Neo-Realism Meets Neo-Liberalism: Nord Stream and its Implications for EU-Russia Energy Relations

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2011 in the subject Politics - Region: Russia, grade: 2,0, Maastricht University, course: European Studies, language: English, abstract: The paper analyzes the Nord Stream pipeline and its influence on EU-Russia energy relations. As the paper uses the two theories of neo-realism and neo-liberalism to investigate the project, it examines the pipeline from two different viewpoints. In this sense, two main perspectives are outlined, namely Nordstream as a Pan-European project and Nordstream as a dividing factor for Europe. The aim of this twofold approach is not to find the ultimate truth concerning the pipeline but rather to reveal that such a project can be viewed completely different depending on the geopolitical and historical position of the observer. Therefore, this paper does not see the Nordstream project from the lens of one theoretical approach only, but rather uses the two IR theories complementary to establish a deeper understanding of the pipeline's geopolitics.