Mailing address
One Brattle Square 514
Mailbox#134
79 JFK Street
Cambridge, MA, 02138
Justin Dargin
Research Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
Contact:
Telephone: 617-495-8039
Fax: 617-496-0606
Email: justin_dargin@ksg.harvard.edu
Experience
Justin Dargin is a Research Fellow with The Dubai Initiative and a Fulbright Scholar of the Middle East. He is a specialist in International Law and Energy Law, and a prolific author on energy affairs. He specializes in carbon trading, the global oil and gas market, the legal framework surrounding the Gulf energy sector, and Middle Eastern geopolitics.
Before coming to Harvard, he has worked at Owens Corning Global Headquarters in the international legal department, as an integral part of the compliance team for adherence to the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and in structuring relations with its Saudi Arabian and South African joint ventures.
Justin also worked in the legal department at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), where he advised senior staff as to the implications of EU and American Law in multilateral relations. During his time at OPEC, Justin was an essential member of the ascension team to ensure Angola’s entry as the organization’s twelfth member was structured appropriately.
Justin was also a researcher at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, where he researched Middle Eastern Gas Issues, and pioneered the first major substantive work on transnational gas trade in the form of the Dolphin Project.
He has published over forty book chapters and articles in such publications as the Middle East Economic Survey, the Oil and Gas Journal, the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies, and the Gulf Research Centre. Drawing heavily upon his recognized expertise in Middle Eastern energy and geopolitics, he is the author of “The Dolphin Project: The Development of a Gulf Gas Initiative” (OIES Press Jan. 2008), and the author of a forthcoming book, entitled “Desert Dreams: The Quest for Gulf Integration from the Arab Revolt to the Gulf Cooperation Council” (forthcoming early 2010).
Justin is co-director of the registered 501(c)(3) non-profit, InterIntel, which is active in spreading renewable energy access in the developing world. He is fluent in Spanish, Arabic and English
March 27, 2009
"A Model Presentation for a "Post-Oil" World"
Media Feature
By Justin Dargin, Research Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
Listen to Justin Dargin discuss the "post-oil world" on Chicago's Radio Islam here
March 23, 2009
"Saudi Arabia, UAE promote energy from sun and wind"
Journal Article, Oil & Gas Journal
By Justin Dargin, Research Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
"The UAE, particularly Abu Dhabi, leads the race to strategically develop sustainable renewable energy sources -- with Saudi Arabia close behind."
Click here for the full text.
Photo by Meshal Obeidallah
March 20, 2009
"A model in preparation for a ‘post-oil’ world"
Op-Ed
By Justin Dargin, Research Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
"The GGC states have experienced an exponential increase in domestic demand for hydrocarbons as a result of demographic increases, combined with enlarged industrial demands arising from economic diversification. An astute and comprehensive plan should incorporate renewable energy as an integral part of the UAE’s diversification strategy."
2009
"Emerging State Centralism in the Russian Energy Sector: Precedents from the Gulf?"
Book Chapter
By Justin Dargin, Research Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
In his contribution to the recent book Russian and CIS Relations with the Gulf Region, DI Fellow Justin Dargin discusses Russia's energy relationship with the GCC. Click here for the full text.
March 4, 2009
"Prospects for Energy Integration in the GCC"
Presentation
By Justin Dargin, Research Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
On March 3, 2009, DI Fellow, Justin Dargin, presented an analysis of the GCC energy sector at the Dubai School of Government. For more information, to access to the presentation slides, and to listen to the presentation audio click here.
February 25, 2009
Energy as a Compounding Agent: InterIntel and the Democratization of Sustainability
Op-Ed, Nuova Energia
By Justin Dargin, Research Fellow, The Dubai Initiative and Dan Schnitzer
From the introduction: "The old, but well known, proverb states, Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man how to fish, and you feedhim for life. This sums up in its entirety the fact that despite the best efforts of the World’s numerous aid agencies and NGOs, and despite the billions of aid dollars spent on the world’s poorest communities, poverty has seemingly become more entrenched. However, as shall be discussed subsequently, poverty can be broken, but only if the poor are viewed as creators of their own destinies, and given the tools to attack the problems that beset them."
Click here for the full text.
AP Photo
February 12, 2009
"Securing the Peace: The Battle over Ethnicity and Energy in Modern Iraq"
Journal Article, Oil, Gas and Energy Law Intelligence
By Justin Dargin, Research Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
From the introduction: "This article examines the legal and political impediments to the Kurdish Regional Government's exploration and production contracts, which the central government in Baghdad has refused to recognize. The newly established Iraqi national constitution significantly opened as many petroleum-control questions as it resolved.
Negotiated in 2005, the constitution not only separated branches of government, but established Federalism as its lodestar. However, faced with unresolved issues over regional and national control over petroleum resources, international oil companies function in an ambiguous legal environment that fails to clearly distinguish between federal and regional powers"
February 1, 2009
"The Islamization of Project Finance in the Gulf"
Journal Article, Oil and Gas Financial Journal, issue 2, volume 6
By Justin Dargin, Research Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
From the introduction:
"While Islamic financial instruments currently make up a small proportion of global finance, they actually experienced an annual 15% growth from 2005 to 2008 (Fig. 1), with the energy-producing Gulf
nations in the Middle East responsible for much of the increase."
Click here for the full text.
AP Photo
December 22, 2008
"The Coming Fall of Resource Nationalism"
Op-Ed, Nuova Energia
By Justin Dargin, Research Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
"It seems as if the world has not learnt that the oil industry, much like every other sector of the economy, goes through periodic busts and booms, even though it has been happening since the dawn of the oil industry. John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil, the spiritual ancestor of OPEC, was created to combat these market bumps. The current fall in oil price, which may have been precipitated more by fear of a sustained global economic crisis, rather than the actual market fundamentals, shows the fragility of the current global economic order."
Read the full text here
November 25, 2008
"Lights out in the Gulf"
Op-Ed, Alexander's Gas & Oil Connections
By Justin Dargin, Research Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
"It seems surprising that an area which has the world waiting breathlessly for any opaque statement about increases in oil and gas production should face a domestic energycrisis at home. In dealing with the crisis, the Gulf has turned to everything from building civilian nuclear plants, engaging in solar energy, looking for renewables and educating the public about conservation.Their reaction to the power crisis concerns the world, because much of our additional gas and oil supplies will be coming from the Gulf, so their reaction directly impacts the rest of us."
Access the full text here.
