Senior Scholar Richard Nephew assesses the unintended consequences of sanctions and explores to what degree such consequences should be considered when formulating statecraft. Using the case of U.S. sanctions against Iran--which were first imposed in 1996 in the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA) and followed up by the comprehensive embargo against Iran erected by President Clinton--Nephew examines whether these sanctions had a discernible, deleterious impact on Pakistan and its energy firms, as a result of a diminished Iranian natural gas sector.

Fellow Tim Boersma and Steve Griffiths explore reforming electricity, water, and fuel subsidies in the United Arab Emirates in a report for the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies. The report is part of a larger Oxford Energy Forum issue focusing on MENA price reforms.

Authors Tom Moerenhout, Nikos Vezanis, and Chris Westling analyze the political economy of energy pricing reforms in the Middle East and North Africa since the Arab Spring. This report investigates the conditions under which the governments of Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Iran--each with very different political economies--were able to implement price increases. The report explains for each country why reform was necessary, how political coalitions affected reform planning and implementation, and how social contract dynamics affected the reforms.

Oil price swings are not only a problem for consumer countries but also for producers, particularly those with oil sectors that have a central role in their economies. Laura El-Katiri explores the response to a downward cycle in oil prices and dwindling revenue streams by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) economies-- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).