The domestic factor in the international political economy of Eurasian gas trade

This chapter contributes to the emerging debate on the shifting IPE in Eurasian energy by focusing on the changing relationship of gas interdependence between the EU and Russia and its influence on Russia’s alleged shift to the East. The chapter seeks to account for the changes in Eurasia energy trade by asserting that the changing trajectories of the EU-Russia-China energy relationships are due to a distinctive transformation in the policy discourse at a domestic level in all of the three blocks. To that end, the chapter builds on a growing body of recent studies suggesting the importance of ideational change in world politics and the significance of domestic-level concerns within states for their cross-border (energy) trade. With this, the chapter contributes to the scholarly understanding of these relationships by identifying the causal links between the various levels and broad range of actors involved in day-to-day energy policy-making in the countries under examination, while highlighting the importance of changing domestic developments.