Robert M. Cutler earned his doctorate at The University of Michigan after receiving two Bachelor's degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After over a dozen years in leading universities in Canada, France, Russia, Switzerland and the United States, he expanded into policy analysis and consulting as an Energy Security and Geo-economics Specialist. He has over 20 years' experience in international energy diplomacy: advising energy firms, governments, international institutions and NGOs; framing policy and research issues and leading teams to address them, and producing briefings and analytical bulletins. He has published scores of refereed academic articles, policy articles and book chapters. He is Fellow, Canadian Energy Research Institute; Fellow, Canadian Global Affairs Institute; and Practitioner Member, Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation, University of Waterloo. He is fluent in English, French and Russian. He can be reached at rmc@alum.mit.edu and tweets from @RobertMCutler.
Energy Security

A Trans-Balkan Pipeline Is the Next Project for EU’s Accelerated Energy Cooperation with Azerbaijan

Other than Norway, Azerbaijan is amongst the most plausible sources for increased European imports of natural gas in the near future. Therefore, it is little surprise that on April 25, its President Ilham Aliyev attended the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (SOCAR) with the Read More…

Energy Security

New European Energy Demand Confirms Azerbaijan’s Reliability

Azerbaijan is emerging as a crucial player in Europe’s energy-diversification strategy, as the European Union (EU) addresses its self-inflicted energy deficit that arose from its overreliance on wind and solar power and its failure to promote oil and gas development. The EU’s policy shift away from Russian oil and gas has led to the formation Read More…

Energy Security

Azerbaijan on Course to Increase Gas Exports to Europe

As the EU seeks to diversify its sources for energy imports, Azerbaijan will likely reap important benefits. The significant question is how rapidly it can ramp up its exports via the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC). Exports by way of the SGC go through Georgia (via the South Caucasus Pipeline, SCP), then across Turkey from east Read More…

4. Programs Energy Security

Europe Looks for More Caspian-Region Energy

The EU’s Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson will personally attend the annual interministerial meeting of the Advisory Council on the Southern Gas Corridor in Baku on February 4. She announced this, following a meeting of EU energy ministers in Amiens (France), where they discussed market uncertainties due to Russia’s decrease of flows to Europe and its Read More…

Energy Security

South Caucasus Gas Transport and European Energy Security

Last summer, before the Second Karabakh War broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan in autumn, the Turkish company BOTAS opened a tender to construct a gas pipeline from Igdir into the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan, which is surrounded by Armenia and Iran but has a short border with Turkey. Nakhchivan has relied principally on gas Read More…