Conceptual models of trilateral energy diplomacy

Abstract

The paper analyses conceptual models of trilateral energy diplomacy. It is determined that energy security issues have recently become more acute in the countries of the Global North. Supply chain problems and protectionist policies have brought the energy crisis to the fore during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was exacerbated by the subsequent Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Energy security – the continuous availability of energy in different forms, in sufficient quantities and at affordable prices – has many dimensions. It means limited vulnerability to temporary or prolonged disruptions in the supply of imported energy. It also means the availability of local and imported resources to meet, over time and at reasonable prices, growing energy demand. Environmental challenges, liberalisation and deregulation, and the increasing dominance of market forces have profound implications for energy security. Energy security needs to be examined at several levels: global, to ensure resource adequacy; regional, to enable networking and trade; country level, to ensure national security of supply; and consumer level, to ensure that consumer demand is met. It is noted that the competitive and cooperative partner country models with their trilateral diplomacy models better describe the specifics of traditional European energy security policy than the positive state model. Similarly, two alternative country models can better illustrate the equilibrium resulting from the breakdown of the original system and the different types of political interactions embedded in the new institutional, ideological and market-based environment of EU energy security than the regulatory country. These models are the supplier country and the catalyst country. The supplier country is based on a market-based approach to energy policy, assigns a limited role to state intervention and is characterised by multilateral models of energy diplomacy. A catalyst country, on the other hand, emphasises a combination of market instruments with more direct and specific forms of state intervention. It also emphasises the active role of state agents as strategic decision makers in a liberalised market structure and their extensive participation in the network model of energy diplomacy.