In Harvard University’s Russia Matters, Paul Saunders argues that the combination of Western bans on importing Russian oil with the oil price cap have produced a massive oil windfall for China. Competing with Moscow and Beijing simultaneously will require greater sophistication in U.S. policy.
The collision between geopolitics, energy, and technology may be a defining aspect of the international system in the 2020s. Even as the United States and its allies work to diversify their supply chains to avoid over-dependence on geopolitical competitors, they are in simultaneous cooperation and competition with one another. The session explored opportunities for deeper cooperation with U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific region in energy and energy-related technologies, including electric vehicles and batteries, as well as underlying tensions.
On May 29, 2024, Energy Innovation Reform Project sponsored an online discussion of China’s dominant position in electric vehicle battery markets and opportunities for U.S.-South Korea cooperation. EIRP senior advisor Paul Saunders moderated the session, which included remarks by the University of Georgia’s David Gattie and Hanyang University’s Younkyoo Kim. Each of the speakers has contributed working papers to EIRP’s U.S.-Korea Energy Series.
In The Washington Times, EIRP Senior Advisor Paul Saunders, who is also President of the Center for the National Interest, argues that after decades of concern over Europe’s energy dependence on Russia, Washington would do well to turn its attention to Moscow’s new energy partners, including not only its oil and gas customers, but also the governments seeking Russian help to develop nuclear energy and to develop energy-related mining projects.
Contributing the fourth paper in EIRP’s US-Korea Energy Series, Hanyang University’s Younkyoo Kim provides a South Korean perspective on US-China competition surrounding EV battery supply chains as well as US-South Korea cooperation in addressing it. He gives special attention to South Korea’s dependence on China as a challenge for policymakers.
In the third paper in EIRP’s US-Korea Energy Series, David Gattie and Chase Duncan of the University of Georgia’s Center for International Trade and Security address China’s dominance of electric vehicle battery supply chains and how further US-Korea cooperation could support American policy goals.
EIRP Senior Advisor Paul Saunders examines how war and sanctions have reshaped Russia’s role in global energy systems and how this might change over the next 5-10 years under additional pressure from the energy transition.
On April 2, 2024, EIRP and the Center for the National Interest co-sponsored a panel discussion of EIRP’s new report, Restoring America’s Nuclear Energy Leadership and Exports. Speakers included Assistant Secretary of Energy Kathryn Huff, former Centrus Energy CEO Daniel Poneman, and leading experts on U.S. nuclear energy and nonproliferation policy.
In this EIRP policy report, EIRP Senior Advisor Paul Saunders argues that today’s U.S. nuclear energy policies–accumulated over decades, from the beginning of the nuclear age–have not kept up with realities. To restore U.S. nuclear energy leadership and exports, the United States should modernize its approach to civil nuclear cooperation to account for changing geopolitics, technology, markets, and priorities. The report calls for new policies to innovate, accelerate, facilitate, and cooperate.
In the sixth installment of EIRP’s working paper series on Russia’s global energy role, Irina Mironova examines the least prominent of Russia’s fossil fuel industries, but one that forms the backbone of Russia’s railway system and whose workers have had outsized political impact in the past. While Russia has been largely able to redirect its coal exports following its invasion of Ukraine, the sector faces important challenges ahead.
