EVENT DETAILS

Turmoil in the Middle East has injected huge uncertainty into oil markets. Could unrest spread to Saudi Arabia, Iran, or others in the region and disrupt oil supplies? What will be the consequences for the global recovery? What can policy makers do?

Carnegie’s Christopher Boucek, Mohsin S. Khan of the Peterson Institute, PFC Energy’s Jamie Webster, and the World Bank’s Hans Timmer will discuss this complex set of political and economic issues. Carnegie’s Uri Dadush will moderate the conversation.

This event is the first in a two-part series on commodity prices and their broader implications. The second event, on April 6, will focus on rising food prices.

Christopher Boucek is an associate in Carnegie's Middle East Program where his research focuses on security challenges in the Arabian Gulf and Northern Africa. Prior to joining Carnegie, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University and lecturer in politics at the Woodrow Wilson School. He was also previously a media analyst at the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, D.C.

Mohsin S. Khan is a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Previously, he was the director of the Middle East and Central Asia department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 2004 to 2008. He first joined the IMF in 1972 as an economist in the Financial Studies Division of the Research Department, where he held senior positions including adviser, assistant director, and senior adviser. He has published widely on macroeconomic and monetary policies in developing countries, economic growth, international trade and finance, Islamic banking, and IMF programs.

Jamie Webster is a senior manager in PFC Energy's Markets and Country Strategies Group. He provides oil and gas market analysis and expertise, with a particular focus on the Middle East, as well as demand and energy security issues on a global level. He has been analyzing energy markets for 12 years and has advised on the impacts of national oil companies, oil and gas markets, midstream and demand center economics, energy security policies, strategy options, and power generation fuel choice.

Hans Timmer is director of the World Bank's Development Prospects Group. Under his management, the Group produces the World Bank’s annual publications, Global Economic Prospects, Global Development Finance, and Global Monitoring Report, in addition to a wide range of monitoring and forecasting publications. Before joining the Bank, Timmer was head of international economic analysis at the Central Planning Bureau (CPB) in the Netherlands. Uri Dadush is senior associate and director of Carnegie's International Economics Program. His work currently focuses on trends in the global economy and the global financial crisis. Dadush previously served as the World Bank's director of international trade for six years and before that as director of economic policy for three years. He has also served concurrently as the director of the Bank’s world economy group over the last eleven years, leading the preparation of the Bank’s flagship reports on the international economy over that period.