Food-Water-Energy

On Thursday, June 25, EWI’s Preventive Diplomacy Initiatives hosted the fourth installment of the policy dialogue series, Alternative Futures for Afghanistan and the Stability of Southwest Asia: Improving Regional Cooperation on Water in Brussels. The session focused on the Helmand River Basin, shared between Afghanistan and Iran, and the Harirud and Murghab River Basins, which are also shared with Turkmenistan. Participants considered challenges to cooperative management of these water sources and proposed strategies to overcome these challenges.

This was the final session in a four-part dialogue series convened with the support of Gerda Henkel Stiftung and EWI’s Parliamentarians Network for Conflict Prevention and Human Security.

On Thursday, 28 May, EWI’s Preventive Diplomacy Initiative hosted the third installment of its policy dialogue series on Alternative Futures for Afghanistan and the Stability of Southwest Asia: Improving Regional Cooperation on Water. This session focused on the water resources of the Kabul River basin and the related challenges and opportunities for cooperation between Afghanistan and its neighbors, especially Pakistan.

Speakers included Rakhshan Roohi, Principal Scientific Officer of the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, and Seyyedali Hussaini of the Department of Geology at the University of Kabul and co-author of Water Resource Management in Kabul River Basin, Eastern Afghanistan.

The series, part of EWI’s initiative to promote alternative futures for Afghanistan and Southwest Asia, is designed not only to foster better management of water—the most critical of natural resources—but also to create ties between local and regional authorities that can build trust and prevent conflicts in this volatile area. It was launched on Thursday 2 April with the endorsement of the EWI’s Parliamentarians Network for Conflict Prevention and Human Security and is made possible with the support of the Gerda Henkel Foundation.

Photo by Keith Stanski

On Thursday, 30 April, EWI’s Preventive Diplomacy Initiative hosted the second installment in a policy dialogue to improve cooperation on water in Afghanistan and Southwest Asia. The dialogue, part of EWI’s initiative to promote alternative futures for Afghanistan and Southwest Asia, is designed not only to foster better management of water—the most critical of natural resources—but also to create ties between local and regional authorities that can build trust and prevent conflicts in this volatile area.

Speakers at this installment of the dialogue included Ambassador Miroslav Jenča, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Central Asia and Head of the United Nations Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA) and Angelika Beer, Member of the European Parliament and Co-Chair of the Executive Council of EWI’s Parliamentarians Network for Conflict Prevention and Human Security.

Key issues discussed at the meeting were:

• A change in focus from water shortage to inefficiencies in water usage;
• The importance of tangible benefits for all stakeholders;
• Shared management and shared training as peacebuilding tools;
• The political importance of the history of water use and management;
• The role of regional organizations;
• China and Russia’s potential role in enhancing regional cooperation on water.

This was the second in a series of five policy dialogues, which will produce an action-oriented policy paper and build towards an international conference on regional cooperation over water in December 2009. Following are the remaining sessions in the series:

• Thursday, 28 May, 2009: Management of the Kabul river and Afghanistan’s relations with Pakistan; 
• Thursday, 25 June, 2009: Management of the Helmand river and Afghanistan’s relations with Iran;
• July 2009 (date to be confirmed): Management of the Harirud and Murghab rivers and Afghanistan’s relations with Iran and Turkmenistan. *

*Please note: The topics for the third and fourth sessions have now been reversed, and discussion of the Helmand River basin and Afghanistan’s relations with Iran will now take place on Thursday, 25 June 2009.

High-level officials and energy experts from China and the United States engage participants in discussions on global energy security, the environment, climate change, and sharing technology that promotes energy efficiency.

On February 12th, the EastWest Institute and the MGIMO University held an expert meeting on the progressive change in the international energy system. Held at the MGIMO University in Moscow, the consultation" took a long-term view of the implications of new challenges linked to energy and climate change for global security. The meeting included some of Russia's leading academics and energy security experts, as well as foreign diplomats based in Moscow who offered a very future-oriented perspective on likely global energy trends and shared their global outlooks with respect to the energy security situation over the next 10-15 years.

Representatives from the energy sector, governments, international energy organizations and academia examined paths toward improved trans-border energy cooperation in the South Caspian region.

An Energy Community for the South Caspian Region: New Benefits for Regional Players *1

EWI and the Madariaga European Foundation (MEF) convened a half-day experts meeting in London on September 27, 2007, to promote the idea of improved and efficient trans-border energy cooperation in the South Caspian region. The regional players are already involved to some extent in multilateral energy frameworks such as the Energy Charter Treaty of the Energy Community. *2  The organizers believe that there is a need to create new institutional mechanisms in addition to those provided by the Energy Charter Treaty. These mechanisms should link Turkey and other regional players and bring together disparate national interests into a coherent set of acceptable rules. Important external players such as the US, the EU, Russia and China share a common interest in preventing the Caspian Basin from becoming another “oil curse” region where windfalls in oil revenues might fuel instability and extremism. Another mutually unacceptable scenario is one in which a single player becomes dominant in the South Caspian region.*3  Moreover, all actors are interested in the advancement of regional economic development and political stability.

The event, sponsored by Hydro (www.hydro.com), gathered approximately 60 representatives from the energy sector, governments, international energy organizations and academia. Participants will discuss the shape of a future “energy community” in the South Caspian region and propose specific policy “road maps” for the major players. In this context, the meeting will also address: 1) Prospects for regional trans-border energy cooperation, especially in the areas of power generation, alternative sources of energy and new transit corridors for hydrocarbons; and 2) The creation of regional legally binding energy security frameworks utilizing structures already in place (European Energy Community, IEA, the IEF, etc).

MEETING OUTCOME

The meeting will produce a conference report as well as a policy paper outlining the launch of a new joint EWI-MEF energy security project proposing possible recommendations for the creation of a regional legally binding energy cooperation framework.

*1 For the purposes of this seminar we limited the South Caspian region to Iran, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan plus Turkey and Georgia.

*2 See http://www.encharter.org/ Of the South Caspian states, Turkey is the only member of the Energy Community, http://www.seerecon.org/infrastructure/sectors/energy/

Experts examined ways NGOs can influence energy security issues in the Asia-Pacific region, including stable supply and demand and protection of energy infrastructure.

Recognizing the rising importance of energy security in the Asia-Pacific region, the EastWest Institute (EWI) and the Economic Research Institute for Northeast Asia (ERINA), in conjunction with the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership, held an Experts Meeting for the “Joint Project on Energy Security in Asia” at the Center for Global Partnership (CGP) in New York City. A diverse group of experts gathered to examine key energy security issues in the Asia-Pacific region and discuss ways in which NGOs can make a difference. “Security” was addressed both in terms of the stability of supply and demand in the global energy market and as protection of production and transport infrastructure. The meeting addressed competition among major powers in the Asia-Pacific region for scarce hydrocarbon resource and key challenges to the security of energy supplies in this region. The underlying goal was to define discussion topics for upcoming EWI-ERINA joint roundtables on energy security in the Asia-Pacific region.