This book explores energy securitization in Azerbaijan through a sociological approach that combines discourse with a practice-oriented analysis. The study focuses on the national, international and private actors involved in the labour of energy security and their diverse sets of practices. Its empirical findings indicate that in Azerbaijan, energy securitization lacks the unitary and homogeneous character of its ideal type. Its heterogeneity interlaces internal security with external security, military with civil, defence with enforcement, coercion with control. It relies on surveillance an ... More

This book explores energy securitization in Azerbaijan through a sociological approach that combines discourse with a practice-oriented analysis. The study focuses on the national, international and private actors involved in the labour of energy security and their diverse sets of practices. Its empirical findings indicate that in Azerbaijan, energy securitization lacks the unitary and homogeneous character of its ideal type. Its heterogeneity interlaces internal security with external security, military with civil, defence with enforcement, coercion with control. It relies on surveillance and policing technologies as much as on maritime defence and counterterrorism; it intertwines the national and the international, as well as the public and the private domains of politics; it builds ties amidst manifold security actors and institutions that belong in different social universes; it merges security logic and neoliberal rationales and techniques. Energy securitisation encircles local dynamics and structures into patterns of international cooperation and corporate strategy. The rhetoric emphasis and the routinized character of energy security practices have trivialized any possible alternative and made invisible its costs. In particular, this book reflects on the multiple forms of abuse and violence and the poor energy choices tied to the processes of energy securitisation.