Late December 2013: Baghdad and Erbil agree on Kurdistan's oil revenue payments. Reportedly, funds are to be deposited with New York-based JPMorgan in an account previously opened in the name of the Development Fund of Iraq (DFI). Iraqi Prime … [Read more...] about Kurdistan Oil Export: A Game Changer
Energy policy
Weekly Briefing – May 31-June 7, 2014
From ACD Cyberspace Time Security - Rachel Ehrenfeld - Speaking at the Shangri-LaDialogue security summit, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel again warned the Chinese to stop their cyber spying activities, suggesting they should renew the dialog to … [Read more...] about Weekly Briefing – May 31-June 7, 2014
Europe – Energy Security for Climate Change
The agenda of the G7 leaders' meeting in Brussels does not include energy security as an independent topic. Instead the leaders will discuss energy in the context of climate change. Two paragraphs, under “Energy and Climate Change,” talk about the … [Read more...] about Europe – Energy Security for Climate Change
Weekly Briefing – May 24-30, 2014
Time to Debunk Political Islam - Rachel Ehrenfeld - Islamism has been accepted by the West as simply another political point of view and its growing efforts and sometimes violent acts to force its dictates, has been met with little, if any resistance … [Read more...] about Weekly Briefing – May 24-30, 2014
Hard Truths, Difficult Choices: Recommendations to the G-7 on Bolstering Energy Security
In advance of next week’s G-7 meeting in Brussels aimed at seeking ways to strengthen Europe’s energy security, Dr. Gal Luft, co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS), and a member of ACD’s Board of Advisors, "calls on … [Read more...] about Hard Truths, Difficult Choices: Recommendations to the G-7 on Bolstering Energy Security
South China Sea Territorial Disputes
"Vietnamese Riot in Industrial Zones in Anti-China Protest," Reuters, Hanoi, 14 May 2014. Thousands of workers took to the streets to demonstrate against "Chinese oil drilling in a contested area of the South China Sea." It did not take long before … [Read more...] about South China Sea Territorial Disputes
Putin, Bluffer-in-Chief
The current extremely successful campaign of aggression by Russia’s dictator-candidate Vladimir Putin illustrates two of the fundamentals of geopolitical history: * A demagogue’s capability of achieving remarkable results through bluff. * How … [Read more...] about Putin, Bluffer-in-Chief
American LNG to the Rescue! Not Exactly.*
When Secretary of State John Kerry tried to lead an LNG posse to rescue the Europeans, blackmailed in the Ukraine affair by their heavy dependence on Russian natural gas, his bluff was soon called. True, the U.S. has a growing natural gas surplus. … [Read more...] about American LNG to the Rescue! Not Exactly.*
Will Korea Be the Next Ukraine?
Washington’s eyes may be on the latest developments in the Keystone pipeline dispute and the Crimean Peninsula crisis, but a bigger story is unfolding, involving an entirely different pipeline and an entirely different peninsula. In a swift move to … [Read more...] about Will Korea Be the Next Ukraine?
Russia: The Geopolitics of Natural Gas
Russia’s economic weakness lies in its dependency on natural gas, which represents nearly 60 percent of its exports. This dependency, which led Senator John McCain to describe Russia as “a gas station masquerading as a country,” should make economic … [Read more...] about Russia: The Geopolitics of Natural Gas