Cooperative Approaches to Iraq: The Potential New Summer Event in Sochi
Carter Page suggests the upcoming G8 Sochi Summit may provide a platform for those interested in Iraq's future to take positive steps.
This week’s revelation of recent phone comments by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland is not the first time that her statements and policy actions have brought significant reverberations overseas. This year’s disturbances in Ukraine follow a far longer history of noteworthy involvement in Iraq. While Russian officials have initially discouraged foreign powers from "unilaterally and crudely interfering in Ukraine's internal affairs", Russia’s current role as President of the G8 may in contrast offer the opportunity to contribute to a collaborative and multilateral approach to the current situation in Iraq. The next G8 Summit will be held in Sochi this June, where the heads of state representing countries with energy companies that make up the vast majority of leading operators in Iraq will be in attendance.
Source: Rabee Securities, Baghdad
As Principal Deputy National Security Advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney from 2003 to 2005 and later as U.S. Ambassador to NATO from July 2005 to May 2008, Victoria Nuland previously held important insider roles during Washington’s decisions to invade Iraq, occupy the country and later increase the number of American troops during the “Surge” of 2007. The latter decision by the U.S. was based in part on a January 2007 American Enterprise Institute report by Nuland’s brother-in-law, Fred Kagan.
The European Union states account for half of the members of the G8 (France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom), while the EU itself is also a representative member. Despite negative sentiment expressed from overseas of late, this economic and political union can have a monumental impact on upcoming developments in a critical region of the world.
In a November 2013 speech by Victoria Nuland at the Atlantic Council, she alluded to Iraq as one of the issues that reflect a sense of “gloom and doom about the fraying of trust” in the relationship between the United States and Europe. While the current tone emanating from Washington officials may also help partially explain another reason for that fraying trust, professionals in the energy industry have successfully helped to create an initial foundation of interdependence. In the massive West Qurna project, ExxonMobil from the U.S. has worked alongside Royal Dutch Shell – a company incorporated in the United Kingdom. Russia’s independent oil company Lukoil is another primary participant in a later stage of that same project while Moscow-based Gazprom Neft is the lead partner in the Badra field, located a few hundred miles to the North between Baghdad and the Iranian border.
Cutler, Haufler and Porter pointed out in their 1999 book that, “Governments have not always been willing to cooperate, and sometimes have not even been interested in extending their domestic rule-making capacity to the international realm. In response, a significant degree of global order is provided by individual firms that agree to cooperate, either formally or informally, in establishing an international framework for their economic activity.” These ideas have been closely followed by recent developments in Iraq after the departure of the United States in December 2011, following the prior military invasion and occupation which it led in this country over the decade prior. In this instance, the reasons for a lack of government cooperation on the 2003 Iraq war was partially reflected by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in his quote that, "I have indicated it is not in conformity with the UN Charter, from our point of view, and from the Charter point of view it was illegal."
As almost all G8 states represent corporate interests with major multibillion dollar investments in Iraq, the incentive for a cooperative approach is significantly greater today than may have been seen in the past. The Sochi Summit this June offers a constructive opportunity to build upon this new common ground, in ways that could eventually carry fringe benefits for Iraqi society at large.
In 2003, current U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul wrote the book Power and Purpose: U.S. Policy toward Russia after the Cold War with James Goldgeier. In keeping with the dialogue revealed this week, one chapter in this volume which describes Nuland’s earlier work with Strobe Talbott was prophetically entitled “NATO Is a Four-Letter Word”. While U.S. Department of State Spokesperson Jen Psaki has described this week’s events as reflecting a “new low”, similar terms have been used to describe historic perceptions of U.S. involvement in Iraq. The close alignment of interests in Iraq today offers a rare opportunity to help right some of these continued misbalances.
Carter W. Page is the Founder and Managing Partner of Global Energy Capital LLC, a New York-based financial institution and investment fund focused on energy investments worldwide. This post first appeared on the Center for National Policy.
