IIR Co-Edits Special Issue of Energy Policy!
Lukáš Tichý and Petr Kratochvíl will be the guest editors of the upcoming special issue of the prestigious research journal Energy Policy (impact factor 4.039). The special issue on “Energy Security and Policies of the V4 Countries: Between the West and Russia” is to be published at the end of the next year, i.e. 2019. The other guest co-editors of the issue will be András György Deák from the Institute of World Economics, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the Centre for Economic and Regional Studies (HAS CERS) and Mariusz Ruszel from Rzeszow University of Technology.
The call for papers for the special issue of Energy Policy is to be found here:
In recent years, tensions between Russia and the West have been increasing and these tensions also heavily influence their respective energy policies. In particular, the Visegrad countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia) have become a battlefield in the struggle for energy markets between Russia and the United States. The leaders of the Visegrad countries themselves have publicly asked the United States to allow and accelerate the LNG exports to the region. The Russian suppliers, on the other hand, claim to offer a more reliable source of energy with lower prices and in greater volumes. Last but not least, the European Commission is striving to strengthen its role in energy policy at the expense of the EU member states, including the V4 countries, so that it would enforce the EU rules and act as an energy actor with major suppliers. As a result, in all four countries, a fierce struggle erupted between those who favour the Russian suppliers and freedom of decision, and those who argue in favour of greater energy independence, even at the price of higher costs, or support the Union's drive towards enhancing energy security. In this sense, the region has become a litmus test for the success of these strategies as well as the broader direction of the regional policies. The aim of the special issue is to present a comprehensive picture of the regional energy policies, taking into account the broader economic and political context of energy imports, transportation, distribution, and consumption.
More on energy policy issues at website of the IIR’s Centre for Energy Policy.