"The key is in our hands:" Soviet energy strategy during Détente and the global oil crises of the 1970s

This essay traces the rise of the Soviet Union as Europe’s key energy supplier during the 1970s and early 1980s. While détente and the global energy crises proved to be accelerating factors in fostering East-West economic cooperation, it was
ultimately the USSR’s own impeding “energy crisis” that prompted Soviet leaders to seek closer relations with the West. If the Soviet Union wanted to meet the…