Wilson Center Experts

Alexandros Petersen

Adviser
European Studies

Expertise:
Energy
;
Energy Security
;
Europe
;
Turkey
;
Russia and Eurasia
;
Caucasus
;
Central Asia
Affiliation:
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Wilson Center Project(s):
European Energy Security Initiative

Alexandros Petersen is Advisor to the European Energy Security Initiative (EESI) at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. An internationally recognized scholar of grand strategy and energy geopolitics, he is the author of The World Island: Eurasian Geopolitics and the Fate of the West. Previously, Petersen was Senior Fellow with the Eurasia Center and Fellow for Transatlantic Energy Security at the Atlantic Council. He came to the Council from the Woodrow Wilson Center, where he was Southeast Europe Policy Scholar and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where he was an Adjunct Fellow with the Russia and Eurasia Program. Previously, he served as Program Director of the Caspian Europe Center in Brussels and Senior Researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. In 2006, he was a Visiting Scholar at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies in Tbilisi. He has also provided research for the U.S. National Petroleum Council's Geopolitics and Policy Task Group and the Council on Foreign Relations Task Force on Russian-American Relations.Petersen regularly provides analysis for publications such as The Economist, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Boston Globe, and The Washington Times, among many others. He is also a frequent contributor to journals and magazines including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and The National Interest. Petersen has appeared on the BBC, Sky News, CTV and NPR. He serves on the Board of Young Professionals in Foreign Policy and the Editorial Board of Millennium: Journal of International Studies. Petersen received a BA in War Studies with First Class Honors from King's College London and an MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics.
 


Expertise


Energy security in Europe and Eurasia; Russia and Eurasia; Turkey; Caspian Sea; Central Asia; Caucasus conflicts

Related Content for this Expert

Russia, China and the geopolitics of energy in Central Asia

Nov 18, 2011
Alexandros Petersen, Advisor to the European Energy Security Initiative (EESI) at the Wilson Center, publishes a joint report on the geopolitics of energy in Central Asia along with the Deputy Director of the Centre for European Reform Katinka Barysch. more

Regions in Between: Europe, NATO and the Geopolitics of Shifting Frontiers

Jul 07, 2011
Summer 2008- This article was published in the Turkish Policy Quarterly (Volume 7, Number 2). The enlargement of Western institutions and the incorporation of regions in between has been defined by the desire of those regions to shed their ‘in between-ness’. Despite resistance from Russia and Western Europe, this momentum will likely continue. The West’s premier institutions, the EU and NATO, with an open mind towards involving Russia, would do well to positively engage in the geopolitics of shifting frontiers. more

Black Sea Security: The NATO Imperative

Jul 07, 2011
August 2004 - On March 29, 2004, Bulgaria and Romania joined NATO. The Black Sea is now ringed, on one side, by alliance countries and, on the other, by former Soviet states with varying degrees of instability and security problems. As the trans-Atlantic alliance spreads to the east toward the greater Black Sea region, it encounters new neighbors, where both asymmetrical and conventional threats that were previously not of primary concern now loom large. However, at the June 2004 NATO summit in Istanbul, held at the very entrance to the region, no coherent strategy was outlined for the alliance's new neighborhood and only scant mention was made of its immense strategic importance. more

European Energy Policy/ies in Transition - Internal and External Dimensions

June 15, 2011 // 1:00pm — 2:30pm
The tension between unity and diversity is the leitmotif of European politics, and energy policies are no exception. Given the diversity of the continent’s geography and history, it is natural that some nations and regions may support one policy over another, and that a unified policy is difficult to achieve. Marcel Vietor attributed this not only to the attitudes and values that vary from country to country, but also to the fact that different countries have different energy resources and requirements. more

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May 23, 2011 // 2:00pm — 3:00pm
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Europe's Energy Security in the Balance: What Future for the Southern Energy Corridor?

March 30, 2011 // 1:30pm — 3:00pm
Andrea Lockwood, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Eurasia, Africa and the Middle East, U.S. Department of Energy; Adnan Vatensever, Senior Associate, Energy and Climate Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; and Peter Doran, Senior Policy Analyst, Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). Moderator: Alexandros Petersen, Adviser, European Energy Security Initiative, Woodrow Wilson Center more

Russia, China and the geopolitics of energy in Central Asia

Nov 18, 2011
Alexandros Petersen, Advisor to the European Energy Security Initiative (EESI) at the Wilson Center, publishes a joint report on the geopolitics of energy in Central Asia along with the Deputy Director of the Centre for European Reform Katinka Barysch.

European Energy Policy/ies in Transition - Internal and External Dimensions

June 15, 2011 // 1:00pm — 2:30pm
The tension between unity and diversity is the leitmotif of European politics, and energy policies are no exception. Given the diversity of the continent’s geography and history, it is natural that some nations and regions may support one policy over another, and that a unified policy is difficult to achieve. Marcel Vietor attributed this not only to the attitudes and values that vary from country to country, but also to the fact that different countries have different energy resources and requirements.

Forging Central Europe's Energy Independence

May 23, 2011 // 2:00pm — 3:00pm
Anita Orban, Ambassador-at-Large for Energy Security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hungary

The Future of U.S.-EU Energy Cooperation

February 09, 2011 // 12:00pm — 2:00pm
Chief of staff at the Office of the Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy at the U.S. Department of State, Vincent J. O'brien, stated that "stakes for an energy secure future have never been higher than they are today." Cooperation is needed on securing new resources of natural gas, diversifying energy sources and creating a more integrated European energy market. Given that the U.S.–EU trade relationship is the largest in the world and that the economies are increasingly becoming interdependent, Europe's energy security is naturally in the best interest of the U.S. While the dynamics behind Europe's energy concerns are complex, pipeline politics seem to dominate discussions.

Regions in Between: Europe, NATO and the Geopolitics of Shifting Frontiers

Jul 07, 2011
Summer 2008- This article was published in the Turkish Policy Quarterly (Volume 7, Number 2). The enlargement of Western institutions and the incorporation of regions in between has been defined by the desire of those regions to shed their ‘in between-ness’. Despite resistance from Russia and Western Europe, this momentum will likely continue. The West’s premier institutions, the EU and NATO, with an open mind towards involving Russia, would do well to positively engage in the geopolitics of shifting frontiers.

Black Sea Security: The NATO Imperative

Jul 07, 2011
August 2004 - On March 29, 2004, Bulgaria and Romania joined NATO. The Black Sea is now ringed, on one side, by alliance countries and, on the other, by former Soviet states with varying degrees of instability and security problems. As the trans-Atlantic alliance spreads to the east toward the greater Black Sea region, it encounters new neighbors, where both asymmetrical and conventional threats that were previously not of primary concern now loom large. However, at the June 2004 NATO summit in Istanbul, held at the very entrance to the region, no coherent strategy was outlined for the alliance's new neighborhood and only scant mention was made of its immense strategic importance.
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