Geopolitics of Energy Initiative

Following the P5+1 talks with Iran this past Saturday that included U.S. Under Secretary of State William Burns, Flynt Leverett sat down to analyze the meaning and potential of EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana's "freeze-for-freeze" formula given recent U.S. diplomatic overtures. Flynt Leverett is a senior fellow and director of the Geopolitics of Energy Initiative at the New America Foundation. Previously he served as senior director for Middle East Affairs at the National Security Council, Middle East expert on… more

FLYNT LEVERETT: ..."As Americans, I think we also need to face up to the flip side of the rise of the rest, which is to some degree a decline in American standing and influence in various international arenas. I would argue that the United States is in an historically unprecedented condition. It emerged from the Cold War as this unquestioned global hegemon.

Now, not even two decades after the end of the Cold War, we have a situation in which the military dimension of American hegemony… more

The energy, financial and political woes that grip the US signal a decisive shift in world power, mocking the liberal delusion that Barack Obama or John McCain can return American prestige and power to its pre-Bush year 2000 nirvana. There is no such nirvana. There is instead a new reality: the greatest transfer of income in human history, away from energy importers such as the US to energy exporters; the rise of a new breed of wealthy autocracies that cripple… more

...From July 7–9, as the Nixon Center’s executive director and moderator of the discussion Paul Saunders said, the world’s heaviest hitters will meet to discuss the most-pressing problems. Former ambassador to Germany and current managing director at McLarty Associates, Richard Burt, and Flynt Leverett of the New America Foundation met at the Nixon Center on Wednesday to look at an even-more-basic issue: whether the G8 still matters. Or, as Ambassador Burt asked, if it ever did.

The G8’s purview is simply too broad to be effective, Burt argued. The… more

As the host of the 2008 G8 Summit, Japan has established an agenda focused on non-proliferation, the international economy, climate change, and development. With changes in the global distribution of wealth and influence over the last thirty years, the Nixon Center hosts a panel discussion on the relevance of the G8 Summit. Flynt Leverett, Senior Fellow and the Director of the Geopolitics of Energy Initiative at the New America Foundation, serves as a co-panelist. LINK to video

The most important long-term strategic challenge facing the Gulf Cooperation Council is not the threat of Islamic extremism or the rise of Iran -- it is the continuing economic decline of the United States.

Ever since 1980, when Jimmy Carter, then president, first publicly committed the United States to use military force to defend the free flow of oil from the Middle East, the United States has been the region’s unquestioned hegemon. And ever since the GCC was formed in 1981,… more

Full article

. . . "This is more and more becoming a Sunni-Shi'a conflict. It really does feel like Iraq," said journalist Nir Rosen in a conference call with analysts and reporters at the New American Foundation.

"Sunni militias, backed by the Future Movement, formed over the last year, and have been a complete failure, perhaps because they were fighting for money. They just disappeared and caused a great sense of betrayal and shock among Sunnis," said Rosen,… more

National Interest Online | Inside Track: Pole Dancing

. . . Next to speak was Flynt Leverett of the New America Foundation, who focused on the economic foundation of the world without the West: developing countries are nationalizing their natural resources and converting them into political leverage, with startling success. Leverett maintained that the dramatic increase in energy prices since 2000 tips the geopolitical scales in the direction of oil-and-gas producing powers. The “strategic consequence” of these developments… more

NPR | America's Waning Influence in 'The Second World'

Parag Khanna believes that America's dominant moment is over. In his new book, "The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order," he argues that the 21st centruy will be dominated by three first-world superpowers: the United States, China and the European Union. . .

U.S. policy experts say Pakistan is vital, oppose aid conditions (Associated Press of Pakistan) Meanwhile, speaking at a Washington think tank, a senior expert Flynt Leverett acknowledged Pakistan’s key efforts in the fight against terrorism and came down on critics who in their discussions keep harping on U.S. extending 10 billion dollars in assistance to the ally. He noted that statements that the United States has provided Pakistan with $10 billion in assistance since Sept 11, 2001 are… more