Comparative Energy Regionalism: North America and the European Energy Community

Abstract

Although literature on energy cooperation highlights that cooperation is more successful at the regional level, it largely fails to understand and conceptualize energy cooperation as part of the wider phenomenon of regionalism. Energy cooperation tends to be analyzed through prisms of security and geopolitics, thus, downplaying other important regional integration processes. The present paper addresses this lacuna, defining energy regionalism and conceptualizing its various dimensions, logics, motivations, and interests. We apply a comparative perspective, examining two regions which exhibit extensive energy cooperation yet differ in several ways: North America and the European Energy Community. Our findings suggest various trajectories and models, and indicate that formal institutionalization is neither a necessary condition for nor a guarantee of strong energy regionalism. We discern that regional anchor is key in North American and European energy regionalism.

Introduction to the Special Issue on energy regionalism

“…In Comparative Energy Regionalism: North American and the European Energy Community , Herman and Ariel argue that energy tends to be analyzed in terms of cooperation and conflict which leaves out critical variations among regions (Herman & Ariel, 2024). They propose several ways to systematically compare regions, using three quantitative indicators that measure the depth of cooperation and four qualitative ones which assess the evolution of the region, energy wealth, actor diversity, and energy mix.…”

“…For example, in North America, relationships are often between the United States and Canada, on the contrary, and the United States and Mexico, on the other. However, since they are often working within the context of North America broadly, these relationships can arguably be considered regional ones (Herman & Ariel, 2024). Furthermore, states often belong to more than one region—the Democratic Republic of Congo is formally part of both the Southern African Power Pool and the East African Power Pool (Hancock, 2024)—and regions can overlap (Balmaceda & Westphal, 2024).…”

“…Two authors focus on regional electricity grids and markets, offering explanations for the creation of these systems (Hancock, 2024; Palestini, 2024). Two other articles include electricity as part of their analysis, albeit not the focus (Balmaceda & Westphal, 2024; Herman & Ariel, 2024).…”

“…Comparative analysis: Herman and Ariel (2024) propose a way of comparing all energy regions. Scholars should review their contribution, determining how we can improve on and grow this type of analysis.…”

Electric regionalism: Path dependence, development, and the African power pools

“…Energy is broadly defined to include the various purposes of energy (electricity, transportation, cooking, and heating and cooling), the various sources of energy (oil and natural gas, refined petroleum products (such as jet fuel, gasoline, and diesel), coal, nuclear, and renewable energy (RE) sources such as solar and wind), and energy infrastructure (power plants, pipelines, ships transporting fuel, ports, liquefied natural gas terminals, electricity grids, etc.). (Others using this definition include [Herman & Ariel, 2021]. For an analysis of other scales of regionalism besides regions between states, see [Johnson & VanDeveer, 2020] in this Special Issue .…”