Brenda Shaffer

Professor Brenda Shaffer is an American-Israeli scholar who currently holds positions as visiting researcher and adjunct professor at Georgetown University, fellow with the Atlantic Council and professor at University of Haifa (on sabbatical). Shaffer was the former research director of the Caspian Studies Program at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and past president of the Foreign Policy Section of the American Political Science Association. She specializes on energy in international relations and energy policy in the Caspian region and has written or edited several books of these topics, including "Energy Politics" and "Beyond the Resource Curse." Shaffer has also written a number of books on the topic of identity and culture in the Caucasus including explorations of Azeri literature and culture. Her work is the subject of some controversy and she has worked as a consultant for the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan while simultaneously writing in a promotional capacity for the Azerbaijani government.

Biography

Brenda Shaffer was born in the United States. She received her Ph.D. from Tel Aviv University and is currently a visiting researcher and adjunct professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.^[1] and a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C.^[2] She is on sabbatical from the University of Haifa, where she is a professor in the School of Political Science.^[3]

Previously, Shaffer taught at the department of Asian Studies and at the Graduate School of Management, division of natural resources management, at the University of Haifa.^[4] and was the research director of the Caspian Studies Project at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government,^[5] where she had been a postdoctoral fellow at the International Security Program. Shaffer has also held positions as president of the Foreign Policy Section of the American Political Science Association, researcher and policy analyst for the Government of Israel and visiting professor with the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy,^[6] and she provides energy industry research and consulting to businesses and governments.

Shaffer is the author or editor of a number of books and has given Congressional testimonies on several occasions in front of the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs on issues related to U.S. policy in the Caspian region.^[7] She frequently^[8] provides commentary and analysis on energy issues and international policy in the Middle East and Caspian region, including recently for CNBC,^[9] CNN,^[10] Fox News,^[11] The Financial Times,^[12] Bloomberg News,^[13] National Public Radio,^[14] The Christian Science Monitor,^[15] USA Today,^[16] and numerous others.

Shaffer reads a number of languages, including English, Turkish, Azerbaijani, Russian, and Hebrew.

Short Bio

• Presently visiting researcher and adjunct professor at Georgetown University and nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council; on sabbatical from the University of Haifa.
• 2001-2004 Post-doctoral Fellow, “Young Truman Scholar” three-year fellowship in the field of Middle East Studies, Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel).
• 2000-2001 Post-doctoral Fellow, International Relations & Middle East Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel).
• 1999-2005 Post-doctoral Fellow, International Security Program, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (USA).
• 1996-1999 Ph. D. School of History, Tel Aviv University (Israel). Dissertation topic: “The Formation of Azerbaijani Collective Identity: in Light of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the Soviet Breakup.”
• 1986-1989 MA in Political Science (with specialization in Russian Studies) Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel). (MA thesis topic: “Soviet Power Projection— the View of the Military”).
• 1983-1986 BA in Political Science and International Relations, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel).

Publications

Books

• Co-editor of "Beyond the Resource Curse" (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012).
• Author of "Energy Politics" (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009).
• Editor of "The Limits of Culture: Islam and Foreign Policy" (MIT Press, 2006).
• Author of "Partners in Need: The Strategic Relationship of Russia and Iran" (the Washington Institute for Near East Policy).
• Author of "Borders and Brethren: Iran and the Challenge of Azerbaijani Identity" (MIT Press, 2002). The book was also published in Turkish (Bilgi University Press, Istanbul, 2008) and in Persian (Ulus Press, Tehran, 2008).

Book chapters and other publications

• “Energy Resources in the Eastern Mediterranean: Prospects for energy markets and regional developments” in Michael Leigh (ed.), Eastern Mediterranean Energy: Fuel for conflict or cooperation? (D.C.: German Marshall Fund, 2012).
• “US Policy and the Strategic Caucasus” in Frances Burwell and Svante E. Cornell, eds., The Transatlantic Partnership and Relations with Russia (Washington: Atlantic Council of the United States and Institute for Security and Development Policy, 2012).
• “Ethnic Politics in Iran,” in Reuven Pedatzur (editor), Iran and Regional Hegemony (S. Daniel Abraham Strategic Dialogue Center in association with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 2010).
• "The Islamic Republic of Iran: Is It Really?" in Brenda Shaffer (ed.), The Limits of Culture: Islam and Foreign Policy (Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press, 2006).
• “Iran’s Internal Azerbaijani Challenge: Implications for Policy in the Caucasus,” in Moshe Gammer (ed.), The Caucasus (London: Frank Cass, 2004).
• “U.S. Policy in the South Caucasus,” in Dov Lynch (ed.) The South Caucasus: a challenge for the EU (Chaillot Paper 65, EU ISS, December 2003).
• “Azerbaijan” in Waisman and Vasserman (ed.), Political Organizations in Central Asia and Azerbaijan: Sources and Documents (London: Frank Cass, 2003).
• “Azerbaycan Cumhuryetinin Kurulusu: Iran’daki Azeriler Uzerinde Etkisi”, in Emine Gursoy-Naskali and Erdal Sahin (eds.) Turk Cumhuriyetleri (Amsterdam/Istanbul, SOTA Publications, 2002)(in Turkish).
• "Statement on The Caucasus and Caspian Region: Understanding U.S. Interests and Policy", Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Europe of the Committee on International Relations, House of Representatives, One Hundred Seventh Congress, First Session, October 10, 2001, Serial No. 107–51.^[17]
• "U.S. Russian Relations: Implications for the Caspian Region", Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University, June 2001.
• “Postscript” in David Menashri (ed.), Central Asia Meets the Middle East (London: Frank Cass, 1998).

