Energy diplomacy in the context of multistakeholder diplomacy: The EU and BICS

Abstract

This paper examines a supranational actor, the European Union (EU), as a producer of energy diplomacy. This study uses a comparative analytical framework of state-centred vs. multistakeholder diplomacies to explore EU energy diplomacy towards the ‘emerging’ powers of Brazil, India, China and South Africa (BICS). It also elaborates the multistakeholder model by advocating the inclusion of a new element – a consumer of diplomatic actions – into its conceptualization. In this way the paper suggests a new synthesis of the concepts of multistakeholder and public diplomacies. Advancing the notion of energy diplomacy, our analysis suggests that this type of diplomacy goes beyond state actors as producers of diplomatic outcomes, and is no longer confined to the norms of security of supply and competitiveness; EU energy diplomacy is a complex blend of multistakeholder and state-centred diplomacies, participants (producers and consumers) and communication modes. This comprehensive approach to diplomacy – led in the EU’s case by norms of sustainability, competitiveness and security of supply – is a response to the challenges of global governance, multipolarity and multinational cross-sectoral networks.