The Journal of Regional Energy Governance and Security (JREGS) is an international, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the analysis of energy governance structures, security dynamics, and policy responses at the regional level. The journal examines how states, regional organisations, and non-state actors negotiate energy interdependence, infrastructure security, and resource governance in regional systems shaped by shifting geopolitical alignments, institutional fragmentation, and contested regional orders.
JREGS welcomes theoretically informed and empirically grounded contributions from International Relations, energy studies, security studies, political geography, and comparative politics.
It prioritises regional and cross-regional levels of analysis, while also welcoming work that connects regional dynamics to national and global processes where these are central to questions of governance, security, and regional order.
The journal is an independent diamond open-access journal committed to providing immediate, unrestricted access to scholarly research without charging authors article processing charges (APCs).
All contributions are expected to engage explicitly with a regional dimension of energy politics and/or compare across regions.
Regional energy security in International Relations
How energy vulnerability, resilience, and strategic dependence are structured within and across regions.
Regional geopolitics and geoeconomics of energy
Energy as a medium of power within regional orders and inter-regional competition.
Regional energy diplomacy and foreign policy
Energy relations between states within regions and between regional blocs.
Regional energy governance and institutions
The role of regional organisations, regimes, and governance architectures in shaping energy cooperation.
Regional dimensions of great power competition
How global powers compete through and within regional energy systems.
Regional international political economy of energy
Regional energy markets, trade structures, sanctions regimes, and interdependence.
Regional critical energy infrastructure and security
Cross-border pipelines, electricity grids, LNG corridors, maritime chokepoints, and infrastructure security within regions.
Regional energy transitions and global order
How decarbonisation reshapes regional hierarchies, dependencies, and institutional arrangements.
Regional conflict, coercion, and energy politics
Energy-related conflict dynamics, sanctions, coercive diplomacy, and hybrid threats within regional contexts.
Comparative regional energy orders
Systematic comparison of how different regions organise energy governance, security, and external relations.
In the Journal of Regional Energy Governance and Security (JREGS), a “region” is understood as a socially and politically constructed space of interdependent energy relations. Geographic proximity may underpin regional formation, but it is neither necessary nor sufficient in itself: regions emerge through patterns of energy trade, infrastructure connectivity, institutional arrangements, security interdependence, and shared or contested strategic alignments, which may reinforce, reconfigure, or transcend geographic space.
Regions may be formal or informal, stable or evolving, and may overlap or extend across conventional geographic boundaries. They may range in scale from cross-border corridors, shared seas, and transit chokepoints to continental or inter-continental formations. Regionality is therefore defined as much by the density and structuring effects of energy-related interactions as by territorial contiguity.
This understanding encompasses established institutionalised regions such as the European Union or the Gulf Cooperation Council, as well as more diffuse, emerging, or contested formations such as the Arctic, the Indo-Pacific, or trans-regional energy corridors. It also recognises that regions may be functionally defined, including infrastructure systems, maritime routes, and supply-chain networks that generate durable patterns of energy interdependence.
The journal further recognises that regions are frequently analytical and discursive constructs as much as empirical patterns of interaction. The boundaries of a “region” are often produced, stabilised, or contested through scholarly interpretation, policy discourse, and strategic practice. Regional formations are therefore inherently dynamic, historically produced, and shaped both internally by actors within them and externally by global powers. The journal encourages analyses that situate regions within broader global energy and security structures while maintaining their analytical distinctiveness as units of international political life.
The journal is situated within International Relations, understood as a field concerned with the formation, contestation, and transformation of international order. It engages with a broad range of theoretical traditions, including realism, liberal institutionalism, constructivism, critical security studies, International Political Economy, and postcolonial and poststructuralist approaches, insofar as they illuminate the role of energy in regional and global political structures.
The journal is particularly attentive to scholarship that interrogates Western-centric framings of energy governance and foregrounds regional and Global South agency in the construction of energy order.
Methodologically, the journal adopts an inclusive stance, welcoming qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method research, as well as comparative approaches that advance theoretically informed analysis of regional energy governance and security.
Submissions are expected to engage explicitly with International Relations or cognate theoretical literatures; purely technical, engineering, or descriptive policy analysis falls outside the journal's scope unless situated within a clear analytical or theoretical framework.
The Journal of Regional Energy Governance and Security publishes original, peer-reviewed research articles only. The journal does not consider book reviews, policy briefs, commentaries, or other non-research formats.
All submissions are expected to present original scholarly contributions grounded in International Relations and related disciplines, and to engage substantively with the journal’s focus on regional energy governance and security.
All research articles published in this journal undergo rigorous double-blind peer review. Submissions are first assessed by the editorial team for scope, originality, and scholarly suitability, followed by evaluation by at least two independent expert referees. Final publication decisions are made by the editors on the basis of these reports and the overall academic merit of the manuscript. More information
All articles published in the Journal of Regional Energy Governance and Security are freely and immediately available online, with no embargo period, subscription fee, or paywall. Articles may be read, downloaded, and shared without charge or registration.
Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, adaptation, and reproduction in any medium, provided appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and source, a link to the licence is provided, and any changes made are clearly indicated.
Authors retain copyright in their published work and may deposit it in institutional or subject repositories, personal websites, or preprint servers at any time without restriction.
The journal currently levies no article processing charge (APC).
The journal is registered with an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) and assigns a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to every published article, ensuring stable citation and long-term discoverability independent of hosting arrangements. Each article is issued a permanent URL upon publication and is not altered after publication, except where required for corrections or retractions, which will be clearly indicated on the original article page.
The Journal of Regional Energy Governance and Security is published twice a year, with two issues annually. This biannual schedule reflects the journal’s commitment to rigorous peer review and the publication of high-quality, original research in International Relations and regional energy governance.
JREGS is intended for scholars and graduate students in international relations, energy studies, and security studies; policymakers and analysts working on regional energy governance; and practitioners in the energy, diplomatic, and security sectors seeking rigorous, policy-relevant academic analysis.
The Journal of Regional Energy Governance and Security maintains an active digital presence to disseminate published research, engage with the scholarly community, and communicate journal news and announcements.
The journal's primary platform is its official website, which serves as the permanent repository for all published content, editorial policies, submission guidelines, and announcements. To broaden the visibility and accessibility of its publications, the journal also maintains official profiles on Facebook, Bluesky, and LinkedIn, where newly published articles, calls for papers, special issues, and other relevant updates are regularly shared.
While social media platforms support the journal's outreach and community engagement, the official journal website remains the authoritative source for all published content and editorial information.
The Journal of Regional Energy Governance and Security operates as an independent, non-profit, diamond open-access journal. The journal does not charge subscription fees or article processing charges (APCs). Its operation is supported through voluntary donations from individuals and organisations, as well as in-kind institutional support where available.
Financial contributions are used exclusively to support the journal's operation, including website maintenance, digital infrastructure, editorial administration, DOI registration, and long-term preservation of published content.
Donors have no influence over the journal's editorial policies, peer-review process, or publication decisions, which remain solely the responsibility of the editorial team and are based exclusively on scholarly merit.