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This book explores the timely topic of energy security and international relations between the European Union and the Russian Federation. Pursuing a constructivist-discursive approach, it empirically analyses a corpus of energy discourses involving policymakers and representatives of the EU and the Russian Federation. Exploring various discursive meanings assigned to the material and technical character of EU-Russian energy relations, the monograph underscores how the identities and interests of both parties are strongly affected by the norms and values which frame the individual energy discourses.

This article focuses on the relationship between the EU actorness and theinternal and external dimension of energy policy in an effort toconceptualize the EU energy actorness. In this respect, the main goals ofthe article are two. The first is to identify the basic aspects of EU actornessand to define their interrelationship in energy policy. The second is toconceptualize individual criteria of the external and internal dimensions ofEU energy actorness and to analyze the possibilities of their use in thecontext of the discussion between conventional constructivism andrationalism. The intention is to create a modified framework incorporatingthe internal and external dimension of the EU's energy actorness,operationalized by a set of criteria that can be used to analyze the EUenergy policy and its relations. The article should contribute tounderstanding the issue of the EU's actorness and to deepening the debateon energy policy.

Tento editorial, stejně jako první tři texty v tomto čísle, je výstupem projektu Grantové agentury ČR s názvem "Vnitřní a vnější dimenze aktérství EU v energetických vztazích vůči Rusku a alternativním dodavatelům", GAČR 18-00902S.

The article focuses on confronting the Lebanon's Shiite movement Hezbollah with Israel in the field of energy. The aim of the article is to analyse the importance of energy in strategy of movement Hezbollah generally and specifically in confronting with Israel and motives and methods of the energy strategy of the Hezbollah. The primary method of Hezbollah action is to use or threat of violence consisting in threatening to attack on the Israeli energy sector to defend Lebanese energy wealth and deter its enemy from production of gas and oil in the disputed waters of the eastern Mediterranean. The main motive of Hezbollah's activities is especially strengthening of stable energy supplies and Israel's accusations of aggressive energy policy towards Lebanon.

This essay focuses on the global terrorist and militant group the Islamic State (IS), specifically on its use of terrorism targeting the energy sector as a strategic political instrument in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in 2014–16. The essay has two main thrusts. First, it analyzes the importance that the IS attributes to energy in general and, more specifically, to the strategy of terrorist attacks targeting the energy sector. Second, the essay describes examples, goals, and motives of terrorist attacks on the energy sector and the accompanying criminal activities conducted by the IS in selected MENA countries.

The article explores the energy security relations between Russia and the EU. The aims of this article are two. The first is to analyze the content and basic themes of the Russian security discourse on energy relations with the EU in 2012-2017. The second is to interpret the influence of norms and values in the energy security discourse on identity and interests of Russia in the studied period. Security discourse of the Russian Federation focuses on defending Russian diversification projects to strengthen EU energy security. In the security discourse, Russia in relations with the EU de-securitizes the issue of energy when it presents itself as the main and reliable partner and supplier of oil and gas to the EU.

The article discusses the relationship of the Islamist terrorist organization al-Qaeda to issue of the attacks focused on energy sector and their specific manifestations in the Middle East and North Africa. The first aim is to analyze the importance that al-Qaeda attaches to the attacks targeted at the energy sector. The second aim is to describe the main forms, examples, goals and motives of the attacks aimed at the energy sector realized by al-Qaeda in selected countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Algeria, Syria and Yemen. The third aim is to analyze impact of al-Qaeda attacks against the energy industry and infrastructure on the energy security.

The main aim of this article is both to analyze the importance of the terrorist attacks on energy infrastructure and industry for strategy of militant terrorist organization Islamic State against the background of the influence of Islam and to describe a specific example and manifestations of the terrorist activities focused on energy sector in the Middle East and North Africa. In the theoretical level, the article is based on the concept of terrorist attack on energy sector and relation between energy and Sunni Islam. In methodological level, the article is based on the case study method framing terrorist attacks of Islamic State on energy industry and infrastructure in Iraq, Syria and Libya.

The energy issue is a long-term one of the most discussed, controversial topics in relations between the European Union and the Russian Federation. The intention of the present article is an attempt to overcome the largely non-discursive and in the security conditions anchored way of looking at the energy interaction of the EU and the RF and through an integration discourse to analyze EU energy relations with Russia in the years 2004 - 2014. In the theoretical level, the article is based on a critical constructivism, which in relation to the discourse as the main concept reflects a number of fundamental knowledge. At the methodological level, the article is based on the discourse analysis as a basic methodological tool through which the author examines the EU text documents.

During the Arab Spring Revolution, when the protests against the Syrian government began in 2011, Russia was one of the strongest backers of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, backing its right to use force if necessary to prevent or put down an uprising. Currently, the Russian Federation is the power which has most prominently provided a diplomaticshieldforthe Syrian state and bolstered it witharms supplies, although Moscow talks about the need to "balance" between the warring parties in Syria. The main aim of this paper is to analyze the motives of the foreign and security policy of the Russian Federation in support of Syrian President BasharAssad in the background of Russian interests and influence of norms. At the theoretical level, the paper builds upon a combination of conventional constructivism and rationalism approaches, which in relation to the motives of Russian protection and defense of the ruling regime in Syria reflects a number of fundamental knowledge.