Handbook of the International Political Economy of Energy and Natural Resources.

• Author: Murtazashvili, Ilia

Handbook of the International Political Economy of Energy and Natural Resources, edited by Andreas Goldthau, Michael F. Keating, and Caroline Kuzemko (Edward Elgar Handbooks of Research on International Political Economy, 2018) 416 pages, ISBN 978-1-78347-562-9

This Handbook provides a valuable overview of the international political economy (IPE) of energy and natural resources. It is the latest volume in a series published by Edward Elgar that explores the IPE of various industries, and this one contributes to the growing field of the IPE of energy.

This volume contains 25 short chapters organized into four parts. The chapters in Part I address the "big picture" issues in the IPE of energy governance, including the nexus between global public policy and IPE (Chapter 2), the IPE of climate change adaptation (Chapter 3), and feminist perspectives on energy, including analysis of the relationship between energy transitions and the social distribution of resources and power in society (Chapter 5). Part II is organized around the theme of climate change, energy, and low-carbon transitions, with case studies of South Africa (Chapter 7), the European Union and UK (Chapters 8 and 9), the Russian oil and gas company Gazprom (Chapter 11), and the Arctic (Chapter 12). The subject of Part III is energy, resources, and development. The empirical studies of Part III include the IPE of hydroelectric dams (Chapter 14), political conflict over mining (Chapter 17), and the tradeoffs between energy and food (Chapter 18). Part IV considers energy issues from the perspective of the interaction of multiple scales: transnational, national, and local. The empirical studies of Part IV include a comparison of energy transitions in the United States and China (Chapter 22), the IPE of nuclear energy (Chapter 23), and municipal governance of heat networks (Chapter 26).

The introductory chapter makes a compelling case for conceptualizing of the IPE of energy as a distinct school of thought that transcends energy economics, environmental politics, and traditional IPE. Initially, energy was considered from the perspective of the three main schools of IPE thought: liberalism, mercantilism, and Marxism. Liberalism within IPE is influenced most heavily by the Smithian tradition of analysis of markets, while mercantile IPE has its roots in the work of Alexander Hamilton and Friedrich List. Marxist analysis focused on the way in which economic interests mechanically...