Robert M. Cutler, Ph.D.

Analyst and Consultant in International Affairs,
Institutional Design and Analysis

Energy, Security and Conflict in Central Eurasia/Southwest Asia
Political and Economic Analysis — Trade and Development
Organizational Communication and Complexity

Robert M. Cutler was educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and The University of Michigan, where he earned a Ph.D. in Political Science. He has held research and teaching positions at major universities in the United States, Canada, France, Switzerland, and Russia. He has twenty years of interdisciplinary experience in Europe from the Atlantic to beyond the Urals, in the once and former Soviet area, including the fields of international economics, finance and law; and has published widely in first-rank professional journals in Europe and North America as well as in the mass media, in three languages. He has also engaged in consulting in organizational analysis and design, organizational learning (especially in cross-cultural contexts), and the management of information under conditions of complexity. His interdisciplinary expertise covers several areas of geographical specialization as well as theoretical and empirical work on human information processing and decision making, and also international institutions and regimes.
 

Education and Training

• Columbia University:  Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, The Harriman Institute for Advanced Study of the Soviet Union, 1983–84.
• Moscow University:  IREX Postdoctoral Fellow, Faculty of Contemporary History, 1982–83.
• University of Michigan:  Ph.D., Political Science, 1982.
• University of Geneva:  Albert Gallatin Fellow in International Affairs, Graduate Institute of International Studies, History and International Politics 1979–80.
• Pennsylvania State University:  M.A., Political Science, 1976.
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology:  Sc.B., Political Science; and Sc.B., History and Science, 1974.
   

Chronology of Principal Appointments

• Carleton University:  Research Fellow, 1996–Present.
• Université Laval:  Professeur adjoint, 1988–1996.
• University of California at Santa Barbara:  Visiting Assistant Professor, 1985–1988.
• University of Arizona:  Visiting Assistant Professor, 1984–1985.
   

Selected Consultancies and External Appointments (since January 1998)

• External Collaborator, CEPS Task Force for the Caucasus, Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels, 2000–Present.
• External Research Fellow, Institute for the Study of Coherence and Emergence, Boston, 2000–Present.
• Central Eurasia Project, Open Society Institute, Soros Foundation, 1999–Present.
• Central Asia and Caucasus Institute, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, 1999–Present.
• Multiple Centres of Power Team, Policy Research Secretariat, 1998–Present.
   

Selected Expertises in World Economy and International Relations

• Energy Security and Ethnic Conflict in the Caucasus and Central Asia.
• International Politics and Economics of the Eastern Mediterranean and Asia Minor.
• Central Eurasian (Caspian, Caucasus, Central Asia, Russia) and Southwest Asian Security and Trade Policy.
   

Professional Skills

    Negotiation

• Negotiated institutional program development (multiple instances).
• Chaired delegation to meetings on bilateral international relations.
   

    Planning and Execution

• Conceived, designed, and planned workshop series on post-Soviet affairs.
• Conceived, planned, and supervised international collaborative research project.
• Developed and wrote proposals, executed resulting projects (multiple instances).
   

    Design and Implementation

• Designed and implemented channels to improve organizational decision making.
• Designed and executed study of organizational dynamics.
• Designed, planned, and organized international conferences.
   

    Evaluation and Instruction

• Evaluated programs, budgets and performances (multiple instances).
• Taught and mentored students, supervised their research (multiple instances).
• Designed, planned, and organized international conferences.
   

Research Accomplishments (since January 1998)

    Competitively Awarded Research Grants (since July 1996)

• Strategic Research Initiative Grant, Social Science and Humanities Research Council, 2000–Present.
• Project on Trends, Social Science and Humanities Research Council, 1998–2001.
• Professional Partnerships Grant, Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, 1997 (for University of Vilnius, Lithuania).
• Research Grant, World Society Foundation (Zurich), 1996–1998.
   

    Presentations to Professional Associations

1. "Learning to Live with Ambiguous Disorder: How Complexity Theory Articulates the Bases of the Emerging International System and What Will Follow It," International Studies Association, Chicago, 20–24 February 2001.
    
2. "International Parliamentary Institutions: A Survey and Analysis of a New Phenomenon in 'World Society," International Studies Association, Los Angeles, 15–19 March 2000.
    
3. "What Complexity Science Really Means for International Relations Theory," International Studies Association, Los Angeles, 15–19 March 2000.
    
4. "The European Parliament in Comparative International Perspective," Fourth Conference of the European Sociological Association, Amsterdam, 18–21 August 1999.
    
5. "The Paradox of Intentional Emergent Coherence," Third Colloquium on Complex Systems and the Management of Organizations, New England Complex Systems Institute, Boston (Mass.), 17–21 March 1999.
    
6. "Theses on the Evolution of International Systems and the Nature of the Current International Transition," Second International Conference on Complex Systems, New England Complex Systems Institute, Nashua (N.H.), 25–30 October 1998.
    
