Eckart Woertz
Director, the GIGA Institute of Middle East Studies
Professor for contemporary history and politics of the Middle East, University of Hamburg
Contact data
Biography
Eckart Woertz is director of the Institute of Middle East Studies (IMES) at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA) in Hamburg and Professor for contemporary history and politics of the Middle East at the University of Hamburg. He is author of Oil for Food (Oxford University Press 2013), co-editor of the Water-Energy Food Nexus in the Middle East and North Africa (Routledge 2016) and editor of GCC Financial Markets (Gerlach Press 2012). Besides academic publications he has contributed to numerous consultancy and policy reports for clients in the Middle East and at international organizations. Previously he held positions at the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB), Sciences Po in Paris, Princeton University and the Gulf Research Center in Dubai and worked for banks in Germany and the United Arab Emirates in equity and fixed income trading.
Background and education
- (1999) PhD in economics, Friedrich-Alñexcander University Erlangen-Nuremberg
Professional memberships & affiliations
- Editorial Board of Food Security
- Editorial Board of the Journal of Arabian Studies
Research
Research interests
- Political Economy of the Middle East and North Africa
- Food Security
- Development Studies
- Energy Security
Selected publications
- 2019.Remunicipalisation of Local Energy Provision: The Role of Cities and Bottom-up Initiatives.CIDOB Policy Brief,nº 20, May 2019Link
- 2018.Embeddedness of the MENA in Economic Globalization Processes.MENARA Papers,No. 8, June 2018Link
- 2016.The EU’s Energy Diplomacy: Transatlantic and Foreign Policy Implications, European Parliament Think Tank Study.Brussels:European Parliament 2016.Link
- 2016.The Water-Energy-Food Nexus in Arid Regions: The Politics of Problemsheds.In: Ken Conca and Erika Weinthal (eds.).Oxford Handbook of Water Politics and Policy.Oxford; New York:Link
- 2016.Agriculture as a Funding Source of ISIS: A GIS and remote sensing analysis.Food Policy,Volume 64, October 2016:14–25Link
- 2015.States as Actors in International Agro-Investments.International Development Policy,Vol. 6, Issue 1 (September 2015)Link
- 2015.The MENA and Food Trade Relations with Tropical Countries.Special section in Food Security,Vol. 7, Issue 6 (December 2015)Link
- 2015.The Water-Food-Energy-Climate Nexus in Global Drylands: The Epitome of Twenty-First Century Development?.Special issue of the International Journal of Water Resources Development,Vol. 31, Issue 3Link
- 2014.Environment, Food Security and Conflict Narratives in the Middle East.Global Environment,Vol. 7, Issue 2:490-516Link
- 2013.Oil for Food. The Global Food Crisis and the Middle East.Oxford; New York:Oxford University Press.Link
Workshops, conferences & invited talks
- Workshop of totalitarian regimes at Hoover Institution at Stanford University
- Atlantic Dialogues, Instituto Fernando Henrique Cardoso and OCP Policy Center, Sao Paulo, 2015
- World Water Congress XV, Edinburgh, 2015
- Conference on Tropical Agriculture as “Last Frontier”? Food Import Needs of the Middle East and North Africa, Ecological Risks and New Dimensions of South-South Cooperation with Africa, Latin America and South-East Asia. CIDOB, OCP Policy Center, King’s College London, University of Wageningen and Getulyo Vargas Foundation, Barcelona, 2015
- Georgetown University, Washington D. C., Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Sheikh Abdullah Saleh Kamel Symposium on “An Energy Revolution? The Political Ecologies of Shale Oil in the Middle East, US and China”, 2015
- Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED), conference on Food Security in Arab Countries, Amman, 2014
- Paris School of International Affairs, SciencesPo, Whither the Arab World? Revisiting Democratic Transition Theory, 2014
- Graduate Institute Geneva, conference on transnational land grabs, 2014
- OCP Policy Center, Rabat, Conference on the Water-Food-Energy Nexus in Drylands, 2014
- Johns Hopkins University, Washington D. C.: Conference on Chinese Investments in African Agriculture, 2014
- Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Washington: Food, Finance and Energy in the Gulf, 2014
- Kuwait Economic Society: The Ukraine Crisis and the Middle East, 2014
- Kuwait University: Oil for Food. The Global Food Crisis and the Middle East, 2014
- Paris School of International Affairs, SciencesPo, Panel Discussion: How to Fight Hunger: Global Partnership & Food Security in the Post-2015 Development Agenda, 2014
- Paris School of International Affairs, SciencesPo, Talk about Sovereign Wealth Funds, 2014
- Middle East Studies Association (MESA), annual conference, New Orleans 2013
- Chatham House, London, roundtable on food security in Saudi Arabia, 2013
- Global Ag Investing, Abu Dhabi, 2013
- McGill University, Montreal, Conference on Global Food Security 2012
- Qatar National Food Security Programme (QNFSP), Doha, International Conference on Food Security in Dry Lands (FSDL), 2012
- Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore, Conference on The Politics of Food Security: East Asian and Gulf Experiences, 2012
- Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), World Water Week 2012
- Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR), Conference on Arab Water and Food Security, 2012
- Georgetown University Qatar, Conference on Middle East Food Security, 2011
- Sultan Al Qaboos University, Muscat, Conference on Arab Food Security, 2010
- Harvard University, Belfer Center and Dubai Initiative, Middle East and Climate Change Adaptation, 2010