The environment-energy security nexus: critical analysis of an energy 'love triangle' in Southeast Asia

Abstract

The mantra of energy security is regularly employed as an excuse for governing elites in the less affluent South to pursue large-scale energy projects that are often inappropriate and unnecessary for local development needs. This situation is exemplified in Thailand, Burma and Laos. Here the dominant classes have created an energy 'love triangle', whereby Thailand exports the many problems associated with cross-border energy projects to its more authoritarian neighbours while importing the resultant energy. This article employs critical security literature and the concept of earth rights to investigate these relationships and elucidate resultant linkages between environmental and energy security. It finds that, far from safeguarding local communities from depravation, these projects often exacerbate existing social tensions and conflict, hastening environmental degradation and intensifying various manifestations of insecurity.