Collins Research Portal

About Me and My Work

My name is Gabriel Collins. I’m a water, commodity, and national security geek who has been lucky enough to grow up around the Texas and New Mexico oilfield, get educated at prime institutions with carnivorous mascots (A.B. from Princeton and J.D. from the University of Michigan), and work several cool jobs in government, finance, law, and at the premier global energy & resource think-tank where I am thrilled to be today.

Interesting policy ideas only become useful when they are maximally accessible to action-oriented minds, be they voters and engaged citizens, commercial operators, fellow policy scholars, agency staff, or elected officials. In that spirit of openness and exchange, I hope you find the site useful! Enjoy!

Views and opinions expressed herein are exclusively my own.

Why Focus on Eurasia? Events across Eurasia and regional powers’ interactions with the United States will shape the 21st century.  The U.S. is physically located in North America but has deep interests across Eurasia, to the point that multiple U.S. National Security Strategies characterize the U.S. as both an Indo-Pacific and European power.

Key Research Themes: Energy security, geoeconomic competition, climate & energy transition dynamics, the food-energy-water nexus, and national security.

My work focuses on the linkages of energy with regional economic prosperity, national power projection, food and water access, and national security. Among key challenges to address are:

• Cold War 2.0 between the U.S. and China is intensifying and decoupling is accelerating;
• China’s deliberate progress on controlling supply chains for advanced energy technologies;
• China’s “one belt-one road” initiative and the associated physical and digital infrastructure;
• Russia has launched the largest industrial war since 1950, which has contributed heavily to the largest energy supply disruption since 1973; and
• Great power competition has reignited and now reaches a level not felt for two generations. 

The complexity of these tectonic shifts, and other emerging stresses, demands interdisciplinary analysis.

New Eurasian Century Underway

Eurasia accounts for nearly 2/3 of global energy use (fossil and low-carbon alike), 60% of staple grains consumption, 45% of defense spending, and almost 80% of semiconductor sales revenues.  The region has been the global center of gravity for energy market developments over the last three decades, and it has significant bearing on global demographic, economic, natural resource, technological, and military developments. 

Renewed Great Power competition means that the actions of China, Russia, and their Eurasian neighbors will reverberate around the world—including in Africa and Latin America. What happens in Eurasia and how regional powers interact with the United States will shape the 21^st century.  The U.S. is physically located in North America but has deep interests across Eurasia, so deep, in fact, that multiple U.S. National Security Strategies characterize the U.S. as both an Indo-Pacific and European power.

Eurasian relationships are rich and multidirectional and can re-align with extraordinary speed. China and Russia’s centuries-old relationship is marked by cycles of fear and temporary bonds of common cause, and has been anything but stable. The astounding growth of China, and the energy and natural resource wealth of Russia, place these two neighbors in an interesting, potentially symbiotic relationship that will shape the future of Eurasia and the World. If we also consider the technoeconomic dynamos of Japan and South Korea, as well as the textile and manufacturing powerhouses of Southeast Asia, Eurasia is resuming its historic role as a central driver of global economic and strategic outcomes.

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