Quartz 4

022_global-energy-politics

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Type: course

Course Description

  • Instructors: Prof. Dr. phil. Markus Lederer
  • Event type: Seminar
  • Course Contents:
    The seminar provides an introduction to global energy politics with a particular focus on renewable energy. We start by discussing the historical evolution of energy systems. After reviewing the literature on the politics of fossil fuels, we will then discuss how energy systems can be transformed. We will analyze the setup of renewable energy systems and broader geopolitical questions that energy questions bring up.

Transclude of Syllabus-Global-Energy-Politics-WiSe-2025_2026.docx

Lecture Notes

Syllabus

  • Week1: Smil, V. (2017): Energy. A Beginner’s Guide. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oneworld, chapter 1 and 2.
  • Week2: Smil, V. (2018): Energy and Civilization. A History. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, chapter 5.
    • Van de Graaf/ Sovacool, chapter 1.
  • Week3: Smil, V. (2018): Energy and Civilization. A History. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, chapter 6.
    • Mitchell, T. (2011): Carbon Democracy. Political Power in the Age of Oil. Brooklyn, NY: Verso, chapter 1.
  • Week4: Van de Graaf/ Sovacool chapter 2 and 4
  • Week5: Van de Graaf/ Sovacool chapter 8
  • Week6: Van de Graaf/ Sovacool chapter 9
    • Reda, I. A. (2023): Global Energy Governance. In R. Leal-Arcas (ed.). Climate and Energy Governance for a Sustainable Future. Singapore, 241-253.
  • Week7: No reading, discussion
  • Week8: Dannreuther, R. (2017): Energy Security. Cambridge, Polity, chapter 2-4.
    • Van de Graaf/ Sovacool chapter 3
  • Week9: Colgan, J. D. (2013): Fueling the Fire. Pathways from Oil to War. In: International Security, 38 (2), 147 – 180.
    • Kuzemko, C., M. Blondeel, C. Dupont and M. C. Brisbois (2022): In: Energy Research & Social Science 93, 102842.
    • Osička, J. and F. Černoch (2022): European energy politics after Ukraine: The road ahead. In: Energy Research & Social Science 91, 102757.
  • Week10: Van de Graaf/ Sovacool chapter 5
    • Newell, P. and R. Lane (2020): A climate for change? The impacts of climate change on energy politics. In: Cambridge Review of International Affairs 33 (3), 347-364.
    • Van Asselt, H. and P. Newell (2022): Pathways to an International Agreement to Leave Fossil Fuels in the Ground. In: Global Environmental Politics, 22 (4), 28-47.
    • Brand, U., D. Hausknost, A. Brad, G. Eyselein, M. Krams, D. Maneka, M. Pichler and E. Schneider (2025): Structural limitations of the decarbonization state. Nature Climate Change. (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-025-02394-y)
  • Week11: Fiorino, D. J. (2022): The Clean Energy Transition. Policies and Politics for a Zero-Carbon World. Cambridge: Polity, chapter 2, 3, 6, 7.
    • Sovacool, B. K. (2016): How Long Will It Take?: Conceptualizing the Temporal Dynamics of Energy Transitions. In: Energy Research & Social Science 13, 202–215.
    • Van de Graaf/ Sovacool Book chapter 7
  • Week12: Van de Graaf/ Sovacool Book chapter 6
  • Week13: Albert, M. J. (2022): The global politics of the renewable energy transition and the non-substitutability hypothesis: towards a ‘great transformation’? In: Review of International Political Economy, 29 (5), 1766-1781.
    • Bazilian, M., M. Bradshaw, J. Gabriel, A. Goldthau and K. Westphal (2020): Four scenarios of the energy transition: Drivers, consequences, and implications for geopolitics. In: WIREs Climate Change 11 (2).
    • Global Commission on the Geopolitics of Energy Transformation (2019): A New World. The Geopolitics of the Energy Transformation. Abu: Dhabi: IRENA.
    • Lederer, M. (2020): The Promise of Prometheus and the Opening up of Pandora’s Box: Anthropological Geopolitics of Renewable Energy. In: Geopolitics, 27 (2), 655-679.
  • Week14: No reading, presentation
  • Week15: Quitzow, R. and Y. Zabanova (eds.) (2025). The Geopolitics of Hydrogen. Cham, Springer, intro + ch. 1-2

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