home > the cfr think tank > experts > david g. victor
Adjunct Senior Fellow for Science and Technology
Contact Info:
Phone: +1-650-724-1712
E-mail: David.Victor@stanford.edu
Location:
Stanford, CA
Media downloads:
One-page bio (PDF, 54K)
Director of recent Council-sponsored Independent Task Force that produced the report National Security Consequences of U.S. Oil Dependency. Author of the Council Policy Initiative Climate Change: Debating America’s Policy Options. Currently writing a report on the strategic petroleum reserve.
Expertise:Technology and foreign policy; energy policy; international environmental politics.
Experience:Director, Program on Energy and Sustainable Development, Stanford University (current); Senior Fellow, Stanford Institute for International Studies (current); Associate Professor (by courtesy), Department of Political Science, Stanford University; Robert W. Johnson Jr. Fellow for Science and Technology, Council on Foreign Relations (1998-present); Research Scholar, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (1997-98); Coleader, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (1993-97).
Selected Publications:National Security Consequences of U.S. Oil Dependency, Report of an Independent Task Force (Council on Foreign Relations Press, 2006); “BP’s Emissions Trading System,” Energy Policy (coauthor, 2005); Climate Change: Debating America’s Policy Options (Council on Foreign Relations Press, 2004); Technological Innovation and Economic Performance (coauthor, Princeton University Press, 2002); The Collapse of the Kyoto Protocol and the Struggle to Slow Global Warming (Princeton University Press, 2001).
Related Links:
Debating Disaster: The World is Not Enough (discussion on National Interest Online)
Current Research Projects
Past Research Projects
August 1, 2008
Op-Ed
Newsweek
In contrast to conventional wisdom, OPEC's actions tend to lag behind fundamental changes in oil supply and demand rather than lead them. In this Newsweek Web Exclusive, David Victor argues that blaming high oil prices on OPEC won't have much impact. Real solutions should be focused on demand.
See more in Middle East, Natural Resources Management, International Organizations
July 14, 2008
Op-Ed
Newsweek
Rising food prices offer the United States an opportunity to wean farmers off lavish subsidies. However, as David Victor argues in this Newsweek article, the U.S Congress has been doing just the opposite by passing legislation that will heap even more cash on farmers.
See more in Economics, U.S. Strategy and Politics
July/August 2008
Foreign Affairs Article — Summary
Oil stocks can help buffer economic shocks, but only if Washington radically reforms its handling of them.
See more in United States, Natural Resources Management
June 2008
Task Force Report No. 61
Task Force Report
Against the backdrop of increasing attention to climate change in the presidential campaigns, debate of the Lieberman-Warner climate bill in the Senate, and preparations for this summer’s G8 summit, this report recommends an overhaul of U.S. domestic and foreign policy to confront the challenges of climate change.
See more in Climate Change, U.S. Strategy and Politics
May 1, 2008
Op-Ed
Newsweek
Leadership matters when it comes to greenery because solving most environmental issues requires a change in direction. Yet, in this Newsweek article, David Victor argues that the ability to work in bipartisan ways will matter much more than the name of the next American president.
See more in Energy/Environment
May 1, 2008
Must Read
This working paper by Jeremy Carl, Varun Rai and David Victor discusses how India's continued economic success hinges on obtaining reliable and cost-effective energy supplies. Increasingly, those supplies depend on national and foreign delivery chains that are creaking and feared unreliable.
See more in India, Climate Change, Energy
April 18, 2008
Must Read
This article published by the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development at Stanford University reviews the actual experience in the world's largest offset market—the Kyoto
Protocol Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)—and finds an urgent need for reform.
See more in United States, Climate Change, Environmental Pollution
April 17, 2008
Op-Ed
Newsweek
In this Newsweek article, David Victor writes that a large fraction of the world's oil patch is struggling with the same problem that bedevils Mexican President Felipe Calderon: how to make state-owned oil companies—which control about three quarters of the world's oil reserve—more effective at finding and producing oil. With oil output increasing only sluggishly, and demand still strong, oil prices are set to stay high for some time.
See more in Mexico, Economics, Energy
March 28, 2008
Transcript
Concerns are increasing about the consequences of global climate change, rising consumption rates, and population growth on the availability of natural resources, including water, land, forests, oil, gas, and a variety of minerals. In the face of scarcity, are we likely to see a rise in violent conflict over valuable resources? Or is the probability of 'resource wars' much less than feared? Speakers discuss these issues at a meeting cosponsored with the Council’s Center for Preventive Action.
