TY - BOOK AU - Nies,Susanne TI - European Energy as a Factor for Integration and Disintegration: The 25 Years since the End of the Cold War Reconsidered PY - 2014///. N1 - 50 N2 - "Energy relations are capable of stabilizing as well as destabilizing relations between countries. There is no better place than the unifying Europe to demonstrate this in all its complexity. Twenty five years after the collapse of the Berlin wall energy seems even more and more relevant not only in East West relations, but also among EU member states. The author looks into the three dimensions determining energy relations: gas and electricity physical links; regulatory integration, as well as policy choices and vision. She shows firstly that the physical gas link has been first expanded between EU and Russia, and then, in 2014, lost its very basis: the trust never put into question since the 1970s. As for electricity links she insists on the East-West geopolitical shift of the new EU member states; a shift which left various countries in a kind of a no men’s land in between, exposed to the question whether this space could gain some positive identity, as a bridge between East and West. This is very much today perceived as an illusion, and the quest for certainty through clear association prevails. As for physical links the last 25 years have been marked by regulatory disintegration, reintegration and disorientation. The same countries ‘in between’ on physical links tend to be disoriented on regulation too. And finally, as for the policy choices and vision, a new frontline has emerged in Europe, opposing les anciens et les modernes, symbolized by the opposite choices of France and Germany. But such opposition is far from being definite, and there is a perspective for the Franco-German couple to become the European driving force again, over time. In his summary the authors formulates five theses summarizing the findings and a recommendation for a cooperative approach on energy in Europe." UR - https://shs.cairn.info/journal-herodote-2014-4-page-58?lang=en&redirect-ssocas=7080 ER -