Oil, Energy and Middle East Project
The Institute is directing a joint project devoted to Oil and Energy and the Middle East. This is part of a multi-year joint effort by the Department of Near Eastern Studies and the Princeton Environmental Institute to develop expertise and research excellence on three facets of the unequaled fossil fuel reserves in the Persian Gulf region. These are: 1) the geo-political and security considerations as well as the domestic politics of energy in the Gulf; 2) the economic and financial aspects of oil and gas markets; 3) the technological features and environmental implications of these particular reserves. TRI is running a speakers’ series related to the oil and energy project and hosting two research fellows. There are two themes we would like to focus on during this academic year: 1) the study of the effects of the recent petro-boom cycle, and now bust, and to compare this to the previous ones in the 1970s and 80s; 2) the study of the new industrialization policies of the Gulf countries as well as their food security policies. The two research fellows for the oil and energy project are: 1) Roger Stern who is working on the Iranian oil economy as well as US military doctrines with respect to force projection into the Persian Gulf; 2) Eckart Woertz of the Gulf Research Center in Dubai is completing a book on the politics of food security of the Gulf Cooperation Countries.