Conflict in the Middle East: Energy Security and Diplomacy

About This Event:

The Global Kurdish Initiative for Peace at American University’s School of International Service is pleased to invite you to a conversation with Amos Hochstein, moderated by Dr. Yerevan Saeed.

How does conflict in the Middle East affect global energy security, and what can diplomacy do to contain its costs?

Mr. Hochstein served as a senior advisor in President Biden's White House and as Special Presidential Coordinator for Global Infrastructure and Energy Security. He was also a lead negotiator of the Israel–Lebanon maritime boundary agreement. The conversation will draw on his experience to examine how threats to energy supplies, infrastructure, and shipping routes affect markets and shape foreign policy choices.

With particular attention to Iraq and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, the discussion will explore how Baghdad–Erbil relations, oil revenue sharing, and agreements with neighboring states shape access to global markets. It will examine the role of the Iraq–Turkey Pipeline (ITP) and the political and commercial arrangements needed to sustain reliable exports through Turkey’s port of Ceyhan.

The conversation will also assess the feasibility of Iraq’s proposed oil export route through Syria to the Mediterranean port of Baniyas, considering the financing, security, and transit agreements required to make it viable. It will explore how this route could complement exports through Turkey and reshape Iraq’s relations with its neighbors.

These export choices raise a broader question for energy diplomacy: how to reduce exposure to conflict while managing dependence on transit states and building agreements that can withstand political disputes.

Food will be provided at the end of the event.

Bios:

Amos Hochstein is a global energy expert, senior negotiator, and business executive. He serves as Managing Partner at TWG Global, leading investments and strategy across energy systems, AI, and critical infrastructure.

With more than two decades of experience across the White House, State Department, and Congress, he has shaped U.S. policy on national security, energy, and infrastructure. Most recently, he served as Senior Advisor to President Biden, leading US and global energy policy and security, securing supply chains and global infrastructure initiatives.

He played a leading role in shaping U.S. strategy on artificial intelligence and digital infrastructure, including chairing international efforts on AI investment and accelerating global data center development. He chaired the US-Saudi Arabia and UAE task force on AI cooperation. He bridges policy, markets, and technology, with a focus on how energy systems, AI, and capital flows are converging to reshape global economic and geopolitical dynamics and define the next phase of the energy transition.

Hochstein was the lead negotiator on the Israel–Lebanon maritime boundary agreement and subsequent ceasefire efforts following the October 7 conflict. He also helped advance major international initiatives, including the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) and the G7 Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment.

Dr. Yerevan Saeed is the Barzani Scholar-in-Residence in the Department of Politics, Governance & Economics at American University's School of International Service in Washington, where he also directs the Global Kurdish Initiative for Peace. His research focuses on political economy, energy politics, conflict resolution, and Kurdish studies, with particular attention to Iraq, Turkey, Iran, and the Gulf states. His scholarship and policy analysis examine regional security, governance, and the evolving dynamics of state and non-state actors across the Middle East.

He is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council. He has previously served as Lecturer at the University of Kurdistan Hewlêr, Associate Fellow at the Middle East Research Institute, and Visiting Scholar and Nonresident Fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. Earlier in his career, he was a Middle East Specialist at Stratfor and worked as a journalist and translator across Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, contributing to The New York Times, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, the BBC, and The Guardian.

His analysis has appeared in publications of the Wilson Center, the Quincy Institute, the New Lines Institute, the Middle East Institute, The Hill, The National Interest, NBC News, and Al Jazeera, among others. He is frequently cited by international media, including Voice of America, CNN, and S&P Global, and regularly presents at international conferences and high-level policy forums.