Introduction

Abstract

The past few decades have seen ever-growing interest in energy policies, markets and geopolitics.¹ In particular, many scholars, political commentators and mass media have begun to focus on European Union (EU) energy policies, EU-Russia energy relations and the transformation of the global markets. Furthermore, the shale gas revolution taking place in the US gives new impetus to analytical thought and potentially spells the end of the energy dependence of the US and its emergence as an energy exporter. The changes taking place in US gas markets have had a spillover effect on the intercontinental trade in liquefied natural gas (LNG). Gas markets have increasingly become transnational, which gives rise to new market and policy interrelations. It could be argued that this trend is simply another step towards globalization, where international factors increasingly challenge national policies and regional interdependencies.² The possibility of the US exporting gas opens up the prospect of the EU further distancing itself from Russia, which has become ‘a difficult other’ in the process of globalization.³