From the United States with shale gas: Ukraine, energy securitization, and the reshaping of transatlantic energy relations

Abstract

The paper investigates the impact the unrest in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea by Russia had on EU-US energy relations. It argues that the crisis in Ukraine increased the US attention for EU energy supply concerns. Strategic considerations played a more important role in thinking about EU energy security after 2014, not only in the EU, but also in the US and securitization characterises the US response to the crisis. The article shows that securitization contributed to strengthening several institutions of transatlantic cooperation, transatlantic trade in shale gas and the US support for energy infrastructure projects with a strong strategic and security rather than economic rationale. This paper draws on official documents, statements, and on a large set of interviews with high EU and US officials playing a key role in the EU-US bilateral energy relations. Content and discourse analysis are used to make sense of the primary and secondary data on which the study is based.