You are cordially invited to a lecture on the topic of
Rival Gas Pipelines for Europe: What’s at Stake
with
Vilen Khlgatyan
Vice Chairman, Political Developments Research Center
Tuesday, June 30
1:00 PM
The Institute of World Politics
1521 16th Street NW
Washington, D.C.
Parking map
Please contact sdwyer@iwp.edu with any questions about this event.
In recent years, the competition for supplying Europe with natural gas has heated up once again and has taken a more urgent course due to the conflict in Ukraine. Two pipeline routes are vying for dominance and are backed by different states with their own geopolitical considerations. In December 2014, it was announced that Russia’s Gazprom would re-route its proposed South Stream Pipeline to the Turkish-Greek border via the Black Sea and Turkey. Likewise, the U.S.-backed Nabucco pipeline was sidelined by the less ambitious and costly Trans-Anatolian Pipeline and Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, which will see Azerbaijani gas and potentially Iranian and Turkmen gas cross Turkey to reach markets in Greece, the Balkans and Italy. Both pipelines have their advantages and disadvantages. This lecture will consider the economics and geopolitics of the rival pipelines and what’s at stake for the concerned parties.
Vilen Khlgatyan is Vice-Chairman of Political Developments Research Center (PDRC), a think tank based in Yerevan, Armenia. He specializes in the geopolitics of energy, non-kinetic warfare, and the post-Soviet region with an emphasis on the Caucasus.
Mr. Khlgatyan received his M.A. in Statecraft and National Security Affairs from The Institute of World Politics and his B.A. in International Business and International Relations from Webster University.