In testimony before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Multilateral International Development, Multilateral Institutions, and International Economic, Energy, and Environmental Policy, nonresident scholar Todd Moss outlined how the United States can better utilize energy policy to pursue its objectives in sub-Saharan Africa.
Mexico initiated a series of structural reforms in 2013, including major changes to policies governing telecommunications. Nonresident scholar Clara Luz Álvarez explores the implications of a recent ruling by Mexico’s Supreme Court on one of the related laws passed by Congress in a blog post for the Baker Institute Blog.
This brief quantifies the potential exposure of key European countries to Russian gas price and supply manipulation, shows how Moscow has used energy as an instrument of coercive diplomacy since the early 1990s, and briefly assesses the impacts and future policy implications of Russian entities’ past use of the “energy weapon” in and near Europe.
Although it has not been widely successful to date in the former Soviet zone, Russia's use of the energy weapon against Western European countries in various forms still constitutes a strategic threat that warrants close attention from policymakers in Washington and throughout Europe, writes fellow Gabriel Collins.
The fall of Mosul and the ongoing demise of the ISIS pseudo-state are good news, but they do not herald either an end to the jihadist terrorist threat nor promise an enduring solution to the ongoing conflicts that have afflicted Iraq and, especially, Syria, writes Bonner Means Baker Fellow Joe Barnes in this post for the Baker Institute Blog.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro appears to be a month away from destroying all remnants of what was once one of Latin America's most stable democracies.
Mexico is gradually laying the foundation for an oil and gas sector where private—along with some state-owned—international companies are taking central stage. However, authorities should not ignore the necessity of developing a domestic oil and gas sector, writes Adrian Duhalt in a post for the Baker Institute blog.
The energy reform in Mexico has implemented far-reaching changes in the political, economic, and legal spheres of the country. Any process whereby an industry is opened to private investment investment gives rise to the possibility of disputes that need to be settled within an environment of legal certainty. International arbitration in general, and investment arbitration in particular, are tools that serve both the investor and the state to properly resolve disputes that arise in the energy sector. However, the author argues that a balance must be sought between the legitimate interests and expectations of an investor and the public policy interests of the state, particularly whenever a sector as significant as energy is concerned.
The landscape is changing for foreign direct investment in Latin America. Investments flow not only from north to south, but also from south to south and south to north. What's more, relatively small firms in developing countries are becoming as likely as multinationals to invest abroad.
Research scholar Abdullah Aydogan explores to what extent would the spread of right-wing populism in the West may influence the nature of civil-military relations across the world in a post for the Baker Institute blog.
