Vale Columbia Center Symposium: Preventing and Managing Conflict in Energy and Other Natural Resource Investment Relations

At a time when investment relations in the field of energy and other natural resources are marked by tensions, this Symposium will be an opportunity to foster a dialogue among policy makers, practitioners and academics on the present state of investment relations in energy and other natural resources, and especially on the ways to prevent or at least to manage and resolve conflicts successfully between investors and host countries.

Distinguished panelists and keynote speakers will discuss the interplay of “national interest” (and related concepts) and the uncertainty that the evolving definition of such concepts means for international investment relations, especially in the field of energy and other natural resources. The program will also consider the spectrum of national perspectives on natural resources and energy development relating to major resource holding countries, and how these various national perspectives can inform the policy, regulatory and contractual dialogues.

Ian Laird is a panelist on “Toward an Enhanced Policy Dialogue: global and regional initiatives in search for a common perspective.”