While the world remains transfixed by China, and U.S. foreign policy “pivots” to Asia, the tectonic plates of the global system continue to shift, offering much economic and geopolitical potential for Atlantic countries that are able to seize the coming opportunities. Recent changes in global geopolitics have collided with ongoing trends in the energy sector to transform the future prospects of the Atlantic Basin. Many of these energy vectors are either unique to the basin or are more advanced in the Atlantic than in the Indian Ocean or the Pacific. The expansion of renewables, the shale gas revolution, the boom in southern Atlantic oil, the dynamism of liquified natural gas (LNG), and the possible emergence of gas-to-liquids (GTL) together have placed the Atlantic Basin at the cutting edge of the energy future. What does this cross-cutting change mean for the basin? What are the wider geopolitical implications of the change?
Speaker: Paul A. Isbell, CAF Energy Fellow, the Centre for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins University-SAIS in Washington, D.C.
Paul Isbell is the CAF Energy Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins University-SAIS in Washington, D.C. Previously he was Senior Analyst for International Economy and Trade at the Elcano Royal Institute for International and Strategic Studies in Madrid and, subsequently the Director of its Energy and Climate Change Programme. Mr Isbell has also been an economist and advisor for Banco Santander´s equity broker in Madrid, a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, D.C., an energy and climate change consultant to the Inter-American Development Bank, and an adjunct (or visiting) professor of international economics, energy and global affairs at George Washington University, Syracuse University, Universidad Pontificia Comillas-ICADE, the Franklin Institute of the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, and the Instituto de Empresa, among others. Currently he is visiting professor at the Buenos Aires Technological Institute (ITBA) in Argentina. He is also the author of “Energy and the Atlantic: The Shifting Energy Landscape of the Atlantic Basin”.
Comments: Antto Vihma, Research Fellow, the Finnish Institute of International Affairs
Chair: Mikael Wigell, Research Fellow, the Finnish Institute of International Affairs
For further information: Ms Sannamari Bagge, sannamari.bagge@fiia.fi
