Since the inception of the Russian Federation and European Union, gas tensions in the European gas market have gradually increased to the point where the EU and Russia have become entangled in...Show moreSince the inception of the Russian Federation and European Union, gas tensions in the European gas market have gradually increased to the point where the EU and Russia have become entangled in several legal, economic, and political confrontations. An analysis of Russian and EU policies supports Constructivist assertions that ideas influence the decision-makers and policies involved in these confrontations. More specifically, an in-depth analysis of EU and Russian policies, strategic discourses, and policy environments reveals that EU-Russian gas tensions are correlated with an EU-Russian divergence in worldviews, goals, and tools. Once this observation is adapted to Hall’s theory of policy paradigms and fitted into a Constructivist framework, EU-Russian gas tensions appear to be driven by EU-Russian differences in economic paradigms. A thorough analysis of one of the longest-lasting and most explicit EU-Russian legal confrontations – the European Commission’s antitrust proceedings against Gazprom – lends support to this hypothesis. Over the course of this six-year-long legal battle, EU-Russian gas tensions increased whenever the divergence between the economic paradigms of the EU and Gazprom increased. Likewise, tensions decreased once their divergence decreased. This correlation is reinforced by the fact that the diverging EU and Russian economic paradigms have inspired conflicting policies that fuel these EU-Russian gas tensions. Thus a causal relationship between EU-Russian differences in economic paradigms and EU-Russian gas tensions seems to have been verified. This causal relationship has great implications for EU and Russian policies alike, for it questions common assumptions that EU-Russian gas tensions will automatically decrease once there is a political change.Show less
