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Strategic Executive Programme: Energy Geoeconomics and Global Security – Strategies for a Changing World
The world around us looks more threatening than it has for decades. The wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, mounting tensions in the South China Sea, structural rivalry between superpowers, the spectre of nuclear proliferation, and intensifying competition for the raw materials that underpin the energy transition. A Europe that is dependent on imports for oil, gas and the critical minerals that form the basis for the energy transition. Is there a European “grand strategy” that will enable our part of the world to face global challenges with confidence? And how can the private and public sectors work together to make our society more resilient?
Against this backdrop, the Strategic Executive Programme: Energy Geoeconomics and Global Security invites senior professionals to think more rigorously and more integrally about the world they operate in.
The programme is built around a single, powerful framework: Power – Planet – Profit. This trilemma — security, climate and energy, and economic interest — sits at the heart of nearly every consequential decision being made by states, corporations, and international institutions today. We do not promise easy answers. What we offer is a more structured way of asking better questions, navigating competing objectives, and acting with strategic clarity in conditions of genuine uncertainty.
Among the questions we will explore together:
- Do we understand our own historical context — and are we honest about it?
- In a trilemma, is it possible to rank objectives? And who gets to decide?
- Which state and non-state actors are best placed to find an optimum?
- Can the commons problem of climate change be solved in a world of geopolitical competition?
- Will technology be the accelerator we aspire it to be — or is that aspiration itself a form of risk?
- Are energy and resources a global connector, or an arena for zero-sum competition?
- · How can Europe reconcile climate ambition, competitiveness, and energy security?
- Can the Global South’s development aspirations be met without crossing planetary boundaries?
- As the world shifts toward renewables, will the distribution of power shift with it?
- Are we moving toward a multipolar world — and what does that mean for how we act?
- How can Europe reconcile climate ambition, competitiveness, and energy security?
- Ultimately: what can we each contribute to help find the optimum?
This is not a course about energy policy in isolation. It is a course about the world, and your place in it as a strategic actor.
Learning goals:
- Apply the Power–Planet–Profit framework to real-world geopolitical and energy challenges, integrating considerations of security, climate, and economic interest.
- Identify and act on strategic risks and opportunities in energy systems: Analyse how geo-economics, energy markets, and emerging technologies reshape global power dynamics.
- Make informed strategic decisions under geopolitical pressure: Assess the strategic implications of trade wars, sanctions, and energy supply disruptions for business and policy.
- Lead through complexity and crisis: Develop and stress-test future scenarios for the energy transition, including potential sites of cooperation and conflict.
- Position your organization in a shifting global power landscape: Strengthen your capacity to engage across public and private sector boundaries — contributing to more resilient, strategically coherent institutions.
Contact us for registration
The programme runs over three intensive days in Rotterdam, structured to move participants from analytical foundations through regional deep-dives to forward-looking scenario work.
Each day runs from 08:30 to 17:00, combining expert-led sessions, case studies, and structured discussion. The format is deliberately intimate — designed to generate genuine intellectual exchange, not passive instruction.
A distinctive feature of the programme are two exclusive dinners, at which senior figures from government ministries and major multinationals join as evening keynote speakers. These informal settings create rare opportunities for candid conversation with decision-makers at the intersection of energy, policy, and geopolitics.
Day 1 — Monday 1 June 2026
Setting the strategic context: tuning into the signals shaping today’s geopolitical and energy landscape. Participants align around the Power, Planet & Profit lens and explore the regional forces driving both disruption and opportunity. The day moves from big-picture context to grounded casework, maritime security, refining ecosystems, and scenario design, building a sharper analytical ear for what matters now, and what requires immediate action.
Day 2 — Tuesday 2 June 2026
From insight to action: turning strategy into something that holds under pressure. The programme digs into economic statecraft, legal and corporate exposure, and the fault lines across ports and global supply chains, alongside key EU energy policy trade-offs. Through immersive scenarios and a high-intensity boardroom simulation, participants step into the moment, where decisions can’t wait, and clarity, timing, and coordination make all the difference.
Day 3 — Wednesday 3 June 2026
Strategic consolidation and forward momentum: bringing it all together into a coherent direction. Participants sharpen priorities, compose resilient cross-sector strategies, and connect short-term responses to long-term positioning. The emphasis shifts from understanding to commitment: what will you do differently, and how will you know it is working?
