The Geopolitics of Energy in the 21st Century
Patrick McCarthy Memorial Series on Intellectuals and Politics supported by the Patrick McCarthy Fund
hosted by Professor
Michael Leigh
Brenda Shaffer
Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies (CERES), Georgetown University; University of Haifa, Israel
Brenda Shaffer is currently a visiting researcher at the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies (CERES) at Georgetown University. Shaffer is on sabbatical from the University of Haifa, where she is a professor in the School of Political Science.
She is a specialist on energy and foreign policy, energy security policies, Azerbaijan, the Caucasus, Caspian energy and Eastern Mediterranean energy issues.
Shaffer previously served as the Research Director of the Caspian Studies Program at Harvard University.
She has published various articles, including "Natural gas supply stability and foreign policy,"
Energy Policy, 2013; "Nagorno-Karabakh after Crimea,"
Foreign Affairs, 2014; "Pipeline Problems,"
Foreign Affairs, 2014 and "Gas Politics after Ukraine,"
Foreign Affairs, 2013. Shaffer is also the author of a number of books, including
Energy Politics (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009),
Borders and Brethren: Iran and the Challenge of Azerbaijani Identity (MIT Press, 2002). She is the editor of
Beyond the Resource Curse (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012).
Professor Shaffer served as an advisor to the Government of Israel's Zemach Committee for natural gas policy and Israel's Ministry of Energy and Water. She has given U.S. congressional testimony on issues related to energy and to the Caspian region
Her op-eds have appeared in a number of newspapers and publications, including
Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, Reuters, Foreign Policy, Christian Science Monitor, and
Boston Globe.