NS4054 Fall Term 2015
Fuels Paradise, Chapter 1The Puzzle: Diverse Responses
to Energy Insecurity
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
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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
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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
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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
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• 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?
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Objectives I
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.
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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
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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
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