OTHER INITIATIVES
2012 Geopolitics of Energy Case Competition
From left: Georges Sassine (judge), Meghan O’Sullivan (judge), Sergio Guerra (winner), Jose Ramon Morales Arilla (winner), Leonardo Maugeri (judge), Nusret Comert (judge), Shai Feldman (judge)
On April 19th, the Geopolitics of Energy Project at Harvard hosted the second annual energy policy case competition at the Harvard Kennedy School, challenging students across the MIT and Harvard communities to develop a strategy to solve the case: “New Finds of Energy in the Eastern Mediterranean: Cause for Conflict or Cooperation?”
Finalists presented 20-minute briefings to a panel of distinguished judges, including: Meghan L. O’Sullivan (Chair, Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs and Director of the Geopolitics of Energy Project at Harvard University’s Kennedy School); Nusret Comert (former Managing Director of Royal Dutch Shell Group's Exploration & Production and Gas & Power activities); Shai Feldman (Judith and Sidney Swartz Director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University and member of the Board of Directors of Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs); Leonardo Maugeri (Research Fellow of the Geopolitics of Energy Project at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and former Senior Executive Vice President of Strategies and Development, Eni); Georges Sassine (Lebanon energy policy expert and HKS 2009 Alum).
WINNERS: José Ramón Morales Arilla and Sergio Guerra. The winners of the case competition received $250 and will be sent next month to the State Department in Washington to brief Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Diplomacy Amos J. Hochstein.
FINALIST TEAMS:
- Moses Esema, Brendan McEwen, Tushar Kansal
- Ryan Miller, Deepa Raghunathan, Sujoyini Mandal
- William Thomson & Thomas Batten
Read the case, learn about the judges, and read the finalists' memos:
View the photo gallery from the 2012 Geopolitics of Energy Case Competition
2011 Geopolitics of Energy Case Competition
On April 1, the Geopolitics of Energy Project at Harvard hosted the first annual energy policy case competition at the Harvard Kennedy School, challenging students across the MIT and Harvard communities to design an integrated national energy strategy for Iraq to provide to the office of Ambassador Richard Morningstar, Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy, at the U.S. State Department. Over 70 students from across MIT and Harvard participated in the competition, including from the Sloan School of Management, Harvard Business School, the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard College, MIT School of Engineering and the Harvard Kennedy School. The case, a real-life scenario, took into account the multitude of economic and political challenges facing Iraq. Among the many complexities students were asked to consider were the needs to manage and maximize oil revenues, balance foreign policy considerations with energy needs, increase oil export capacity, strengthen Iraqi institutions and increase private-sector involvement for infrastructure development.
Eighteen student teams submitted solutions, and five teams were selected as finalists. Finalists presented 20-minute briefings to a panel of judges on April 1, which included Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani (Chairman and CEO of RAK Petroleum PCL and director of DNO International), Emma Sky (former advisor to Multinational Forces Iraq Commander General Odierno), Katherine Hardin (IHS/CERA), David Kilcullen (counterinsurgency expert and President and CEO of Caerus Associates), and Eric Rosenbach (Harvard faculty and Managing Director of the Markle Foundation). The winning team is being sent to Washington May 5 to brief Daniel Freifield in the State Department.
Read the case and learn about the judges.
Winners:
Louis Beryl, Reid Capalino and Stephen Elliot, (Harvard Kennedy School/Harvard Business School)
Finalist Teams:
- Francisco Aguilar (Harvard Kennedy School/MIT Sloan), Linda Zou (Harvard Kennedy School)and Mayank Kapoor (MIT Sloan)
- Andrew Farrimond (Harvard Kennedy School)
- Manfredi Caltagirone (Harvard Kennedy School), Chris Cannon (Harvard Kennedy School), Matthew Harper (MIT/Harvard Kennedy School) and Brandon Barford (Harvard Kennedy School)
- Bingjun Xu (Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, GSAS, Harvard University), Jing Yang (Applied Physics, SEAS, Harvard University) and Yiqiao Tang (Department of Physics, GSAS, Harvard University)
The Geopolitics of Energy Project Seminar Series
Understanding how energy shapes the grand strategies of China, Russia, India, Europe, Saudi Arabia, and others is vital in mapping out the contours of the future global order. These seminars are the basis for identifying possible new nodes of international conflict and cooperation, and deficiencies in existing international structures. Watch videos of the seminars online >
