Participants in a two-day MIT seminar considered critical questions about the global implications of increased energy demands in Asia.
The seminar, entitled "Securing Asian Energy Investments: Geopolitics and Implications for Business Strategy," were part������������������of the MIT Series on Technology and the Corporation. The sessions were held last Thursday and Friday, Sept. 11-12, at the Faculty Club.
Ford International Professor Richard J. Samuels of the Department of Political Science, director of the MIT Japan Program, chaired the meetings. Keynote speakers were Institute Professor John Deutch and David Jhirad, deputy assistant secretary for international energy policy trade and investment at the US Department of Energy.
"It is often said that Asian economies are (and will continue to be) growing so fast that their demand for energy will outstrip supply," Professor Samuels said. "But we wonder if competition for the supply will lead states in the region to become aggressive or to coalesce in alliances hostile to US interests."
Other speakers at the conference included Michael C. Lynch and Kenneth A. Oye of the Center for International Studies, and Angang Hu, a visiting scholar in the MISTI China Program.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on September 17, 1997.
