n both sides of the Atlantic, foreign policy analysts have convinced politicians that the west faces a severe energy security challenge. The 1970s myth of energy independence is back. We hear the same “moral equivalent of war” speeches and see the same subsidies to well-connected industries to save the west from “energy superpowers” and oil-funded “Islamofascists”.

Those who do not advocate energy independence promote a strategic approach to energy security. The west, they say, should stop being naive about markets. Exporters are renationalising the energy industries and placing their energy assets at the heart of their foreign policy. Large new importers secure supply through government-to-government deals. Energy policy has become high politics and energy security is hard security. The appropriate institution to deal with these concerns is no longer the International Energy Agency (IEA) but Nato.