International energy arbitration is no longer governed by contract law alone. It is increasingly shaped by geopolitics. Wars now determine far more than energy prices. They influence whether long-term supply contracts remain performable, whether arbitral proceedings can continue, and whether the awards they produce can ultimately be enforced.

The Russia-Ukraine war exposed this transformation. Sanctions fractured contractual performance, complicated enforcement against state entities, and elevated public policy from a peripheral concern to a central feature of international arbitration. The conflict also raised whether awards arising from sanctions-affected contracts can survive review against EU public policy at the enforcement stage. That question is now before the CJEU in Reibel v Stankoimport. The Advocate General's February 2026 opinion confirmed that sanctions-affected disputes remain arbitrable in principle while indicating that EU public policy may nevertheless constrain enforcement. Arbitration's promise of finality is increasingly contingent upon........

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