Hi GP students,
You may want to have a look at this article and useful resource from The Conversation.
It highlights ongoing developments in terrorist activities and how our energy production infrastructure may be exposed or vulnerable to attack. This will be relevant to those of you preparing topics on the following:
a. War and conflict OR Peace and Security
b. Alternative energy sources OR Environmental issues and challenges
Two questions from the previous A Level years Paper 1 which this information can be incorporated within would be:
1. 2015, Qn 10; ‘Should there be any controls over the production of energy when the need for it is so great?’
The Conversation article here illustrates the pragmatic concerns of balancing security with energy production in an energy-starved world.
The information here is therefore useful in illustrating a ‘there are compelling reasons to support’ controls over energy production: countries with access to energy resources such as nuclear energy may need to carefully weigh the economic benefits of developing energy exports against their ability to protect energy infrastructure from sabotage by extremist or terrorist elements
2. 2014, Qn 11; ‘Examine the extent to which expenditure on arms and the armed forces is justifiable in the modern world’.
The issues raised here are useful to illustrate a ‘strongly agree’ position: the increased level of threat from terrorists who may target energy infrastructure justifies the need for raising arms expenditure and training on armed forces to deal with unconventional threats in the modern world.