The Afro-European Energy Diplomacy, a Historical Reconstruction from 1973 to 2007

Abstract

The history of international relations has as its main source diplomatic documents, among them treaties and international agreements. As Mario Toscano stated, (Mario Toscano, 1963) diplomatic documents are written statements of facts (actions or simple expressions of thought) coming from institutional bodies acting in inter-state relations. Inside the framework of diplomacy, recently emerged a new branch: energy diplomacy. This latter is a complex topic in the broad framework of the Afro- European diplomatic relations and, over the years, has continuously evolved due to endogenous and exogenous factors. Since up to now, there's no historical rebuilding of how Afro- European diplomatic representors have acted to build energy diplomacy, to start analyzing it, the time-space considered in this research is the following: from the 1973 oil crisis to the 2007 Lisbon Treaty (Joint Africa-EU Strategy). The relevance of this research consists of filling the historical gaps that we have about this topic between the area studies and those in the European Integration, trying to have a more super partes and complete vision as possible.This research even if now in its first stage, will contribute to providing a logical combination of data to rebuild and comprehend the evolution of Afro- European energy diplomatic relations. For this purpose, the literary review indicated may help to define the broad framework in which Africa and Europe started to cooperate in scientific terms and, also give suggestions on how to act also in these times of energy crises.