Petroleum policy and foreign policy

As the world's third largest exporter of oil and natural gas, Norway is a big power in international energy. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, Norway's security policy significance and interests have diminished compared to energy policy significance and interests. This demands a review of foreign policy and a closer coordination of petroleum policy and foreign policy, as well as a review of relations with the European Union (EU), Russia, the Middle East, China, and not least the United States. The dynamics of US relations with the rest of the world since the Iraq War, of China's relations with the Middle East, and not least of relations between the EU and Russia, put pressure on Norway to clarify fundamentals of petroleum and foreign policies and to conduct them in a more proactive way, to forestall problems instead of allowing them to occur. One possibility is that Norway as a European country outside the EU continues a lonely appearance, with petroleum policy and diplomacy as separate arenas, with the risk of marginalisation in relation to both the EU and to Russia, and ending up as a bridgehead for the United States. The alternative could be closer relations and a more proactive policy in relation to the EU and Russia, with a stronger emphasis on Norwegian economic and energy interests, together with closer relations with China and the Middle East, but with the risk of a less close relationship with the United States.