7. "What the 'National Interest' Means in a Transnational 'World Society': Or, Groundwork for a Methodology of Constructivist-SciRealist Synthesis," Third Pan-European International Relations Conference and Joint Meeting with the International Studies Association, Vienna, 16–19 September 1998.
    
8. "Foreign-Domestic Linkages in a 'Newly Independent State': The Origin And Genesis Of Kazakhstan's Foreign Policy," 94th Annual Meeting, American Political Science Association, Boston (Mass.), 3–6 September 1998.
    
9. "Globalism and Collaboration in World Politics: The Proliferation of International Parliamentary Institutions and the Viability of 'International Society'," 94th Annual Meeting, American Political Science Association, Boston (Mass.), 3–6 September 1998.
    
10. "Re-examining the 'Civic Culture' Hypothesis," 14th World Congress of Sociology, Montreal (Qué.), 25–31 July 1998.
     
11. "Kazakhstan's Foreign Policy from Sovereignty to the Present," Third Annual Conference, Association for Study of Nationalities, New York, 25–27 April 1998.
     
12. "How Soviet Foreign Policy Failed to Manage Complexity," First Colloquium on Complex Systems and the Management of Organizations, New England Complex Systems Institute, Toronto, 3–5 April 1998.

• Plus 34 other presentations to professional associations since March 1979.
   

    Invited Workshop and Seminar Presentations

1. "Canada Amidst New Networks of Transnational Complexity: The Potential of International Parliamentary Institutions," Conference on Canada in a Global Society, Policy Research Secretariat, Ottawa, 30 November – 1 December 2000.
    
2. "What Is Cooperative Energy Security, and Why Can't They Practice It Around the Caspian?", Berkeley Program in Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies, University of California at Berkeley, 16 November 1999.
    
3. "Multiple Centres of Power Roundtable," International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, 22 October 1999.
    
4. "Planning for the Next International System: Two Policy Initiatives," Workshop of the Multiple Centres of Power Team, Project on Trends, Policy Research Secretariat, Victoria (B.C.), 14–15 May 1999.
    
5. "Finance Issues in Eurasian Energy Development," Second International Conference on Caspian Oil and Gas Resources: Transport Routes, Security and Economic Development, Institute for International Energy Studies, Tehran, 7–8 November 1998.
    
6. "How to Promote Energy Co-operation around the Caspian," Seminar on Caspian Energy, 10th Annual Crans Montana Forum, Crans Montana (Switzerland), 25–28 June 1998.
    
7. "Caspian Oil and Regional Development: Prerequisites for Resource Development in the Caucasus and Eurasia," Working Group on Energy Security in Asia, MIT Japan Program, Center for International Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 26 February 1998.

• Plus 26 other invited workshop and seminar presentations since January 1977.
   

    Selected Public Addresses

1. "The New Concept of Cooperative Energy Security: A Focus for Synthesizing Environmental and Energy Agendas through Local Participation under Sustainable Development," U.N. Headquarters, New York, 6 April 2000.
    
2. "Finance Issues in Eurasian Energy Development," Second International Conference on Caspian Oil and Gas Resources: Transport Routes, Security and Economic Development, Institute for International Energy Studies, Teheran, 7–8 November 1998.
    
3. "Energy Resources, Human Resources, and Co-operative Energy Security," Plenary Session on Caspian Sea Resources, Monaco Summit on Energy, Crans Montana Forum in Monaco sponsored by UNIDO, Monaco, 19–22 March 1998.

• Plus 11 other selected public addresses and media interventions since September 1984.
• Plus numerous participations and expert commentary on Soviet and post-Soviet politics on Radio Canada International (French and English services); Voice of America, English broadcasts to Central Asia; and British Broadcasting Corporation, Russian broadcasts to Russia.
   

Selected Professional Service (since January 1998)

• Member, Editorial Board, Electronic Journal of World Politics, University of Kent at Canterbury, 2000–Present.
• Charter Contributor, NIS Global Information Project, Eurasia Foundation, 2000–Present.
• Representative to the U.N. Economic and Social Council, International Research Foundation for Development (Special Consultative Status), 2000–Present.
• Invited Testimony, Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, House of Commons, 5 May 2000. On energy development and ethnic conflict in the Caucasus and Central Asia.
• Correspondant [sic = Contributing Editor], Cahiers d'études sur la Méditerranée orientale et le monde turco-iranien, Centre d'études et de recherches internationales, Fondation nationale des sciences politiques, Paris, 1998–Present.
• Member, Executive Committee, and Vice-President, Research Group on Alienation Research, International Sociological Association, 1998–Present.
• Member, Executive Committee, and Chair, Awards Committee, Domestic Sources of Foreign Policy Section, American Political Science Association, 1998–Present. Re-elected 1999.
• Rapporteur, Financing Eurasian Energy for the 21st Century, The Second EastWest Leaders' Forum, Institute for EastWest Studies, 10 June 1998.
• Member, Academic Advisory Board, Turkistan-Newsletter, 1997–Present. This is the pre-eminent electronic newsletter on the politics and economics of the Turkic peoples from southeast Europe to western China, with over 2600 subscribers in nearly 70 countries.
   

