Comparative Responses to Energy Insecurity: Diverse Approaches and Implications for Cooperation

1. NS4960 Summer Term 2019Fuels Paradise, Chapter 1The Puzzle: Diverse Responses to Energy Insecurity

2. Overview • 1970s saw a big increase in concerns over energy security • Major countries undertook major reviews of their energy policies • Initiated significant changes • As in 1970s 2000s saw proposals for additional efforts within International Energy Agency (IEA), NATO, and the European Union (EU) • Two periods not that comparable • 1970s concern mainly over high oil prices and uncertainty about supplies • 2000s much more diverse concerns

3. Diversity of Concerns • U.S. focus continued to be on reducing dependence on foreign oil • France it was aging nuclear power plants • U.K. the problem was how to manage transition from self-sufficiency in fossil to being a net importer of oil, and especially gas • Germany energy security worries centered on the reliability of foreign natural gas supplies, especially from Russia • As a result of these differences the responses varied considerably

4. Different Approaches I • Despite common interests in energy efficiency and diversifying energy supplies significant differences in approaches • Emphasis on government intervention • Market liberalization, • Nuclear power, • Renewable energy sources and • Foreign policy initiatives • Even in the 1970s developed democracies responded to energy insecurity in different ways • Distinct mixes of external and internal policy instruments to address their concerns

5. Differences in Approaches II • Major differences in • Development and promotion of alternatives to oil, such a as nuclear power and gas • The reduction of energy consumption, energy efficiency • Stances toward the oil-export regions of world especially in Persian gulf • Differences reflect limited degree of cooperation even under the IEA wich was established expressly for that purpose

6. Objectives I • Puzzling patterns were the motivation for the book, which has three main objectives • First, describe in comparative perspective how major developed democracies have responded to concerns over energy security • What particular energy security problems have the countries faced? • What policy options have they had at their disposal? • What choices among those options have they made?

7. Objectives II • Second is to provide a theoretically informed explanation of state responses to energy security both across space and over time • Why have the major developed democracies made—and not made– particular choices? • What factors best account for the principal similarities and differences in their approaches and policies • Of particular interest is understanding the reasons fro the observed variations in state responses.

8. Objectives III • Third purpose is to explore the implications of these response and their determinants – especially for international cooperation to promote energy security • What are the prospects for, and principal obstacles to cooperation at the regional and global levels? • What degree to they face common problems that lend themselves to joint approaches? • In what ways could differences in their concerns and preferred policy responses limit their ability to work together? • Book primarily concerned with state responses to energy security

9. Main Arguments • Book makes four broad arguments. • First concerns the determinants of policy responses to energy security • Emphasis is on the strength of the state • Second addresses the impact of earlier policy choices on later energy security concerns and policy decisions • So-called policy legacies – path dependence. • Third relates to the obstacles to international cooperation to promote energy security and • Fourth regards the impact of recent developments in the production and distribution of energy • especially the fracking revolution on the prospects for achieving energy security