Roundtable with Ambassador Geoffrey R Pyatt

Wednesday 6 March 2024

On March 6 2024, the Perth USAsia Centre was honoured to host a roundtable discussion with US Assistant Secretary of State of the Bureau of Energy Resources, Ambassador Geoff R Pyatt.

As global temperatures are rising, governments across the world are investing in the energy transition. But the move toward clean energy brings with it complex strategic challenges, from energy security to critical mineral supply chains.

Ambassador Pyatt is the United States’ top energy diplomat and the highest-ranking US State Department Official to visit Perth since Secretary Clinton in 2012. The Bureau of Energy Resources operates at the critical intersection between energy, climate, and US national security and ensures US leadership on global energy issues. Ambassador Pyatt represents the US on the governing board of the International Energy agency, at the International renewable Energy Agency, and at the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.

The wide-ranging discussion covered US-Australia cooperation on energy security and critical mineral supply chains, with particular focus on the ongoing negotiations to ensure the US’ Inflation Reduction Act provides mutual benefit for both countries.

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Speakers

Professor Gordon Flake

Professor Gordon Flake is the founding Chief Executive Officer of the Perth USAsia Centre at The University of Western Australia.

Professor Flake is one of the world’s leading authorities on strategic developments in the Indo-Pacific. Having spent twenty-five years in the US foreign policy community focused on the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia and now nine years in Australia’s Indian Ocean capital he is an expert on key strategic relationships in the broader Indo-Pacific. He has authored many scholarly and policy studies on security developments in the region, and their policy implications for the US and its regional partners.

Since establishing the Centre in 2014, Professor Flake has worked to build stronger international relationships between Australia, the US and the broader Indo-Pacific. He has led the growth of several major international conferences in Australia and the region; and established a range of high-level diplomatic and policy dialogues on issues of shared concern for the Indo-Pacific.

Professor Flake is a sought-after media commentator, particularly on strategic developments in the Indo-Pacific and change order issues to do with US politics and foreign policy. His work has appeared in many leading international outlets, including the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, as well as across the Australian media landscape.

Professor Flake holds a number of strategic leadership roles. He is a Governor of the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia (AmCham) and serves on the board of the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. He is a member of the Australian “Friends of Vietnam” group and a member of the international advisory board of the David M. Kennedy Centre at Brigham Young University.

Prior to joining the Centre, he was the Executive Director of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation, an Associate Director of the Program on Conflict Resolution at The Atlantic Council of the United States, and Director for Research and Academic Affairs at the Korea Economic Institute of America.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts (Korean) and Master of Arts (International and Area Studies) from Brigham Young University. He speaks both fluent Korean and Laotian.