Matt Stone

For the past week, Bahrain has taken center stage, along with Libya, in the unfolding drama shaking the Arab world. While the island kingdom carries little of the weight and influence of a political and cultural power like Egypt, the events in Bahrain have the potential to reshape the geopolitics of the Gulf, with knock-on effects for global oil markets and the U.S.-Saudi relationship. more

In the ongoing saga of Russian energy diplomacy -- intimately tied to Moscow's attempts to consolidate its influence in its "near abroad" -- the Dec. 9 oil-trade agreement with Belarus goes down as an important marker of Russia's reinvigorated authority in its immediate neighborhood. Moscow can safely assume that the two-decade era of Western influence expanding eastward has been put on hold indefinitely. more

On Nov. 18, the leaders of the five Caspian Sea littoral states -- Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan -- gathered in Baku to discuss issues including maritime-border delimitation, security and environmental protection. Despite a dramatically changed regional situation since the last summit in 2007, the Baku meeting nevertheless produced little of substance. But recent trends point to future breakthroughs. more

Since Russia's January 2009 cutoff of gas supplies to Ukraine, European leaders have prioritized energy security as a matter of "high politics" to a degree never before witnessed. As the events of early 2009 illustrated, that means crafting a coherent energy policy for Russia and Central Asia that has buy-in from a majority, if not all, of the EU member states. Doing so requires overcoming schizophrenia in European policymaking circles about both Moscow's intentions and how it uses its energy exports to achieve its foreign policy goals.
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On Oct. 20, Iraq will auction rights to three natural gas fields to private investors. For Baghdad, the success of this bid round will go some way toward determining its ability to address Iraqi citizens' concerns over power shortages. For outsiders, the comprehensive development of the Iraqi gas sector offers hope that in the medium term, Iraqi gas could begin to compete directly with Russian gas in the European market. more

Demonstrating a predictable lack of strategic foresight, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs will hold its mark-up session for the Armenian Genocide resolution tomorrow. While there is little doubt outside of Turkey that genocide was perpetrated against the Armenians in the 1910s, the resolution threatens to undermine U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and South Caucasus at exactly the wrong time. more

When Russia invited Western energy companies to help develop Siberian natural gas fields in late September, many observers viewed it as proof that low oil prices had forced Moscow to reconsider its adversarial relations with private investors. That interpretation ignores a more important narrative that emerged from the meeting about Russia's shifting attention toward liquefied natural gas. more