ABSTRACT
The chapter examines the establishment of the West German-Soviet natural gas relationship between 1969 and 1974. Unlike much of existing scholarship, this chapter places the emerging relationship between West Germany and the Soviet Union in the context of globalization rather than the Cold War. It highlights the economic value for Bonn of expanding trade with Moscow amid the global scramble for energy security in the late 1960s and early 1970s. With Dutch companies expected to dominate the West German market by the end of the 1970s, Bonn sought to diversify its natural gas suppliers. The Soviet Union beckoned as an exporter that could help meet West German demand and give Dutch companies competition to reduce prices. Bonn found a willing partner in Moscow, which wanted to export natural gas to Western Europe to earn hard currency and gain access to Western technology that would accelerate the development of remote Soviet reserves.
