Paul Michael Wihbey

Paul Michael Wihbey is the President of the Global Water & Energy Strategy Team (GWEST). 

He is also a "Strategic Fellow" at the Institute for Advanced Strategic & Political Studies (IASPS), a Jerusalem-based think tank. A profile described IASPS as "a think tank based in Israel that aims to shift America's dependency on oil from the Gulf nations -- hostile towards Israel -- to other parts of the world." Wihbey "specializes in US energy and security in the Persian Gulf and adjacent areas". 

Background
According to a biographical note on the IASPS website, Wihbey is "former vice president of the Federal Liberal Party of Canada during the Trudeau Administration, he was a member of the Canadian parliamentary and diplomatic fact-finding missions to Lebanon in the early 1980s. ... In Washington, Wihbey has served as a consultant on Middle East security, economics and political issues to US-based multinationals, Congress and the Department of Defense".

A 1998 article written by Wihbey for the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs states: "From 1985-1989, he served as consultant to the U.S. Department of Defense and several Congressional offices. From 1989-1995, he was a contributing editor of Security Intelligence Review." 

In a July 2002 article on Africa's potential as an oil producer, National Review editor Richard Lowry described Wihbey as a "friend". He also said that Wihbey "is a leading evangelist of West Africa's potential, and has created an African Oil Policy Initiative Group to try to wake up policymakers to the region's emerging importance." 

A January 2003 article in Le Monde Diplomatique says that Wihbey visited Lagos, Nigeria in July 2002. According to the article, "Officially the aim was to set up a Gulf of Guinea commission representing oil producing countries in the area. Unofficially there was talk of Nigeria leaving Opec, a rumour finally denied by the government." 

Wihbey decries Kerry presidency, advocates destruction of OPEC
In a March 2004 document on energy policy produced jointly by GWEST and FirstEnergy, Paul Wihbey wrote: "A Kerry presidency, if it were to occur in the manner suggested, would indicate that the American political machinery was vulnerable to manipulation through economic means by individuals and institutions with anything but the interests of America (and the West generally) at heart. It would likely, therefore, kick the can of OPEC degeneration further down the road." 

Contact information
Email: pmw AT gwest.net

Related SourceWatch articles

 * African Oil Policy Initiative Group
 * Global Water & Energy Strategy Team
 * Institute for Advanced Strategic & Political Studies
 * Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs

External resources

 * "IASPS Officers and Research Associates", undated, accessed August 2004.

External articles

 * Paul Michael Wihbey, "The New Politics of Oil", JINSA Events, Programs, Publications and Notices, February 25, 1998.
 * Richard Lowry, "Into Africa ... and out of OPEC -- new thinking on oil", National Review Online, July 18, 2002.