Deep Thoughts by Alexander Mirtchev

Ashby Monk

For a variety of reasons, SWF employees are typically quite reserved and guarded when speaking to the press. Not so for Dr. Alexander Mirtchev, who is the Independent Director and a member of the Board of Directors of Kazakhstan’s $30 billion National Welfare Fund Samruk-Kazyna.

 

Alexander Mirtchev

The Economist: “The Fed's have-it-both-ways policy”

R.A., regarding Bernanke’s Jackson Hole speech, your column notes that you “found the tone on monetary policy to be confusing and timid.” Expectations now turn to what President Obama will say next week and what the Fed will do (or not do) when they next meet. Uncertainty again prevails.

Alexander Mirtchev

How the Alternative Energy Megatrend will impact global geopolitical relations

The Greening of Geopolitics

By Dr Alexander Mirtchev

The advent of renewable energies is generally regarded from a fairly narrow perspective: whether – and to what extent – they are able to replace fossil fuels and what this would mean for the energy system and the economy. Such a perspective profoundly underestimates the potential consequences of what is in fact a revolutionary global development: a socio-political and techno-economic megatrend that has the ability to become a global societal game-changer, writes Alexander Mirtchev, Vice-President of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI). According to Mirtchev, the ‘Alternative Energy Megatrend’ will have far-reaching effects on global geopolitical relations and security concerns – effects that have yet to be fully grasped by most observers. This article is adapted from his upcoming book: “The Alternative Energy Megatrend: A Global Security Discourse in the Universally-Securitized World”.

Alternative Energy And Global Energy Security In Aftermath Of Rio+20

“Life always gets harder toward the summit–the cold increases, the responsibility increases.” These words by Friedrich Nietzsche aptly characterize the atmosphere among global leaders at June’s international summits.