Paper short abstract:

The debate between land and sea power initiated in the beginning of the 20th century, by Mahan and Mackinder, remains present and actual in EU energy security strategy. In this work we´ve analyzed the caveats presented to the European Energy Security due to the threats in the maritime domain.

Paper long abstract:

In the beginning of the 20th Century, the classical geopolitics theories connected international relations to the access to resources and to changes in transport technology, debating land power and sea power.

Energy security, in its continental and maritime dimensions remains a very important issue in the European Union (EU) agenda, vis-à-vis its external energy dependence in Eurasia, in particular from Russia and the Caspian Sea, leaving EU dependent from pipelines and vulnerable to supply disruptions or to infrastructure failures, which can provoke large impact on its member states.

This dependence has been guiding EU's energy strategy to alternative energy markets, namely to the North of Africa and to the Gulf of Guinea, mainly transported by sea thus facing threats to maritime security, such as piracy, drug smuggling and illegal migration.

This paper focuses on understanding the role of continental and sea power classical theories on the maritime dimension of EU's energy security. First, it describes the theories presented by Alfred Mahan and Sir Halford Mackinder. Then, it identifies the traces of these theories within the EU maritime dimension of the energy security strategy. Finally, it analyses the threats in the maritime areas of interest for European Energy Security.

The paper concludes that threats and challenges in the maritime domain create a major caveat to the European Energy Security Strategy, endangering member states interests.