The landlord state goes abroad: The remaking of the Norwegian ‘Energy Nation’ as a global rentier

Abstract

This paper explores the global political economy of the relationship between energy, ground rent, and the state. In its role as the ‘nation’s landlord’, the state is widely acknowledged to have a central role in the political economy of energy, either as the enabler and guarantor for private rent extraction or by itself controlling the extraction and redistribution of rents engendered by national energy resources. This paper broadens the geographical purview of research on the landlord state by aiming attention at the rise in recent decades of the state as a major rentier in the world market. More than asserting ownership over land and its appurtenances within territorial borders, landlord states have become significant owners and profiteers of extraterritorial energy resources. Taking the historical geography of the Norwegian energy industry as an empirical point of departure, the paper explores how the landlord state that was built in the 20th century by taking public control over national energy resources since the turn of the millennium has become a considerable owner of energy resources abroad, effectively positioning itself as a major global rentier.