ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the areas of deliberation, in order to provide a framework for the subsequent detailed assessment of European energy policies in different producer states and regions. From the former perspective, many energy analysts argued that the key change since the oil crises of the 1970s had been the growing role of international markets. Security thinking in the 1970s and 1980s. Bilateral deals between governments to guarantee supply were a thing of the past, and the imbalance of power was if anything now to the disfavour of exporting states. Mitigating some of the fear over energy insecurity, those with a faith in market mechanisms argued that post-2003 high oil prices were the result of a ‘catching-up’ after two decades of declining demand for oil, and that these high prices would in their turn engender changes in government policies and consumer behaviour, as substitution strategies took shape.
