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. Justin has spent long periods of time living and traveling in the Gulf and North Africa.
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 a member of the board of directors of the International Energy Foundation, as well as co-founder of the registered 501(c)(3) non-profit, EarthSpark International, which is active in spreading renewable energy access in the developing world. He is fluent in Spanish, Arabic and English
January 20, 2010
Harvard energy fellow assists disaster relief in Haiti
In the News
By Justin Dargin, Research Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
EarthSpark International, a U.S.-based nonprofit that operates in Haiti, co-founded by Dubai Initiative Fellow Justin Dargin, is raising money to send solar lamps to the country to assist in disaster relief efforts. The organization is working with a coalition of fellow Clinton Global Initiative members to coordinate the supply and distribution of solar-powered products in Port-au-Prince.
November, 2009
Securing the Peace: The Battle over Ethnicity and Energy in Modern Iraq
Working Paper
By Justin Dargin, Research Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
This article examines the legal and political impediments to the Kurdish Regional Government's (KRG) 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. When faced with unresolved issues over regional and national control over petroleum resources, however, International Oil Companies (IOCs) function in an ambiguous legal environment that fails to clearly distinguish between federal and regional powers.
November, 2009
The Ties that Bind: the Dolphin Project and Intra-GCC Relations
Policy Brief
By Justin Dargin, Research Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
Qatar was the force behind the creation of the Dolphin Project (Dolphin), a much reduced form of the pan-GCC pipeline, envisioned at the November 1989 Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit meeting as the most ambitious domestic Middle Eastern gas project ever undertaken. As originally conceived, a transnational pipeline was to weld the national gas grids of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and the UAE into a single integrated bloc. Qatar's enormous North Field, the largest associated natural gas field in the world, became the centerpiece of this vision.
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"
