Short abstract

This paper elaborates on juxtapositions of sustainability, dispositives of ‘energy security’, and geopolitical considerations as exemplified in the discourse around the German “Zeitenwende” in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Long abstract

This paper elaborates on juxtapositions of sustainability, dispositives of ‘energy security’, and geopolitical considerations as exemplified in the discourse around the German “Zeitenwende” in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We analyze processes of on-shoring and emerging ‘sustainable’ sovereignties in the transition from petro-infrastructures such as Nord Stream to ‘clean’ energy infrastructures, exemplified by the European Hydrogen Backbone. Our paper emphasizes the activities that political groups, firms, cartels, and other actors are empowered to undertake in energy transit states, to further a more nuanced understanding of neocolonial interests of big European powers that openly see the current war on Ukraine as both “a challenge and an opportunity.”