Dr Frank Umbach has been an Adjunct Senior Fellow of RSIS since September 2017. He graduated from the University of Bonn with an MA in Political Science and a PhD. He is currently Research Director at the European Cluster for Climate Energy and Resource Security (EUCERS)/Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies (CASSIS) at the University of Bonn; and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Bonn; a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe in Natolin (Warsaw) in Poland, where he teaches “EU energy (foreign) policies”, and an Executive Advisor at ProventisPartners, Munich (an M&A company). He is also a consultant for NATO, giving regularly presentations at high-level NATO conferences and seminars, and the Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG) and Wikistrat.com. He is an internationally recognised expert on global energy security, geopolitics, critical (energy) infrastructure protection, and (maritime) security policies in Asia–Pacific as well as Russia/Central Asia.

From 2014 to 2017, Dr Umbach had been an independent subject matter expert on international energy security for NATO’s annual “Strategic Forecast Analysis”. Between 2012 and 2015, Dr Umbach was a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC. From 2003 to 2007, he was Co-Chair of the European Committee of the Council for Security Co-operation in Asia–Pacific (CSCAP–Europe). From 1996 to 2007, he headed the “Security Policies in Asia–Pacific” and “International Energy Security” programmes at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) in Bonn and Berlin. Earlier, he was a Research Fellow at the Federal Institute for East European and International Studies (BIOst) from 1991 to 1994 and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Japan Institute for International Affairs in Tokyo from 1995 to 1996.

Dr Umbach has done consultancy work and testimonies for: the German Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defence Policies; European Commission and European Parliament; US State and Energy Departments; the US–China Economic and Security Review Commission of the US Congress; the Lithuanian Government; the House of Lords of the British Parliament; the Polish Foreign and Economic Ministries; Hungarian Foreign Ministry; South Korean Foreign Ministry; NATO; United Nations; Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE); World Energy Council; and the Federation of German Industries (BDI). He has also consulted for several energy and consultancy companies (including APCO and Roland Berger) and has advised international investors through GLG.

Dr Umbach is the author of more than 500 publications in more than 30 countries. These publications include the papers he has written as a contract author for the Geopolitical Intelligence Service (GIS) in Liechtenstein since 2011.

• International Energy Policies and Energy Security
• Climate Change Mitigation Policies
• Foreign and Security Policies of Russia, the Caspian Region, Asia-Pacific (i.e., China and Japan), and the European Union/Germany
• Cybersecurity and Protection of Critical Energy Infrastructures
• Maritime Security
• Geopolitical Risks

Working Papers

• EU Policies on Huawei and 5G Wireless Networks: Economic-Technological Opportunities vs Cybersecurity Risks

  23 December, 2020

• The New "Rare Metal Age": New Challenges and Implications of Critical Raw Materials Supply Security in the 21st Century

  27 April, 2020

• China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Its Energy-Security Dimensions

  03 January, 2019

• WP316 | Securing Energy Supply and Maritime Interests: Seeking Convergence

  01 October, 2018