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Security and Conflict / Book

Energy security: Europe's new foreign policy challenge

10/02/2009 By Richard Youngs

The geopolitics of oil and gas have made a spectacular return to the international political agenda. The European Union (EU) has recognized the importance of incorporating energy security more systematically into foreign policy. It has committed itself to pursuing an energy security policy based on market interdependence, European unity and long-term governance improvements in producer states. In offering the first broad, global assessment of the foreign policy dimensions of EU energy security, this book considers how far these commitments have been implemented.

Examining how the EU’s general approach to energy security has played out in the specific political contexts of different countries and regions, distinctive features of the book include:

    * a thorough analysis of current EU strategies towards energy security, assessing the EU as an international actor

    * a key focus on the governance structures of producer states including the Middle East; Russia, Central Asia and the Caspian, and Sub-Saharan Africa

    * a major addition to debates surrounding markets and geopolitics, informing both international relations and international political economy

This book will be of interest to students, scholars and policy makers in the fields of European/EU Politics, energy politics, foreign policy and International Relations.

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Keywords

Civil society Energy Energy diversification Europe European Union

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Bio author: Richard Youngs

Richard Youngs is Director General of FRIDE. He also lectures at the University of Warwick in the UK. He studied at Cambridge (BA Hons) and Warwick (MA, PhD) universities.