This thesis analyzes China’s position with the international energy trade network over the period 1998 - 2018. We discovered through the application of a complex network analysis that China’s...Show moreThis thesis analyzes China’s position with the international energy trade network over the period 1998 - 2018. We discovered through the application of a complex network analysis that China’s position within the IETN improved vastly over time for every centrality measure, energy dimension, and energy category. The origin of the growth, however, differs significantly. China’s central position in the fossil fuel dimension is primarily derived from its import, whereas China’s central position in the renewable dimension is primarily derived from its exports. Moreover, the IETN experienced a strong growth over time, mostly in terms of size and connectedness, resulting from general trends such as globalization and regionalization. In China’s case, its WTO accession provided a platform to increase its participation in the global trade network and the IETN. Yet, with China becoming more central, more nations were dependent on China for energy trade either in the form of income or resources. China itself also had to deal with this increased dependency which it tried to do with introducing a securization strategy.Show less
