Pipeline conflicts and European energy security

The aim of this study is to analyze the potential for conflict and cooperation in Eurasian pipeline politics. The major oil and gas producer in Eurasia is the Russian Federation and with that one of the main energy suppliers of the European Union. In rece nt years, repeated pipeline conflicts between Russia and its transit countries have raised serious concerns regarding European energy security. With its focus on pipeline politics, this study?s emphasis is on the interaction between Russian energy policy and foreign policy and the use of energy policy as a means of Russian foreign policy. The intertwining between foreign and energy policy by Russia often leads to conflicts with countries in Eastern Europe. They have accused Russia of using its energy sup plies as a ?weapon? to undermine their independence. The analysis of the potential for conflict and cooperation concentrates on the following case studies: (1) Transneft and the Baltic transit states over the export routes for Russian oil; (2) Gazprom a nd the transit countries for its gas exports (Belarus, Ukraine and Poland); (3) the competition between the US, the EU and Southeast Asia, especially China and Japan, on the demand side of Russian and Caspian energy exports; and (4) conflicts between supp liers and consumers of energy. The following research questions should be addressed to all four case studies mentioned above: (1) What kind of behavior patterns and strategies ? cooperation, avoidance or conflict ? can be distinguished among the actors i nvolved on the country and company level? (2) What are the motives for this behavior? (3) How has an energy policy to be designed to avoid conflicts and to ensure the energy security of the consumer countries? Occurring conflicts will be distinguished ? a ccording to their relevance ? in conflict episodes, issue conflicts, identity conflicts and subordination conflicts, which is important for the design of a more cooperative energy policy.