Rosatom Overseas: Russia's Nuclear Energy Empire
Location
PANEL: Politics Honors Pt. I
Wilder 101
Moderator: David Forrest
Document Type
Presentation - Open Access
Start Date
5-1-2026 3:30 PM
End Date
5-1-2026 4:30 PM
Abstract
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, five countries, all in the Global South, have constructed their first nuclear power plant. Four have done so in partnership with Russia. At a time when Moscow is increasingly isolated diplomatically, its dominance in the nuclear sector, spanning reactor exports, fuel supply chains, and waste management, presents a puzzle that challenges prevailing U.S. assumptions about how the Global South views Russia today. The nuclear marketplace is not without alternatives: Rosatom, Russia's state energy corporation, has consistently won bids against competitors from the United States, Canada, France, Japan, South Korea, and China. Traditional explanations for success in infrastructure diplomacy centered on financial incentives, technological superiority, or geopolitical pressure fail to capture the full complexity of this industry. This research examines the drivers of Russia's success in reactor exports to the Global South through comparative analysis and historical process tracing across three cases, Bangladesh, Türkiye, and Egypt, and proposes a three-tiered hierarchical framework for evaluating overseas nuclear power plant construction proposals.
Keywords:
Russian foreign policy, Nuclear energy, Infrastructure investment, International security
Recommended Citation
Daley, Lucas, "Rosatom Overseas: Russia's Nuclear Energy Empire" (2026). Research Symposium. 6.
https://digitalcommons.oberlin.edu/researchsymp/2026/presentations/6
Major
Politics; Economics; Russian
Project Mentor(s)
Steve Crowley, Politics
2026
Rosatom Overseas: Russia's Nuclear Energy Empire
PANEL: Politics Honors Pt. I
Wilder 101
Moderator: David Forrest
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, five countries, all in the Global South, have constructed their first nuclear power plant. Four have done so in partnership with Russia. At a time when Moscow is increasingly isolated diplomatically, its dominance in the nuclear sector, spanning reactor exports, fuel supply chains, and waste management, presents a puzzle that challenges prevailing U.S. assumptions about how the Global South views Russia today. The nuclear marketplace is not without alternatives: Rosatom, Russia's state energy corporation, has consistently won bids against competitors from the United States, Canada, France, Japan, South Korea, and China. Traditional explanations for success in infrastructure diplomacy centered on financial incentives, technological superiority, or geopolitical pressure fail to capture the full complexity of this industry. This research examines the drivers of Russia's success in reactor exports to the Global South through comparative analysis and historical process tracing across three cases, Bangladesh, Türkiye, and Egypt, and proposes a three-tiered hierarchical framework for evaluating overseas nuclear power plant construction proposals.
