Operational Energy

Energy is an enabler of – and a constraint on – military power. Operational Energy provides military officers with knowledge and skills to plan effectively for the operational energy needs of their forces. Operational energy is the energy used to train, move, and sustain military forces and weapons platforms for military operations.

Energy has always played a role in battlefield outcomes. Over the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries the importance of energy in warfighting has grown. Today, energy is a critical pillar of national defense and a major factor in military power. In modern warfare, attaining energy superiority over one’s adversaries is a critical condition for success on the battlefield. Operational energy planning is an integral part of all combat and regular operations.

Operational Energy is a valuable and extensive resource for students of US Department of Defense courses in military universities, colleges, and academic training programs; scholars of geopolitics, and researchers on US and global energy security.

Operational Energy is to date the only textbook on defense energy planning, analysis, and strategy. It examines in detail fuel types, geopolitical issues, energy supply risks, market economic factors, and technology, presenting topics for future research. It also includes chapter summaries, main points for study, and case studies.

Alan Howard serves as the Associate Chair for the Energy Academic Group at the US Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), Monterey, California. Prior to joining NPS, he amassed over 15 years in international shipping and logistics, including a role with global responsibility as Director of eBusiness Development for a major multinational corporation. He has authored multiple policy papers and opeds, including on energy security and operational energy.

Dr. Daniel Nussbaum is the Chair of the Energy Academic Group and a faculty member in the Operations Research department, at Naval Postgraduate School. He has a Ph.D. in Mathematics, has served as Director, Naval Center for Cost Analysis, and has held other management and analysis positions with the US Army and Navy, in the US and in Europe. He has given testimony to committees of the US Congress. He is active in professional societies, is the Past President of the International Cost Estimating and Analysis Association, and he has served on the Board of the Military Operations Research Society.

Prof. Brenda Shaffer is an international energy and foreign policy specialist. She is a faculty member at the US Naval Postgraduate School. Prof. Shaffer is also Senior Advisor for Energy at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) think tank and a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center in Washington, DC.
Prof. Shaffer is the author of several books: Iran is more than Persia: Ethnic Politics in Iran (De Gruyter, 2022); Energy Politics (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009), Borders and Brethren: Iran and the Challenge of Azerbaijani Identity (MIT Press, 2002), Partners in Need: The Strategic Relationship of Russia and Iran (Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 2001). Shaffer is the co-author of Operational Energy (De Gruyter, 2024). She has also served as the editor of Beyond the Resource Curse (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012) and Limits of Culture: Islam and Foreign Policy (MIT Press, 2006).
Prof. Shaffer frequently provides research and expert counsel to international institutions, governments, energy companies, financial institutions, and regional security organizations. She has given testimony to several committees of the US Congress, including the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and to the European Parliament.