Reconsidering the ontological foundations of international energy affairs: realist geopolitics, market liberalism and a politico-economic alternative

Energy Security: Challenges and Opportunities in the Caspian-Black Sea Region

“…The realist / geopolitical approach regards energy security as closely interlinked with violence and war, with states as main actors concerned about their survival translated into unperturbed access to resources and engaged in a zero-sum game. It argues, for example, that the scene of the future conflicts will be dominated by the struggle for resources, rather than by ideology or the global balance of power (Klare, 2008; see Stoddard, 2013). The focus is thus on international politics and energy security is defined mainly in the framework of the geopolitical competition of states over depleting resources, seen as a key ingredient of national power and national interest (Dannreuther, 2010), as a consequence of the combined effect of increasing global demand for energy and increasing concentration of energy supply in a few countries (Stoddard, 2013).…”

“…It argues, for example, that the scene of the future conflicts will be dominated by the struggle for resources, rather than by ideology or the global balance of power (Klare, 2008; see Stoddard, 2013). The focus is thus on international politics and energy security is defined mainly in the framework of the geopolitical competition of states over depleting resources, seen as a key ingredient of national power and national interest (Dannreuther, 2010), as a consequence of the combined effect of increasing global demand for energy and increasing concentration of energy supply in a few countries (Stoddard, 2013). Securitization occurs in the context of a threat perception by the consumer states and it contains a military component (Ciută, 2010;Langlois-Bertrand, 2010;Stoddard, 2013;Triantaphyllou, 2007).…”

“…Theorising Energy Security: beyond realist and neoliberalist approaches The section will attempt an incursion through both the mainstream, as well as through the critical efforts to theorise 'energy security', in the context of a rather scarce effort in the literature to provide more flexible and comprehensive understandings of the concept. The scholarship on energy security is relatively under-conceptualised (Stoddard, 2013) and there has been limited direct application of IR theories to understanding energy, energy-related conflicts and the patterns for competition and cooperation (Dannreuther, 2010). It mainly draws on the divergent interpretations between political realism and neoliberalism, transposed in the form of regarding energy security between geopolitics and market liberalism, both of them placing the inter-state political or economic structures at the core of their analysis (Ciută, 2010;Stoddard 2013).…”

“…The politicisation of the Russian natural gas exports to Europe and the shift from an economic interdependence to a political risk took place only recently, in the last decade, and occurred in the context of the EU's enlargement in 2004 and 2007 (Nies, 2011) and of the gas transit disputes with Ukraine (Terterov, 2010; see Sharples, 2013Sharples, ), in 2006Sharples, , 2009Sharples, and 2014 As such, energy security mainly focuses on the security of supply and on the affordable prices for the consumers, citizens and businesses, having "access to sufficient energy resources at reasonable prices for the foreseeable future free from serious risk of major disruption of service" (Barton et al, 2004: 5, see Winrow, 2007). Conceptualisation of energy security as a consumer-centric concept (Sharples, 2013), focused on the security of supply, has been feeding the theoretical fields of both political realism, concerned with the conflictual aspects of energy relations, as well as of neoliberalism/neoclassical economics, focused on the cooperative potential of energy relations at legal, economic and institutional level (Stoddard, 2013).…”

Energy, Capital as Power and World Order

“…Others are more explicit and focus on how international power is underwritten by access to fossil fuels (particularly oil) and investigate how energy and international conflicts are related in past, present and the likely future (e.g. Colgan 2013a and b;Elhefnawy 2008;Friedrichs 2013;Klare 2002Klare , 2004Klare , 2009Sprio 1999;Stoddard 2013;Stokes and Raphael 2010).…”