Powering Europe ― Russia, Ukraine, and the Energy Squeeze

The crisis in Ukraine and the Russian annexation of Crimea have prompted the United States and the European Union to examine their energy options. While Europe's dependence on Russian natural gas supplies looms large as a major liability for Europe, Russia's dependence on the $100 billion income from gas exports may deal Europe a stronger hand.

Seeking clarity about the current conflict and its energy implications - and responding to the urgent need to critically analyze Europe's short-to-medium term prospects for safely and reliably sourcing future energy imports from sources other than Russia - this book examines the major elements of the European energy equation, contextualizing them within the disorderly breakup of the Soviet Union, post-Soviet developments in Eastern Europe, and the current geopolitical topography of the continent. Accessible and jargon-free, this book asks how and why Ukraine has emerged as the cockpit of a geopolitical contest that has been festering for nearly two decades, and offers insight into the view from Moscow. Finally, it examines Europe's energy options outside of Russia, assessing each not only in terms of technical feasibility and possible lead-time, but also, crucially, in terms of the added costs and geopolitical implications of altering supplies and suppliers, ranging from the continental United States to West Africa to the Eastern Mediterranean to Turkmenistan and possibly even Iran.

Rafael Kandiyoti is Distinguished Research Fellow and Emeritus Professor of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London, UK. He teaches and writes on fuels, energy and the geopolitics of transnational oil and gas transmission.