Geopolitics of Energy in the Eastern Mediterranean: Panel 1
Panel One: The Geopolitical Promise of Energy in the Eastern Mediterranean
Date: April 15, 2015
Time: 12:30pm – 1:45pm
Location: 1100 New York Avenue, NW 7th Floor, West Tower
Conference Details: The Geopolitics of Energy in the Eastern Mediterranean
Join ASP and our panelists in a discussion about the geopolitics of energy in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The panel will examine the potential of using new found energy reserves to build international cooperation within the region. For the countries bordering the Eastern Mediterranean, conflict, mistrust, and insecurity have characterized regional relationships for decades. Could the newly discovered undersea natural gas fields catalyze a more cooperative relationship among countries in the region?
Speakers
Panelist: Tim Boersma
Tim Boersma is a fellow and acting director in the Energy Security and Climate Initiative, part of the Foreign Policy program at Brookings. His research focuses on energy policy coordination, energy security, gas infrastructure and regulation, resource scarcity, and unconventional natural gas extraction.
From 2011 to 2012, he was a Transatlantic Academy fellow in Washington, D.C. Before starting his career in research, Tim spent five years in the private sector, working as a corporate counsel to the electricity production sector in the Netherlands. Tim recently authored a monograph with Philip Andrews-Speed, Raimund Bleischwitz, Corey Johnson, Geoffrey Kemp, and Stacy D. VanDeveer called Want, Waste, or War? The Global Resource Nexus and the Struggle for Land, Energy, Food, Water, and Minerals, published by Routledge in November 2014. In addition, he is working on his manuscript entitled “Energy Security and Natural Gas Markets in Europe: Lessons from the EU and the United States,” which is scheduled to be published in the series Routledge Studies in Energy Policy in June 2015. Boersma holds a doctorate in international relations from the University of Groningen.
Panelist: Zack Gold
Zack Gold specializes in security in the Sinai Peninsula and relations among Egypt, Israel, Gaza, and the United States. From 2011-2014 he served as a researcher at the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy. Prior to that, he was a research associate at the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis and previously conducted counterterrorism research at the International Policy Institute for Counter-terrorism in Israel. Gold twice received the Department of State’s Critical Language Scholarship to study Arabic in Oman and Egypt, and also studied Arabic at The American University in Cairo. His work has been published regularly by the Atlantic Council, The Brookings Institution, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Christian Science Monitor, ForeignAffairs.com, ForeignPolicy.com, the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague, and NationalInterest.org. Gold earned his M.A. in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School, Tufts University; and his B.A. in political science and communication from the University of Delaware. He concurrently serves as an Adjunct Fellow at the American Security Project.
Panelist: Andrew Holland
Andrew Holland is the American Security Project’s Senior Fellow for Energy and Climate. He is a Washington-based expert on energy, climate change, and infrastructure policy. He works at the center of debates about how to achieve sustainable energy security and how to effectively address climate change.
He served as Legislative Assistant on Energy, Environment, and Infrastructure for United States Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska for three years from 2006 through 2008. He worked in the US House of Representatives for the House Ways and Means Committee and the Office of Congresswoman Roukema.
He holds a Master’s Degree in International Strategy and Economics from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and a Bachelor’s Degree in History and Economics from Wake Forest University in North Carolina.
He is an experienced writer and strategic analyst. He is widely cited in the media on energy and environmental policy. He has spoken about energy security, Arctic policy, and water resources at high-level events in South Korea, Brussels, Washington, London, Berlin, Geneva, and China.
In 2009 and 2010, he was the manager of the Transatlantic Dialogue on Climate Change and Security for the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). This dialogue, funded by the European Commission, brought together subject experts from government, the military, NGOs, Think Tanks, and academia to discuss the impacts of climate change on food, water, and energy security. He has a close relationship with a diverse group of energy, security, and environmental experts from around the world.
He is a member of the Emerging Leaders in Energy and Environmental Policy (ELEEP) Network, a transatlantic network operated by the Atlantic Council and the Ecologic Institute, and is a member of the IISS.
