Featured Publications
The Trilateral Bond: Mapping a New Era for Latin America, the United States, and Europe
Egypt's Litigious Transition: Judicial Intervention and the Muddied Road to Democracy
A New Deal: Reforming US Defense Cooperation with Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership: Ambitious but Achievable
Time to Move from Tactics to Strategy on Iran
Lowering the Price of Russian Gas: A Challenge for European Energy Security
Does Beijing Have a Strategy? China's Alternative Futures
Council News
Michele Dunne and Amy Hawthorne on US Policy in Middle East (NPR)
Hariri Center Director Michele Dunne and Senior Fellow Amy Hawthorne reflect on US policy toward the Middle East and North Africa in the two years since President Barack Obama promised to make it a top priority to support democracy and human rights in the region.
J. Peter Pham Speaks on Sahel Politics and Security in The Hague
J. Peter Pham, director the Atlantic Council’s Michael S. Ansari Africa Center, was one of four experts invited to address a high-level international conference on the crisis in the Sahel region convened today in The Hague.
Rudolph Atallah Testifies before House Panel on Crisis in the Sahel
Rudolph Atallah, senior fellow in the Atlantic Council’s Michael S. Ansari Africa Center, testified at a House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing on “The Growing Crisis in Africa’s Sahel Region.”
Mihaela Carstei on the US-Canada Keystone Pipeline Project (CTV)
On the heels of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s visit to the United States, Energy & Environment Program Associate Director Mihaela Carstei joins CTV to discuss the Keystone Pipeline project that would transport tar sands oil from Canada and the northern United States to refineries in the Gulf coast of Texas.
Biography
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Frank Umbach
Frank Umbach is a senior fellow with the Council's Energy and Environment Program.
Dr. Umbach is also associate director of the European Center for Energy and Resource Security (EUCERS) at the King's College in London, a senior associate and the head of the International Energy Security Program at the Centre for European Security Strategies in Munich, and a consultant on international energy security and security policies in the Asia-Pacific. He’s a regional expert on energy, foreign and security policy in Russia, the Caspian region, East Asia, as well as EU and NATO as they relate to energy supply security, energy foreign policies, geopolitical challenges, global energy trends, maritime security, and cyber threats to critical energy infrastructures.
From 1996 to 2007, Umbach was the head of the International Energy Security Program and the Security Policies in Asia-Pacific Program at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) in Berlin. In 2007, he was appointed as an official advisor of the Lithuanian government on international energy security. He was also co-chair of the European Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in Asia-Pacific, the most important regional track-two diplomacy institution for security policies in the Asia-Pacific region and currently, inter alia, a member of two expert groups on transatlantic energy security during the last years.
His previous posts include research fellow from at the Federal Institute for East European and International Affairs in Cologne (1991-94); research fellow at the research institute of the Japanese Foreign Ministry in Tokyo (1995-96); research assistant in the Office of the Special Advisor for Central and East European Affairs, Office of the General Secretary of NATO, in Brussels (1992); and became a consultant of that office and a presenter at official NATO conferences.
Mr. Umbach has served as consultant of the German Foreign and Defense Ministries and has published analyses as well as giving presentations on international energy security on behalf of the European Commission and the European Parliament in Brussels, the US Department of State, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission of the US Congress, NATO, the OSCE, the House of Lords in London, as well as the Polish Foreign and Economic Ministries.
Dr. Umbach is a member of the prestigious International Institute for Strategic Studies in London and the author of more than 300 publications in more than twenty-five countries, including the books Global Energy Security: Strategic Challenges for the European and German Foreign Policy (Munich: Oldenbourg-Verlag, 2003, 328 pp. in German); Cooperation or Conflict in Asia Pacific? China’s Tying into Regional Security Structures and the Implications for Europe (Munich: Oldenbourg-Verlag, 2003, 395 pp. in German), and The Red Alliance. Development and Decay of the Warsaw Pact 1955-1991 (The Ch. Links-Verlag, Berlin 2005, 728 pp). He has a regular column with Geopolitical Information Service (GIS - www.geopolitical-info.com) on international energy, raw material, and security policies.
He studied political science, eastern European history, and international law at the universities of Marburg and Bonn, and received his PhD in 1996 (Bonn) with a dissertation on the rise and fall of the Warsaw Pact 1955 to 1991.
Publications
- Energy: The Eurasian pipeline competition enters a new and critical phase, March 26, 2012, Geopolitical Information Service
- Why the ‘TANAP’ project is proving a game changer in the Eurasian pipeline competition, March 27, 2012, Geopolitical Information Service
- Turkmenistan’s gas reserves add a new dimension to the geopolitics of Eurasia, March 28, 2012, Geopolitical Information Service
- “ETS Reform Proposals and the Implications for Clean Coal and CCS Projects”, CEEP-Report, No. 1, September 2012, pp. 5-6
- “Critical Energy Infrastructure and Risk of Cyber Attack“, in: KAS-International Reports, September 2012, pp. 35-66
- “Diversification vs Monopoly. Challenges and Prospects for the EU-Russian Energy Partnership," in: Russia in Global Affairs, No. 2, April-June /2012, pp. 194-207. (link to pdf-file attached); Russian Version: „Глобальный избыток газа?“ (“Global Gas Market”?), in: Global Affairs (Moscow), May 2012
FEATURED EVENTS
Evolving US-European Security Cooperation with the Gulf States
On May 23, the Atlantic Council’s Middle East Peace and Security Initiative at the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security is hosting a panel discussion on new developments in security cooperation among the United States, its European allies, and the Gulf states, and how they are likely to evolve in the coming years.
The Kaleidoscope Turns Again in a Crisis-Challenged Iran
On May 30, the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center will release a new issue brief, The Kaleidoscope Turns Again in a Crisis-Challenged Iran, a discussion of Iran’s upcoming presidential elections.
2013 Wroclaw Global Forum
From June 13-14, the 2013 Wrocław Global Forum will bring together over 350 top policy-makers and business leaders to explore the region’s impact as an actor in Europe, as well as its crucial role in the transatlantic partnership and on the global stage.
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