The German energy transition as soft power

Abstract

Germany represents a new and unconventional actor in the field of energy foreign policy. Based on its reputation as an energy transition frontrunner, it is pursuing a soft power strategy aimed at promoting its Energiewende policy approach abroad. Germany’s bilateral energy partnerships, this paper argues, represent the government’s central policy instrument for this purpose. After a discussion of the German energy transition as a soft power resource, the paper provides an in-depth empirical analysis of Germany’s bilateral energy partnerships. The paper argues that the partnerships have been deliberately designed as instruments for mobilizing the Energiewende narrative as soft power. Linking it to concepts in the soft power debate, it discusses the main channels through which the partnerships aim to boost the attractiveness of German policy solutions and persuade partners to consider their adoption. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications for further research on the international political economy of energy.

Keywords:

• Energy transition
• political economy
• foreign policy
• soft power

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank officials at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of Environment and Nuclear Safety, the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development and the various organizations involved in Germany's energy partnerships for their support and cooperation. Moreover, we would like to thank Andreas Goldthau, Gorana Grgic, Sebastian Helgenberger, Joschka Jahn, Caroline Kuzemko, Paasha Mahdavi, Sybille Röhrkasten, Hidekazu Sakai, Karoline Steinbacher and two anonymous reviewers for their comments and insights at various stages of the research process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For an overview of interviews and a complete list of LoIs and MoUs, see Quitzow et al. (2019, pp. 24–25).

2 The policy implications that emerged from these discussions were published in an IASS Discussion Paper in April 2019 (Quitzow et al., 2019).

3 This paper does not address Germany’s role in EU energy governance with its distinct institutional setting and relations among member states.

4 See https://www.bmwi.de/Redaktion/EN/Dossier/energy-transition.html, accessed on August 2, 2020.

5 See http://www.energiewende-global.com, accessed on August 2, 2020.

6 For an overview of country-specific goals, see Quitzow et al. (2019, pp. 25–26).

7 See https://www.bmwi.de/Redaktion/EN/Dossier/energy-transition.html, accessed on March 14, 2020.

8 See https://www.energy-transition-hub.org/news/australian-german-energy-symposium-2019, accessed on November 28, 2019.

9 Innovation systems are a set of context-specific institutions, networks and actors, which have been found to influence the degree and direction of innovation in a country or region.

10 See https://rise.worldbank.org/, accessed on August 2, 2020.

11 Data are not available beyond 2017, so that no such assessment is possible for Australia and UAE, which were launched the same year.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rainer Quitzow

Rainer Quitzow is Research Group Leader and Speaker of the Research Area Energy Systems and Societal Change at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Potsdam, Germany. He is also a Senior Lecturer at the Chair of Innovation Economics at the Technische Universität Berlin. His research focuses on the international political economy of the global energy transition and the politics and policies of green innovation and industrial development.

Sonja Thielges

Sonja Thielges is Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Potsdam, Germany and Non-Resident Fellow at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies in Washington, DC. Her research focuses on the global energy transition as well as international climate and energy policy.