Major Publications (since January 1998)

    Refereed Articles

• "What Security Architecture for the New Eastern Europe?", European Security (accepted subject to revision).
   
• "The Sources of Kazakhstani Conduct: Evolution of Foreign Policy Orientation in a 'Newly Independent State'," Cahiers d'etudes sur la Mediterranée orientale et le monde turco-iranien (accepted subject to revision).
   
• "Turkey and the Geopolitics of Turkmenistan's Natural Gas," Turkish Journal of Middle East Studies (in press).
   
• "Policy Options for Resolving Post-Soviet Ethnic Conflict," Central Asian Survey 19 (nos. 3–4, 2000): in press.
   
• "Complex Evolution of International Systems and the Nature of the Current International Transition," InterJournal [web-based interdisciplinary journal at <http://www.interjournal.org>]. To be reprinted in Ali Minai and Yaneer Bar-Yam (eds.), Complex Systems across Disciplines (New York: Perseus Press, forthcoming).
   
• "Cooperative Energy Security in the Caspian Region: A New Paradigm for Sustainable Development?", Global Governance 5, no. 2 (April–June 1999): 251–271.
   
• "Housing the Orphans of European Security: How to Bring Belarus, Ukraine, and Moldova in from the Cold," Euro-Atlantic Forum 2, nos. 1–2 (August 1998): 26–43.
   
• Plus 14 other refereed articles since 1980 and 2 edited books since 1985.
   

    Published Speeches

• "Speeches of the Day — The Origin of Cooperative Energy Security and Proposal for a EurAsian Oil and Gas Association: Remarks to a Conference in Helsinki on 22 January 1995," in Theodore Karasik (ed.), Russia and Eurasia Armed Forces Review, vol. 17, 1994–2000, pt. 1 (Gulf Breeze, Fla.: Academic International Press, forthcoming 2001).
   
• "Finance Issues in Eurasian Energy Development," in Caspian Oil and Gas Resources: Transport Routes, Security and Economic Development — Second International Conference, November 7–8, 1998 (Tehran: Institute for International Energy Studies, 1999), pp. 68–71.
   

    Contributions to Edited Books

• "Emergence of International Parliamentary Institutions," in Gordon S. Smith and Daniel Wolfish (eds.), Who Is Afraid of the State? (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, forthcoming 2001).
   
• "Gorbachev as CEO Road Kill: How the Soviet Foreign Policy Establishment Failed to Manage Complexity," in Michael Lissack (ed.), Managing Complexity in Organizations (New York: Quorum, 1999), pp. 352–370.
   
• "Empirical Application of Transfinite Cardinals to International Studies," in Peter Bennett (ed.), Modelling International Conflict (Southend-on-Sea, U.K.: Institute of Mathematics and Its Applications, 1998).
   
• "U.S. Interests and 'Cooperative Security' in Abkhazia and Karabakh: Engagement versus Commitment?", in Mehmet Tütüncü (ed.) The Caucasian Knot: Ethnic Conflicts in the Caucasus (Haarlem, The Netherlands: S.O.T.A. [Research Centre for Turkestan, Azerbaijan, Crimea, Caucasus and Siberia], 1998), pp. 132–144.
   
• Plus 10 other chapters in edited books since 1979.
   

    Selected Analytical Articles and Briefings

• Fortnightly analytical opinion columns, FSU Oil & Gas Monitor, January 1999 – Present.
   
• Nearly two dozen analytical articles for The Analyst, a web-published biweekly journal of the Central Asia and Caucasus Institute, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University; and for the website of the Central Eurasia Project, Open Society Institute, Soros Foundation, 1999–Present.
   
• New Silk Road: Briefing Document [on Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan] (New York: EastWest Institute, 1999). 70 pp.
   
• "Kazakhstan and International Energy Development," Energy of Kazakhstan (December 1999).
   
• "Moskva riskuet okazat'sia izolirovannoi ot Kavkaza" [Moscow Risks Finding Itself Isolated from the Caucasus], Nezavisimaia gazeta, 16 January 1998, p. 7. Abridged and edited English translation published as "Russia's Dilemma in the Caucasus: Power Politics vs. Energy Cooperation," Analysis of Current Events 10, no. 2 (February 1998): 10–11.
   

References

• Available upon request.

DR. ROBERT M. CUTLER was educated at MIT and The University of Michigan, where he earned a Ph.D. in Political Science, and has specialized and consulted in the international affairs of Europe, Russia, and Eurasia for twenty years. He has held research and teaching positions at major universities in the United States, Canada, France, Switzerland, and Russia, and contributed to leading policy reviews and academic journals as well as the print and electronic mass media in three languages.