IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rripxx/v29y2022i2p598-623.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The German energy transition as soft power

Author

Listed:
  • Rainer Quitzow
  • Sonja Thielges

Abstract

Germany represents a new and unconventional actor in the field of energy foreign policy. Based on its reputation as an energy transition frontrunner, it is pursuing a soft power strategy aimed at promoting its Energiewende policy approach abroad. Germany’s bilateral energy partnerships, this paper argues, represent the government’s central policy instrument for this purpose. After a discussion of the German energy transition as a soft power resource, the paper provides an in-depth empirical analysis of Germany’s bilateral energy partnerships. The paper argues that the partnerships have been deliberately designed as instruments for mobilizing the Energiewende narrative as soft power. Linking it to concepts in the soft power debate, it discusses the main channels through which the partnerships aim to boost the attractiveness of German policy solutions and persuade partners to consider their adoption. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications for further research on the international political economy of energy.

Suggested Citation

  • Rainer Quitzow & Sonja Thielges, 2022. "The German energy transition as soft power," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(2), pages 598-623, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:rripxx:v:29:y:2022:i:2:p:598-623
    DOI: 10.1080/09692290.2020.1813190
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09692290.2020.1813190
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09692290.2020.1813190?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zeng, Li & Wong, Wing-Keung & Fu, Hu & Mahmoud, Haitham A. & Cong, Phan The & Thuy, Dinh Thi Thanh & Bach, Pham Xuan, 2024. "FinTech and sustainable financing for low carbon energy transitions: A biodiversity and natural resource perspective in BRICS economies," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:rripxx:v:29:y:2022:i:2:p:598-623. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/rrip20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.