Energy Archive

Last week, officials from the United States and Central America met in El Salvador to discuss energy cooperation, including developing a regional energy market. In an email interview, Alexis Arthur, an energy policy associate at the Institute of the Americas, discussed U.S. energy cooperation with Central America. WPR: What is the current state of Central America’s energy infrastructure, and how extensive is U.S. cooperation with the region on energy issues? Alexis Arthur: Central America has become a model for the Latin American region with the interconnection of power grids across six countries. The Central American Electrical Interconnection System, or SIEPAC, […]

Ties between Russia and Japan are slowly picking up steam again after a 16-month chill following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014. Earlier this month, Shotaro Yachi, Japan’s national security adviser, traveled to Moscow and met with his Russian counterpart to discuss President Vladimir Putin’s plans to visit Japan later this year. And despite ongoing tensions over Ukraine, there are also signs that Japan’s foreign minister, Fumio Kishida, may travel to Russia in the coming months to prepare for a potential Putin visit. Japan-Russia cooperation is also continuing on the security front with bilateral maritime security drills, focused primarily […]

Electric Yerevan, the name given to protests in Armenia that started last month, has mostly ended. But the grievances that catapulted anger over a utility rate hike into weeks of protests in the capital, Yerevan, and across the country remain all too relevant. While much international commentary on the protests has examined the geopolitical significance and repercussions of the unrest, both the Armenian government and the thousands of demonstrators themselves have insisted the protests focused on issues a little closer to home. Rather than a repudiation of Russia or a nod to the West, the protests sought to highlight the […]

Today, the phrase “Arctic energy” has become synonymous with snowy oil rigs, icy ocean exploration and Greenpeace activists. The conditional U.S. approval in May of Shell’s plans to drill in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska has reinforced this narrow delineation of what’s included in polar energy debates. Reflecting how observers and international policymakers view the Arctic more generally, northern energy is written as an extractive narrative. From the opening of shipping routes to warnings of climate change consequences, the Arctic is frequently framed and valued by how it can help those living below the 66th parallel. But there is another […]

In eastern Mediterranean politics, it used to be Turkey and Israel versus Greece and Cyprus. Now it’s Israel, Cyprus and Greece versus Turkey. This formulation is certainly exaggerated, but Israel and Cyprus do appear to be strengthening their ties, as represented by President Nicos Anastasiades’ visit to Jerusalem last month. The shift is reflective of changed regional conditions in both the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East at large, as well as within the countries themselves, particularly Turkey. In the mid-1990s, Turkey and Israel drew closer because of shared regional threats and challenges from Iraq, Syria and Iran, with a particular […]