The programme closes with concrete action plans and a shared framework for accountability — not as procedural formality, but as the difference between a strategy that sounds right and one that lands.
What’s included in the Intensive Course Geopolitics in the Energy Transition
As part of this course, you’ll receive one year of access to all learning materials via our dedicated Online Learning Platform. After completing the programme, you will receive a digital certificate of participation, which can be easily added to your LinkedIn profile. Each course day includes a well-catered lunch. A particular highlight of the programme are two unique networking dinners, where distinguished evening guests join, senior figures from ministries and multinationals. These informal settings offer a rare opportunity to engage in open discussions on geopolitical issues and connect directly with key decision-makers. Accommodation is not included, but our event managers are happy to advise on hotel options. A dedicated event manager will be present throughout the programme to ensure everything runs smoothly and to assist you with any questions along the way.
Contact us for registration
This programme is designed for senior professionals who operate — or aspire to operate — at the intersection of energy, geopolitics, and strategic decision-making. It is particularly well-suited to those who recognise that the most consequential challenges of our time do not fit neatly within a single discipline or sector.
Participants typically include:
- Senior executives and corporate strategists in energy, infrastructure, and adjacent industries navigating geopolitical risk and the pressures of the energy transition.
- Policy advisors and government officials working on energy, climate, international relations, or national security — at national or supranational level.
- Economists, investment professionals, and financial analysts seeking a deeper geopolitical frame for understanding energy markets and capital flows.
- Diplomats and foreign affairs practitioners engaged in multilateral processes, bilateral energy relations, or strategic partnerships.
- Researchers and academics at the frontier of energy systems, geopolitics, and technology governance.
- NGO leaders and multilateral professionals working on climate action, energy access, and global equity.
- Journalists, editors, and communications professionals covering the energy transition and international affairs.
Whether you come from the public or private sector, from a technical or a policy background, this programme offers a shared intellectual space — one that values both rigour and breadth. What participants share is not a job title, but a conviction that understanding the world more clearly is itself a form of strategic advantage.
Contact us for registration
- Lecture 1 Monday 1 June 2026 08:30 - 17:00 Lecture 2 Tuesday 2 June 2026 08:30 - 17:00 Lecture 3 Wednesday 3 June 2026 08:30 - 17:00
- LocationRotterdam, The Netherlands
Norbert Both is a partner at Publieke Zaken, bringing over three decades of experience at the intersection of government, international business, and public affairs. He served as a diplomat at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including a posting in Berlin, before moving into senior leadership roles at Shell — among them Vice President Corporate Communications and Head of Government Relations Shell Netherlands. In those roles he developed deep expertise in non-technical risk management, navigating the fault lines between corporate strategy and political reality in some of the world’s most consequential energy markets.
At Publieke Zaken, his work centres on building productive relationships between the public and private sectors, with a particular focus on international companies engaging with the Netherlands and Europe from a global perspective. Norbert holds a doctorate in International Relations from the University of Sheffield, has published on the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, and serves on the board of the Atlantic Commission.
Prashanth Shanmugan is an academic, corporate diplomat, and global business advisory specialist whose career spans the intersection of geopolitics, energy, and storytelling.
A former member of the Global Scenarios team at Royal Dutch Shell, he has sustained and deepened that expertise over the years bringing both the rigour of long-range strategic foresight and a practitioner’s understanding of how energy systems, policy, and geopolitics interact.
He is President of the Australian Council on Foreign Relations, a Lecturer at the University of St. Gallenin Switzerland, and a Reservist Officer in the Australian Army. He also leads a creative advisory practice working across narrative design, scenarios, and public diplomacy.
He is a recipient of numerous honours and awards including the Centenary Medal, Human Rights Youth Medal, and the Australian Humanitarian Award.
This rare combination spanning academia, creativity, diplomacy, and executive advisory gives Prashanth a multidimensional perspective that few bring to the energy transition conversation.
Based in Australia, he adds a uniquely valuable lens to the NEBS Ambassador network. The Indo-Pacific is one of the most consequential arenas in the global energy transition, a region navigating the tension between energy security, economic development, and decarbonisation at extraordinary scale and speed. It is also a region he knows intimately, shaped by years of engagement across its cultures, institutions, and corridors of power.