Selected Articles, Papers, etc

Prof. Shaffer's articles have appeared in a number of newspapers and journals, including an article in "Current History" entitled “Is there a Muslim Foreign Policy?” and “Iran at the Nuclear Threshold” (Arms Control Today; November 2003). Her Opinion Editorials have been published in the Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune, and The Jerusalem Post.^[5]

• "Israel: New Natural Gas Producer in the Mediterranean", Energy Policy 38, pp. 5379–5387 (2011)
• “The Foreign Policies of Landlocked States,” Post-Soviet Affairs Vol. 27, No. 3, pp. 1–37 (July 2011) (Co-Authored with Dr. Avinoam Idan)
• "Caspian Energy Phase II: Beyond 2005", Energy Policy 38, pp. 7209–7215 (2010)
• "Turkey's Energy Policies in a Tight Global Energy Market", Insight Turkey, issue 2, volume 8 (April–June 2006)
• "From Pipedream to Pipeline: Lessons from the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline Project", Current History, issue 684, volume 104, pp. 343–347 (October 2005)
• "The Formation of Azerbaijani Collective Identity in Iran", Nationalities Papers, Vol. 28, No. 3, pp. 449–477 (September 2000)
• "Foreign Policies of the States of the Caucasus: Evolution in the Post-Soviet Period", Uluslararasi Iliskiler International Relations (Ankara) Vol. 7, No. 26, pp. 51–65. Turkish and English. (Summer 2010)

Reviews

On the book "Energy Politics", Michael L. Ross, a professor of political science at the University of California, Los-Angeles and one of the leading experts on oil in international relations wrote:

Scott Pegg, of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis added:

On the book "Beyond the Resource Curse", Svante Cornell of Johns Hopkins University wrote:

In a review to CHOICE Magazine, B. J. Peterson wrote:

On the book "Borders and Brethren: Iran and the Challenge of Azerbaijani Identity", Camron Michael Amin, an Associate Professor of History at the University of Michigan-Dearborn wrote:

Hamlet Isakhanli, President and Founder of Khazar University, Baku, Azerbaijan, added to "Borders and Brethren":

Criticisms

Shaffer's book, "Borders and Brethren: Iran and the Challenge of Azerbaijani Identity" was controversial among scholars and historians of Iranian studies.

Touraj Atabaki, a Professor of Social History at the University of Amsterdam and a Senior Research Fellow at the International Institute of Social History, critically challenged Shaffer in his review of her book concluding that:

Evan Siegel in his review of Shaffer's book, states:^[25]

Shaffer's article "U.S. Policy toward the Caspian Region: Recommendations for the Bush Administration" has also created controversy with regards to the objectivity of Harvard's Caspian Studies Program. Ken Silverstein, of Harper's Magazine, in an article titled "Academics for Hire", comments:

The American historian Ralph E. Luker echoes Silversteins article, saying:

In an article by Altay Goyushov in Foreign Policy, Brenda is named as an adviser for SOCAR and it is mentioned that she was promoting Azerbaijani policy in media without disclosing this fact.^[28]

Shaffer has also drawn criticism for writing on geostrategic issues regarding Azerbaijan under her academic affiliations, while working as a consultant to the President of SOCAR, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan.^[29] On September 17, 2014, the New York Times published an editor's note to highlight that Shaffer did not disclose her affiliation to SOCAR when publishing an Op-Ed in its pages about the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.^[30] This has drawn critique in other notable news outlets.^[31]

References

External links

• John F. Kennedy School of Government Expert Bio
• Georgetown University Lecturer Page
• University of Haifa Lecturer Page