International Energy Politics: Actors, Institutions, Global Dynamics

Abstract

This Panel brings together scholars looking at the different aspects of energy politics on the international level, through the lens of international relations, International Political Economy, security studies and EU integration theory. Global energy politics has for decades been synonymous with struggle for oil, a power play between consumers and oil producing countries. While this remains the most important feature of the global market, environmental concerns and climate policy have had an impact, and today international energy politics is also about the growing share of renewable energy sources in the global mix. Emphasis on low-carbon and low-emission energy generation is also increasingly seen as a push towards nuclear energy, which might not be facing a global “renaissance”" as prophesized not long ago, but certainly is an important sub-sector where politics, economics and national security logics visibly converge. Since the ‘shale gas revolution’ and with technological innovation and investment in liquefied natural gas, once regional and pipe-bound gas resources are also becoming increasingly internationalized and play a growing role in interstate relations. The panel gathers papers that shall account for all of these processes from different angles.