuming and Transit Countries”, March 2015 retrieved from: https://www.energycharter.org/fileadmin/DocumentsMedia/Thematic/International_Energy_Security_2015_en.pdf.

Şəbnəm Həsənova
Azərbaycan Respublikasının Prezidenti yanında Dövlət İdarəçilik Akademiyasının beynəlxalq münasibətlər və xarici siyasət
kafedrasının doktorantı

Enerji təhlükəsizliyi milli təhlükəsizliyin
mühüm elementi kimi
Xülasə
Məqalədə müəllif enerji təhlükəsizliyinin dövlətlərin milli təhlükəsizliyinin struktur elementlərindən biri olaraq həlledici yerə və rola malik olması faktından bəhs edir. Qeyd olunur ki, enerji təhlükəsizliyi bu gün də dünya dövlətlərinin bir nömrəli gündəm mövzusu olmaqda davam edir. Bununla yanaşı, müəllif onu da vurğulayır ki, terror təhlükəsi, bəzi ixracatçı ölkələrdəki qeyri-sabitlik, geosiyasi rəqabət, həmçinin ölkələrin iqtisadi genişlənməsini təmin etmək üçün enerjiyə olan ehtiyacı daha da artırır. Enerji təhlükəsizliyinin hər kəs tərəfindən qəbul olunmuş vahid tərifi yoxdur. Əgər inkişaf etmiş ölkələr üçün bu, əlverişli qiymətlərlə kifayət qədər tədarükün olmasıdırsa, ayrı-ayrı ölkələr bu konsepsiyanı fərqli şəkildə izah edirlər. Belə ki, enerji ixrac edən ölkələr öz ixracatlarında “tələbat təhlükəsizliyini” qorumağa çalışırlarsa idxal edən ölkələr daha ucuz enerji mənbələrinə sahib olmaq üçün rəqabətə girirlər. Məqalədə enerji təhlükəsizliyi problemində risklər və təhdidlər məsələsinə də toxunulmuşdur.

Açar sözlər: milli təhlükəsizlik, enerji təhlükəsizliyi, istehsalçı dövlətlər, istehlakçı dövlətlər, təhdid və risklər.

Шабнам Гасанова
Докторант кафедры международных отношений и внешней политики, Академии Государственного Управления при Президенте Азербайджанской Республики

Энергетическая безопасность как важный элемент национальной безопасности
Резюме
В статье автор указывает, что энергетическая безопасность играет решающую роль и роль как одного из структурных элементов национальной безопасности государств. Отмечается, что энергетическая безопасность продолжает оставаться проблемой номер один в мире. В то же время автор подчеркивает, что угроза терроризма, нестабильности в некоторых странах-экспортерах, геополитической конкуренции, а также потребность в энергии для поддержки экономического роста в странах возрастают. Не существует общего определения энергетической безопасности для всех. Если для развитых стран достаточно поставок по доступным ценам, отдельные страны по-разному интерпретируют эту концепцию. Таким образом, в то время как страны-экспортеры энергии стремятся поддерживать «безопасность спроса» в своем экспорте, импортеры конкурируют за более дешевые источники энергии. В статье также рассматриваются риски и угрозы энергетической безопасности.

Ключевые слова: национальная безопасность, энергетическая безопасность, страны-производители, страны потребители, угрозы и риски.