While the 2014 Ukrainian crisis is far from over, policy debates surrounding the standoff between Russia and the United States and Europe already offer some important lessons on the gap between the policy world and the realities of energy markets. In this communication, we will discuss three policy proposals proposed between February and April 2014 as an illustration of the aforementioned mismatch, and explain their broader implications.

Andreas Goldthau, visiting scholar with the Geopolitics of Energy Project at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center, took part in a panel discussion for The French American Global Forum, "Oil and Energy: What Does the Future Hold?” on Tuesday, April 8, 2014, hosted by The School of International Service at American University in Washington, DC.

Providing societies with reliable energy services, fighting energy poverty and mitigating climate change entail a crucial infrastructure component. Both the energy access and the low carbon challenge require more decentralized energy solutions and a change in the energy infrastructure paradigm. Yet, physical energy infrastructure co-evolves with socio-economic institutions, actors and social norms. This may produce inertia against change. The energy challenge also requires solutions at multiple scales and may entail elements of common pool resource problems. Therefore, the governance of energy infrastructure needs to be polycentric. This allows for contextualization, experimentation and innovation. The article concludes by sketching routes of further research into the energy infrastructure governance nexus in social science research.

Russia’s oil sector fuels roughly forty percent of the country’s current budget, so finding an effective way to sanction it is an obvious target for the United States and its western allies. Before sanctioning Russian oil, however, it is essential to answer one key question: how will markets respond to eliminating exports from today’s largest global oil producer? The answer to this question is not reassuring—neither for Russia, nor the West. Any steps to sanction crude therefore should be considered with extreme caution.

As tensions in Ukraine continue to rise, G7 countries have decided to impose new sanctions on Russia. Sanctions targeting the energy sector, which account for roughly 25 percent of Russian GDP and half the country's budget revenues, have increasingly gained support. Yet, energy sanctions are not the way to go, as the price will be too high—not for Russia, but for Europe. Instead, policy strategies should aim at disentangling energy from indisputable security aspects surrounding the Ukraine crisis.

Not all EU countries are giving a green light for shale gas exploration and ‘fracking’. Andreas Goldthau sounds a note of caution for those pressing ahead and hoping for a North American style energy boom.

Andreas Goldthau, Marie Curie Scholar at Harvard University’s Geopolitics of Energy project, gives Interfax a state-of-play analysis on some of the key issues facing Europe’s gas supply future.

This is the first handbook to provide a global policy perspective on energy, bringing together a diverse range of international energy issues in one volume.