中国能源安全与战略利益生态.pdfVIP

China and Eurasia Forum Quarterly, Volume 4, No. 4 (2006) p. 97-116 © Central Asia-Caucasus Institute Silk Road Studies Program ISSN: 1653-4212 The Ecology of Strategic Interests: China’s Quest for Energy Security from the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea to the Caspian Sea Basin * Tarique Niazi ABSTRACT This article attempts to explore the ecological dimensions of strategic interests by examining China’s Asia-wide quest for key natural resources and safe seaways for their shipment. It takes a close look at three cases – one in the Indian Ocean region, the South China Sea region, and the Caspian Sea region – to explain interaction between natural resources and China’s emerging strategic interests in Asia. The article shows that Beijing’s quest for key natural resources underlies its economic and strategic alignments with the respective nations of Indian Ocean, South China Sea and Caspian Sea regions. The article implies that International Relations (IR) Theory and policy makers pay very close attention to the anchorage of strategic interests in the struggles over access and control of critical natural resources. Keywords • Energy Security • China • South Asia • Caspian • Central Asia • East Asia • International Relations Theory Introduction As industrial economies continue to be dependent upon fossil fuels and their safe shipping, security scholarship has come to define key natural resources and critical waterways as strategic interests.1 With competing claims on dwindling resources and their ever-riskier passages, the