THE POLITICAL CONTESTATION OF NORD STREAM PROJECT: MULTIDIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS

Ihor Moshenets

doi:10.23856/4524

Ihor Moshenets National Institute of Strategic Studies https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0315-510X

Keywords: Nord Stream, natural gas trading, energy diplomacy, geopolitics, EU, US, Russian Federation

Abstract

This article aims to explain the influence of different dimensions of political deliberation over the two strings of the Nord Stream pipeline on the European Union’s ability to act as a unified actor with coherent strategy in the realm of global energy diplomacy. This study concentrated on four main cleavages of the project’s political contestation: international, supranational, transatlantic and environmental. The analysis of the Nord Stream project’s political contestation implies four basic insights. The first one is the absence of principal unity among EU member states regarding both of their economic interests and interpretation of key political developments on the continent. Second, the market-oriented spirit of EU legislation complicated the incorporation of any broader geopolitical considerations in decision-making over the pipeline’s future. Third, the EU’s overdependence on the US in geostrategic issues highlighted problems in realization of idea of “geopolitical Europe” as an independent actor with a coherent strategy on the international level. Fourth, the policies for reaching each of the three broad goals of EU energy policies (marketization, securitization and decarbonization) are often contradictory between each other, which was exemplified by the presented case.

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