Horses for courses. The roles of IPE and Global Public Policy in global energy research

ABSTRACT

Although IPE and GPP overlap conceptionally and empirically, there is a case for keeping GPP and IPE analytically distinct. To simplify: GPP tells us why we need international regimes for energy, while IPE tells us why we only have incomplete ones. Although many scholars draw on both sets of literatures, the two approaches to the study of energy market, regulation and politics entail asking different types of questions based on distinct theories and assumptions. The central propositions in this article are that i) in a rapidly changing world of energy scholars from both camps need to be aware of and open to insights from the other school; ii) that the distinction between market-focused liberal scholars on one hand and security-oriented or realist scholars on the other is increasingly important; and iii) that although IPE and GPP scholars can fruitfully accommodate insights from each others literature, the two approaches to the study of energy policy are best valued by their own analytical contribution – even as we grapple with new, cross-cutting issues such as the geopolitics and geo-economics of global energy transitions.

KEYWORDS:

• Global Public Policy
• international Political Economy
• energy

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

¹ In fact, it is very much questioned whether OPEC amounts to a cartel at first place – for a classic see (Adelman, 1980).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Andreas Goldthau

Andreas Goldthau is the Franz Haniel Professor for Public Policy of the Willy Brandt School at the University of Erfurt. He is also Research Group Leader at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies and a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges. Before joining the Brandt School Professor Goldthau served as Professor in International Relations at Royal Holloway College, University of London and as Professor at Central European University’s School of Public Policy. Professor Goldthau is non-resident fellow with the Payne Institute at the Colorado School of Mines, the Global Public Policy Institute and the German Council on Foreign Relations. His publications include The Politics of Shale Gas in Eastern Europe. Energy Security, Contested Technologies and the Social License to Frack (Cambridge University Press, 2018), A Liberal Actor in a Realist World: The EU Regulatory State and the Global Political Economy of Energy (with N. Sitter, Oxford University Press, 2015) and The Global Energy Challenge: Environment, Development and Security (with C. Kuzemko and M. Keating, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).

Nick Sitter

Nick Sitter is Professor of Public Policy at the CEU, Professor of Political Economy at the BI Norwegian Business School, and a Research Associate at the LSE Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation. Nick holds a PhD, MSc and BSc (Econ) from the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research interests include EU public policy (European integration, the European Economic Area, the EU regulatory state), energy policy (oil and gas markets, EU regulation, the IPE of energy), political parties and party systems (party strategy, Euroscepticism, democratization, populism), and security (terrorism, nationalism, civil war). Books and journal special issues include Energy Union: Europe’s New Liberal Mercantilism (Palgrave 2017) Terrorismens Historie: Attentat og Terrorbekjempelse fra Bakunin til IS (Dreyer 2016), A Liberal Actor in A Realist World: The EU Regulatory State and the Global Political Economy of Energy (with Andreas Goldthau, Oxford University Press 2015), an edition of Nations and Nationalism on Constitutionalism in Europe (co-edited with Bill Kissane, 2010), Understanding Public Management (with Kjell A. Eliassen, Sage 2008), and Europe’s Nascent State: Public Policy in the EU (co-edited with Johan From, Gyldendal 2006).