Book excerpt: The Challenge of Energy Security in the 21st Century: Trends of Significance seeks to inform all those concerned about energy security, whether national, regional or international bodies, of certain factors which must be taken into consideration in developing their energy security policies and pursuing their respective objectives. Towards that end this book reveals certain significant trends of importance to the major energy-producing and energy-consuming regions. Through its unique analysis it sheds light on how such trends will affect the energy security policies of all the producers and consumers of energy, large and small, in one form or another, in the foreseeable future.