Energy and Security Risks: A Transatlantic Comparison

Paul Sullivan

National Defense University

Dr. Paul Sullivan has been a professor of economics at the National Defense University (NDU) since July 1999. He has been a primary faculty adviser to flag officers from the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, and East Asia while at NDU. He has been part of the leadership and faculty of the NDU Energy Industry Study for 15 years. Dr. Sullivan has run field studies related to the energy, environment and agribusiness industries in Tanzania, Egypt, Morocco, Spain, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, France, Greece, Turkey, the UAE, Qatar, Australia, Japan, Mongolia, China, throughout the United States, and many other places as part of his duties at NDU.

Dr. Sullivan is an Adjunct Professor of Security Studies at Georgetown University, where he has taught classes on global energy and international security (which include analyses of energy issues for the EU, Russia, the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, India, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, Australia, the United States, Canada, and the Arctic) for over 14 years. He is a Senior International Fellow at the National Council of U.S. Arab Relations and an Adjunct Senior Fellow for Future Global Resource Threats at the Federation of American Scientists. He also teaches courses on resources and security and the Arab World and Asia (Northeast and South) for the Yale Alumni College in Washington, DC.

Dr. Sullivan has been involved in the energy work at the UNCTAD with a focus on Africa. He was a senior fellow at the EastWest Center, and a VP at the UN Association of the National Capitol Area. He is an internationally recognized expert on the political economy and economic development of the Middle East and North Africa, energy and water security, and various economic, political, and resource issues of Northeast Asia and South Asia. He taught classes on the economics of Egypt, the economic development of the Middle East and the economic history of the Middle East at the American University in Cairo for six years. He was part of the initial point team to help establish a National Defense College in the UAE. He has been advising senior leadership in government and the military on economic, energy, water, extremism, U.S.-Islamic and U.S.-Arab relations, the Middle East and North Africa, East Asia, South Asia, and other economic and security issues for decades.

Dr. Sullivan obtained his Ph.D. from Yale University with highest honors and graduated summa cum laude from Brandeis University. Dr. Sullivan is a graduate of the Seminar XXI Program at MIT. He has a certificate of completion from the EthoarchaeologyField Study run by Flinders University in Barunga, Australia. He is a member of Chatham House, The Royal Economic Society, and the IISS. A selected list of his publications and other activities can be found at https://www.linkedin.com/in/drsullivenergy.

Policy Report 55

Cutting across policy areas, energy security decision-making has become a necessity in the twenty-first century. Having important consequences for climate and space policy, domestic and transatlantic debates over energy policy include inherent risks that have eluded international efforts. In Energy and Security Risks: A Transatlantic Comparison, the authors address these intertwined consequences in three policy areas. First, Paul Sullivan writes on challenges in securing energy supplies in our highly interconnected system. Then, Max M. Mutschler examines risks in space policy without international cooperation. Finally, Achim Maas analyzes the growth agenda on climate engineering.

Policy Report 55 is published within the greater framework of AGI’s ongoing project, entitled “New Systemic Risks: Challenges and Opportunities for Transatlantic Cooperation,” in cooperation with the Stiftung Wissenshaft und Politik in Berlin.


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The views expressed are those of the author(s) alone. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the American-German Institute.