The Making of Europe’s Critical Infrastructure: Common Connections and Shared Vulnerabilities

Europe's critical infrastructure is a key concern to policymakers, NGOs, companies, and citizens today. A 2006 power line failure in northern Germany closed lights in Portugal in a matter of seconds. Several Russian-Ukrainian gas crises shocked politicians, entrepreneurs, and citizens thousands of kilometers away in Germany, France, and Italy.

This book argues that present-day infrastructure vulnerabilities resulted from choices of infrastructure builders in the past. It inquires which, and whose, vulnerabilities they perceived, negotiated, prioritized, and inscribed in Europe's critical infrastructure.

It does not take 'Europe' for granted, but actively investigates which countries and peoples were historically connected in joint interdependency, and why. In short, this collection unravels the simultaneous historical shaping of infrastructure, common vulnerabilities, and Europe.

Contents:

+ General Introduction
++ 1. Europe's Critical Infrastructure and its Vulnerabilities: Promises, Problems, Paradoxes; Erik van der Vleuten, Per Högselius, Anique Hommels and Arne Kaijser

+ PART I: CONNECTING A CONTINENT
++ Introduction
++ 2. Natural Gas in Cold War Europe: The Making of a Critical Infrastructure; Per Högselius, Anna Åberg, and Arne Kaijser
++ 3. Inventing Electrical Europe: Interdependencies, Borders, Vulnerabilities; Vincent Lagendijk and Erik van der Vleuten

+ PART II: NEGOTIATING NEIGHBOURS
++ Introduction
++ 4. An Uneasy Alliance: Negotiating Infrastructures at the Finnish-Soviet Border; Karl-Erik Michelsen
++ 5. Bulgarian Power Relations: The Making of a Balkan Power Hub; Ivan Tchalakov, Tihomir Mitev and Ivaylo Hristov
++ 6. Border-Crossing Electrons: Critical Energy Flows to and from Greece; Aristotle Tympas, Stathis Arapostathis, Katerina Vlantoni and Yiannis Garyfallos

+ PART III: COPING WITH COMPLEXITY
++ Introduction
++ 7. EUROCONTROL: Negotiating Transnational Air Transportation in Europe; Lars Heide
++ 8. Connections, Criticality, and Complexity: Norwegian Electricity in its European Context; Lars Thue
++ 9. In Case of Breakdown: Dreams and Dilemmas of a Common European Standard for Emergency Communication; Anique Hommels and Eefje Cleophas
++ Conclusion

++ 10. Europe's Infrastructure Vulnerabilities: Comparisons and Connections; Anique Hommels, Per Högselius, Arne Kaijser and Erik van der Vleuten

+ Bibliography

+ Index