ABSTRACT
Part III con sidered the evolution of the EU’s energy pol icy (Chapter 10), the convergence patterns between the energy secur ity pol icies of member states (Chapter 11) and the guidelines for a common Euro pean energy pol icy (Chapter 12). Even though frequent ref er ences were made about the external pro jection of the EU’s energy pol icy, the three chapters were basically focused on the inner workings of the EU’s energy sys tem. By contrast, the last part of the book (Chapters 13-15) studies the EU’s energy secur ity pol icy towards third coun tries from a stra tegic per spect ive, i.e. con sidering the best external pol icy actions in relation to third coun tries that are expected to behave rationally in defence of their own inter ests. Strategic beha vi our is neces sary when the final outcome of one player’s choices depends on the de cisions of several players, so that each one has to assess the avail able choices taking into account the pos sible actions or responses of the other players. The EU’s energy relations with the rest of the world will be examined in this chapter using two indic ators that were introduced in Chapters 4 and 8: the Energy Affinity Index and the Socioeco nomic Energy Risk Index. The values of both indices have been presented separately in their respective chapters. Here they will be put together in order to identi fy stra tegic groups of third coun tries according to their affinity relations to the EU and their level of socio economic energy risk. To these groups of coun tries differential attention should be paid by the EU’s foreign and energy secur ity policies.
