“It is the book I published with Brookings Press centered on key challenges in global energy governance that led to my involvement with the G7 meetings,” says Andreas Goldthau. “The consortium that advised the German government during the preparations for the G7 energy ministerial meetings invited me to join the team of external experts.” As a member of the team, Goldthau, who is a professor and former head of the Department of Public Policy at Central European University, has provided expert analysis on energy policy and energy markets, and helped to draft briefings, background papers, and other materials.
Goldthau says that some of the work was very time sensitive. “We were required to do a lot of on-demand analysis, particularly in the run-up to the 'sous-sherpa' (high-ranking members of staff) meeting, which was instrumental in shaping the final agenda for the energy ministers' meeting in Hamburg.”
According to Goldthau, the opportunity to get involved in the G7 summit preparations was “a valuable insight into the machine room of global governance.” He says that one of the biggest surprises was how informal the processes are. “These are the world's seven largest industrial economies, making up roughly 50% of global GDP, and yet it was the substance and the policy problems that drove preparations and debate among G7 delegations, not diplomatic protocol.” Goldthau explains that the way the G7 operates reveals how important the “personal factor” is in global negotiations. “Most of the people preparing for the summit have known each other for a long time, which facilitates things,” he notes.
Goldthau, who teaches courses on global policy and the political economy of global energy, says that throughout his involvement with the G7 he was often reminded of the challenges of bridging theory and practice. “Making academic research tangible for the policy world requires 'translating' it into short, distinct pieces of input that can inform the next step in the policy process.” He says that another challenge is posed by the speed with which the policy world runs. “You have to let go of some of the things that scholars love so much – like methods, theories, and models,” he says.
Goldthau, who will be returning to CEU as a faculty member at the School of Public Policy next year, says that some of the lessons he has learned during his involvement with the G7 is causing him to rethink how he teaches public policy. “This type of real-world experience is not just valuable for me,” he say, “but perhaps even more for my students.”
Goldthau has co-authored two forthcoming books, The Global Energy Challenge (Palgrave, 2015) and A Liberal Actor in a Realist World (Oxford University Press, 2015).