The U.S. Association for Energy Economics
National Capital Area Chapter
invite you to
The Future of Energy Security
NCAC’s Annual Dinner
featuring remarks from special guest
Nikos Tsafos
James R. Schlesinger Chair in Energy and Geopolitics with the Energy Security and Climate Change Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
6:00 PM – Cocktail Reception
7:00 PM – Dinner and Keynote
Clyde's of Gallery Place
707 7th Street NW
Washington, DC 20001
Please RSVP by Sunday, March 20th
The Future of Energy Security
Energy security has re-emerged as a top tier issue. Even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, high energy prices had sparked an intense conversation about whether the world was experiencing a “disorderly transition,” a moment where insufficient investment in hydrocarbons was causing energy prices to rise to unsustainable levels. With that debate barely settled, the war in Ukraine has added urgency and a new dimension to the discussion. Shocks change energy systems. This one will to. Europe will accelerate its energy transition. But that transition must take place under immense geopolitical pressure. How to safeguard the existing system while building a new one remains a colossal challenge—one that has been made harder by Russia’s invasion. How should we think about energy security in this new world? What lessons can we draw from the past? What mental models do we need for the future?
Nikos Tsafos is the James R. Schlesinger Chair in Energy and Geopolitics with the Energy Security and Climate Change Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). In this role, he oversees work on managing the geopolitics of energy and climate change, advancing industrial policies for clean energy, ensuring a just transition for workers and communities, and equipping U.S. foreign policy and the multilateral system to deal with climate change and the energy transition. Nikos has written extensively on the geopolitics of energy and natural gas; the political economy of hydrocarbon states; European climate policy; sustainable cities and mobility; the pace and trajectory of the energy transition; and the geopolitics of energy in the Arctic, Europe, the eastern Mediterranean, and Southeast Asia.
Before CSIS, Nikos worked for over a decade as a consultant and advised companies and governments in over 30 countries on some of the world’s most complex energy projects. From 2016 to 2019, he also taught a class on natural gas at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Nikos has testified before Congress, and his views are often found in media outlets like the New York Times, the Financial Times, Bloomberg, and elsewhere. He has written for Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the National Interest, and others, and he is the author of Beyond Debt: The Greek Crisis in Context (CreateSpace, 2013). He holds a BA in international relations and economics with a minor in statistics from Boston University and an MA in international relations from Johns Hopkins SAIS.