Short abstract:

Energy transitions are imagined as a tool that could lead to security and peace and prevent war. We looked at the Israeli and Polish energy transitions through the lens of Reflexive Public Reason (Rudek, Huang,2023) to observe how issues of security, peace and war are constructed.

Long abstract:

Around the world, energy transitions can be seen as tools to address a range of issues, such as tackling climate change, limiting pollution and reducing energy prices, or decentralising energy, which could lead to energy democracy. In some places, energy transitions are also imagined as a tool that could lead to security and peace and prevent war. To observe how energy is imagined as a tool for security, peace and war prevention, we looked at the Israeli and Polish energy transitions. While the energy transitions in Poland and Israel appear to be imagined differently, we argue that the question of securitisation, as well as war and peace, is crucial in both countries.

We use the lens of Reflexive Public Reason (Rudek, Huang,2023) to observe how issues of security, peace and war are constructed. We show how socio-technical imaginaries of energy transitions in two countries shape perceptions of risk and uncertainty and thus co-produce energy transition pathways. Our work is based on three types of data: energy policy documents in two countries and funded energy research projects between 2019-2023, complemented by newspaper discourse analysis for the year 2023.