Energy diplomacy

Energy diplomacy is a form of diplomacy, and a subfield of international relations. It is closely related to its principal, foreign policy, and to overall national security, specifically energy security. Energy diplomacy began in the first half of the twentieth century and emerged as a term during the second oil crisis as a means of describing OPEC's actions. It has since mainly focused on the securitization of energy supplies, primarily fossil fuels, but also nuclear energy and increasingly sustainable energy, on a country or bloc basis.

Energy diplomacy emerged as a term during the second oil crisis as a means of describing OPEC's actions and of characterizing the quest for the United States to secure energy independence and the Cold War relationship between Russia and satellite states regarding oil and gas exports. Since the oil crises, energy diplomacy has mainly focused on the securitization of energy supplies on a country or bloc basis and on the foreign policy to obtain that energy security.

Foreign politics has been around for thousands of years of our civilization, while energy has only entered in the last 150 years. However, in that period foreign policy and energy have had an increasing number of overlapping and interconnected elements. Foreign policy in its own part is closely linked and dependent on the concept of national security. National security is a principle of actions governing relations of one state with others based on geography, external threats and other national security challenges, of which energy is one.

The three concepts, national security, foreign policy and energy security are ontologically structured, where national security is the most general concept, foreign policy is one level lower covering the international aspect of national security risks, and the lowest on the scale is energy diplomacy. Foreign policy is linked to national security as it is the tool which implements overall national security. National security also has a direct link to energy diplomacy. National security denotes the capability of a nation to overcome its internal and external multi-dimensional threats by balancing all instruments of state policy through governance. It aims to protect national independence, security and territorial, political and economic integrity, dealing with a large number of national security risks.

Energy is one of the fundamental items on the national security agenda. National security that deals with such external issues and risks is applied and implemented by government departments for external relations. Implementation of the national security strategy involving external factors and international issues is carried out through foreign policy instruments, namely international relations and diplomacy. Energy diplomacy specifically focuses on external energy relations. Despite the ontological hierarchy of the three concepts, it is a recurring theme for them to continuously intersect in practical diplomatic life and the geopolitical reality.

The beginning of the 20th century was the early era of energy diplomacy, which was largely marked by corporate players. Such diplomacy was dominated by the corporations that produced and distributed fossil fuel, rather than sovereign governments, as in the case of Royal Dutch Shell and Standard Oil. National security on a national level as a concept in its own right had not yet been formulated, but the energy issues were increasing in importance. Carving up the global oil reserves and markets was carried out persistently, alike during the 1908 negotiations between Royal Dutch Shell head Deterding and the US Standard Oil director Teagle; or on the occasion of signing the US "As-Is" Pool Association agreement in 1928. The corporations were competing and racing over privileges, quotas and allocations. The governments were not too far behind, supporting them and often facilitating the race, but the influential corporations dominantly shaped the industry and foreign policy.

The Post World War II era experienced fall of empires, rise of colonies, global shifts in geopolitical influence of UK, US, Russia and others. It is the OPEC that has succeeded in the 1960s and 1970s to gain ground in relation to the international oil corporations, nationalizing and regaining control over the national fossil fuel resources in several large producing countries. The oil shocks after WWII were the ones that greatly contributed to the growth of security concerns and diplomatic efforts in the energy sphere. The most important occurrences were the Suez Crisis of 1956-1957 and the OPEC oil embargo of 1973–1974. Whole economies were brought near to a standstill, escalating energy issues as top security concerns.

Soon came other disruptions, albeit smaller, caused by the Iranian revolution of 1979, the Iran-Iraq War of 1980 followed by the first Persian Gulf War in 1990–1991. Turbulences on the oil market that disturbed and endangered economies were also caused by the 2003 Iraq invasion, oil price spike of 2007-2008, Russian Ukrainian gas dispute in 2009, and others including smaller disruptions. Oil passages are still a global security concern as 40% of all oil transits via four conduits of the straits of Hormuz, Malacca, Bab-el-Mandeb and the Suez Canal. International Energy Agency (IEA) expects that these quantities will rise from 40% to 60% by 2030. Any longer interruption would cause another large-scale economic downfall.