Concept of energy security in contemporary security studies

The term ‘energy security’ has been so ubiquitous that it seems transparent and understandable. But that is just an illusion – the usage of the term is controversial, often too holistic, indicating underdevelopment of the concept itself. Most diverse questions have been discussed under the term ‘energy security’ – they are, however, bound together only by the term ‘energy’ as their common denominator. In this paper, it is assumed that this concept is currently growing in importance as the consequence of a new role assigned to the gas trade between the EU and the Russian Federation since 2000, as an externality of the use of this trade in power politics, of its politicization and attempts at securitization. It will be shown that this concept is a semantically ingrained construct; as an analytical concept it is empty – its meaning is already contained in the economic security sector, and even more so in the (foreign) political security sector. Explication and redefinition of the concept of energy security in the current context contribute to the improvement of theoretical delineation and deeper understanding of empirical implications of its usage. As a discursive practice, the concept determines what is to be considered a problem, and it may cause difficulties in economic cooperation.