The Palgrave Handbook of the International Political Economy of Energy

This Handbook is the first volume to analyse the International Political Economy, the who-gets-what-when-and-how, of global energy. Divided into five sections, it features 28 contributions that deal with energy institutions, trade, transitions, conflict and justice. The chapters span a wide range of energy technologies and markets - including oil and gas, biofuels, carbon capture and storage, nuclear, and electricity - and it cuts across the domestic-international divide. Long-standing issues in the IPE of energy such as the role of OPEC and the ‘resource curse’ are combined with emerging issues such as fossil fuel subsidies and carbon markets. IPE perspectives are interwoven with insights from studies on governance, transitions, security, and political ecology. The Handbook serves as a potent reminder that energy systems are as inherently political and economic as they are technical or technological, and demonstrates that the field of IPE has much to offer to studies of the changing world of energy.

Thijs Van de Graaf is Assistant Professor of International Politics at the Ghent Institute for International Studies, Ghent University, Belgium. He was previously a visiting scholar at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School, USA. His research covers energy, world politics, and global governance.

Benjamin K. Sovacool is Professor of Energy Policy at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the School of Business, Management, and Economics, part of the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom. He is also Director of the Center for Energy Technologies and Professor of Business and Social Sciences in the Department of Business Development and Technology at Aarhus University in Denmark. Professor Sovacool works as a researcher and consultant on issues pertaining to energy policy, energy security, climate change mitigation, and climate change adaptation.

Arunabha Ghosh is CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, one of South Asia’s leading policy research institutions. He previously worked at Princeton, Oxford, UNDP (New York) and WTO (Geneva) and has work experience in 36 countries. He is, most recently, co-author of Human Development and Global Institutions, and Climate Change: A Risk Assessment.

Florian Kern is Co-Director of the Sussex Energy Group and Senior Lecturer at SPRU-Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex, UK. His research focuses on energy, climate and innovation policy in the context of transitions towards more sustainable energy systems.

Michael T. Klare is the Five College Professor of Peace and World Security Studies, a joint appointment at Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is the author of 14 books includingResource Wars, Blood and Oil, and The Race for What’s Left.