Each summer, the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy has a 10 to 20-day certificate program which brings together distinguished scholars and practitioners from around the world and ADA students and faculty to discuss issues of global importance.  In 2007, this program was conducted in partnership with the European University Institute and focused on questions of EU law and policy. In 2008, ADA’s summer school focused on the role of Islam in contemporary international affairs. And this year, the sessions were organized in partnership with the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic ...

In recent decades, there has been an increase in the interplay between foreign policy and energy supplies. This trend as resulted from the significant increase in the number of new international energy supply pipelines that link producers and consumers in long-term supply relations.  The rise in the number of such pipelines has occurred due to: the dramatic increase in the global use of natural gas, the production and export of oil from land-locked states and the Soviet breakup that turned a number of domestic supply lines into international ones.  The interplay between politic...

Questions of Russia’s reliability as a gas supplier to Europe have dominated headlines since the Russian-Ukrainian crisis of January 2009.  The emphasis, however, has been by and large misplaced, as Russia is interested in ensuring continuous and unimpeded exports of gas to Europe, not least given the nature of long-term contracts that govern its gas relations with European customers. By contrast, the volume of gas available for export is – and increasingly will be – subject to several constraints of political and economic nature.  Among the notable examples are the Russi...

The general tendency in the natural resource-international war literature has been to study natural resources as something to be acquired or defended.  An edited book by Westing (1986) is mainly concerned with how militarized interstate conflicts emerge while states try to secure access to natural resources vital for survival and for an improved standard of living.  Likewise, Le Billon (2001) states that being easily and heavily taxable, natural resources represent a prize to be captured.  Homer-Dixon (1999) especially emphasizes non-renewables as factors increasing the in...

“ADA’s summer school on Energy Economics and Politics was a great enrichment for me, on an academic, professional and personal level.  Extraordinary faculty, a diverse international student body and inspiring discussion on energy left me with an exceptional learning experience that is hard to find somewhere else.  Completing this program in Baku, Azerbaijan, I had the unique opportunity to witness the change energy has brought to the region as well as the challenges that come with it.  Overall, it was a very well rounded program that I would recommend to anybody seekin...