The Political and Economic Challenges of Energy in the Middle East and North Africa

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are in disarray, and shifts in the field of energy have the potential to drastically affect the course of political and economic developments in the region. Declining oil prices, skyrocketing domestic demand, the rise of unconventional oil and natural gas production in North America, as well as shifting patterns of global energy trade all put severe pressures on both producing and importing countries in the MENA region. Policy-makers are facing fundamental challenges in light of the duality of grand transformations in (geo)politics and energy. Changes in the field of energy require substantial political and economic reforms, affecting the very fabric of sociopolitical arrangements. At the same time, the MENA region’s geopolitical volatility makes any such reforms extremely risky.

Including contributions by academics and analysts from both inside and outside the MENA region, this volume explores the changes in global and regional energy, the impact of changing international energy dynamics on politics and economies in the MENA region, and the challenges that will result.

This is essential reading for researchers, postgraduates, and professionals in Middle Eastern and North African politics, global energy governance and regionalism.

David Ramin Jalilvand works with the Middle East and North Africa department of the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation in Berlin. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the Free University of Berlin, examining the role of the energy sector in the political economy of Iran. He earned an MSc in Global Politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a BA in Government Studies from Erfurt University. During his undergraduate studies, he spent one year at the Moscow State Institute for International Relations. He specializes in energy and international politics, especially in the Middle East.

Kirsten Westphal is Senior Associate at the German Institute for Politics and Security in Berlin (SWP). In the Global Issues Division, she works on international energy relations and energy security issues. Her expertise are in global energy issues and security of supply (oil and gas); renewables; international energy governance; non-conventional oil and gas; EU foreign energy relations with the USA, Russia, Caspian Region, MENA; and emerging powers Brazil, China, India, and South Africa.