See more in Energy/Environment, Natural Resources Management
March 3, 2008
Op-Ed
Newsweek
David G. Victor explains why the United States is doomed to be an energy outlaw.
See more in United States, Energy/Environment, Energy, U.S. Strategy and Politics
February 28, 2008
Op-Ed
Newsweek
In this article for Newsweek, David Victor says that the deeper cause of China's recent power crisis lies in the fact that China's free-market policies—the same ones that led to China's extraordinary growth in the past decade—have eroded the government's ability to control its economy. In fact, the big challenge in the coming Asian century may not be China and India's burgeoning strength but their weakness.
See more in China, India, Energy, Energy Security, Environmental Pollution
January 31, 2008
Op-Ed
Newsweek
Last week brought fresh evidence that the U.S. economy is slowing and may have slipped into recession. The news has not only dimmed expectations for world economic growth, but it has also hammered oil prices, which lost $15 from the $100 high just a month earlier. The question on policymakers' lips is whether a worldwide slowdown will bring an end to the boom in demand for oil and drive prices significantly lower. In this article for Newsweek, David Victor argues that although oil prices will eventually drop as new sources come online and biofuels and other alternatives take hold, crude prices are likely to remain high and volatile for a while.
See more in Energy, Natural Resources Management
December 2, 2007
Op-Ed
Newsweek International
This week, the curtain rises on a fresh round of United Nations negotiations in Bali. More than 180 countries are trying to create a new international climate change agreement. In his new monthly Newsweek column, David Victor argues that without the cooperation of China - now the world's largest emitter of warming gases - the talks may be irrelevent and even harmful to the fight on global warming. China must realize its own interest in real efforts to control emissions.
See more in China, Climate Change, International Organizations
November 27, 2007
Video
Watch Fatih Birol, chief economist of the International Energy Agency, discuss the role of China and India in the world's energy outlook.
See more in China, India, Energy
November 27, 2007
Video
Watch Fatih Birol, chief economist of the International Energy Agency, discuss the role of China and India in the world's energy outlook.
See more in China, India, Energy
November 27, 2007
Audio
Listen to Fatih Birol, chief economist of the International Energy Agency, discuss China and India's role in the world's energy outlook.
See more in China, India, Energy
November 26, 2007
Transcript
Speaker Fatih Birol discusses international oil and gas markets in the context of 2007's global energy outlook.
See more in Energy/Environment, Energy
November 1, 2007
Article
National Interest
In this piece for The National Interest, David Victor looks at imagined wars that could erupt as China and India scramble for oil, as well as the various hypotheses surrounding the possibility that climate change could trigger conflicts over water and other scarce resources. He argues that "resource wars" are rising in the public imagination yet are unlikely to occur in reality.
See more in Wars and Warfare, Energy Security
September 24, 2007
Article
Scientific American
The odds are high that humans will warm Earth’s climate to worrisome levels during the coming century. Policy makers in the United States, which historically has produced more CO2 emissions than any other nation while doing relatively little to tame the flow, can in particular learn much about creating viable carbon-cutting markets by studying Europe’s recent experience. In this Scientific American article, David Victor and Danny Cullenward offer several concrete suggestions on how the U.S. should go about constructing an effective national climate policy.
See more in United States, Climate Change, Congress
June 25, 2007
Op-Ed
Newsweek International
See more in Climate Change, Health, Science, and Technology
In The Closing of the American Border, Edward Alden goes behind the scenes to tell the story of the Bush administration’s struggle to balance security and openness in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
In Termites in the Trading System, Jagdish Bhagwati reveals how the rapid spread of preferential trade agreements endangers the world trading system.
America Between the Wars explores how the decisions and debates of the years between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Twin Towers shaped the events, arguments, and politics of the world we live in today.
Complete list of CFR Books.
In this report, CFR Senior Fellow Michael A. Levi analyzes the potential use of deterrence in preventing terrorist groups from acquiring nuclear weapons and recommends a new approach to U.S. declaratory policy, as well as ways to improve U.S. capabilities to determine the sources of terrorist attacks.
In this report, Bruce W. MacDonald illuminates the strategic landscape of military space competition between the United States and China and highlights the dangers and opportunities the United States confronts in space.
Complete list of Council Special Reports.
For more information on the David Rockefeller Studies Program, contact:
Gary Samore
Vice President, Director of Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair
+1.212.434.9627
gsamore@cfr.org
Sebastian Mallaby
Director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for
Geoeconomic Studies, Deputy Director of Studies, and Paul A. Volcker Senior
Fellow for International Economics
smallaby@cfr.org
Janine Hill
Deputy Director of Studies Administration
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jhill@cfr.org
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