“Threads of Sovereignty, Tethers of Energy: Eurocapitalism and the Oil Shock” offers a new history of European energy policy from the 1973 oil shock to the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. Contrary to the common narrative, it demonstrates that there was a concerted and largely successful Eurocapitalist energy strategy following the 1973 oil crisis, though one that was detrimental to a nascent awareness of environmental pollution. By viewing the European response to the oil shocks through a global lens of security, capitalism, and ecology, it draws out the unique nature of the Eurocapitalist project, and emphasizes the difference between the political economies of US neoliberalism and what would soon become the EU.

A light lunch will be provided.