Conceptual proposals for measuring the impact of international regimes on energy security

The paper proposes two concepts to assess the effect of international regimes on energy security. Existing indicators focus mainly on state-level factors, excluding international influences. International relation scholars on the other hand see a clear connection between international regimes and stable energy relations. International regimes stabilise energy relations by providing frameworks for negotiations, defining, controlling and sanctioning compliance and allowing the actors to engage in package deals. The researcher needs to include these factors in a complete assessment of political energy security risks. As first step, the paper uses the effectiveness of control mechanisms as basis for such consideration. It refers specifically to international arbitration as the most important control mechanism in international energy relations. The simplest measurement option is the share of a county's energy imports covered by a certain regime. The paper applies the Oslo-Potsdam-Solution to account for outcome effectiveness. It applies a variant of the International Regimes Data Base protocol to account for effective regime structures. In a last section, the paper proposes some possible paths for future research.