Jeff Colgan

Biography

Jeff D. Colgan is the Richard Holbrooke Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Watson Institute for Public and International Affairs at Brown University. His research focuses on international order, especially as related to energy and the environment.

His book, Petro-Aggression: When Oil Causes War, was published in 2013 by Cambridge University Press. He has published work in International Organization, Foreign Affairs, World Politics, International Security and elsewhere. He also occasionally blogs at the Monkey Cage and Foreign Affairs. On Twitter, he is @JeffDColgan

Professor Colgan previously taught at the School of International Service of American University 2010-2014, and was a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC in 2012-13. He completed his Ph.D. at Princeton University, and was a Canada-US Fulbright Scholar at UC Berkeley, where he earned a Master’s in Public Policy. Dr. Colgan has worked with the World Bank, McKinsey & Company, and The Brattle Group.

Teaching

International Political Economy

Geopolitics of Oil and Energy

Publications

Petro-Aggression: When Oil Causes War (Cambridge University Press 2013)
The Promise and Peril of International Trade (Broadview Press 2005)

News|Recent News

Exxon sued for fraud over climate change (interview with Jeff Colgan)

October 30, 2018 PRI's The World

Associate Professor Jeff Colgan joins PRI's The World to discuss the lawsuit filed by New York's attorney general that alleges that Exxon Mobil defrauded its shareholders by downplaying the threat of climate change to its business.

How much does the US need Saudi oil? (interview with Jeff Colgan)

October 18, 2018 PRI's The World

Associate Professor Jeff Colgan joins PRI's The World to discuss how dependent the United States is on Saudi Arabian oil.

Saudi Arabia hinted at a U.S. oil embargo. It's not 1973. (written by Jeff Colgan)

October 16, 2018 The Washington Post

Associate Professor Jeff Colgan in The Washington Post, "The United States could live without Saudi Arabia, but it would be costly. A positive relationship between Washington and Riyadh can help minimize interstate conflict in the Middle East — and keep a lid on volatility in global oil markets."

The climate is changing. Here's how politics will also change. (co-authored by Jeff Colgan)

October 9, 2018 The Washington Post

Associate Professor Jeff Colgan in The Washington Post's Monkey Cage blog, "Delaying action on climate will hurt the economy and create new demands on taxpayers for expensive, reactive measures. These outcomes can be avoided only to the extent climate-vulnerable interests can be mobilized before they feel the impact."

Amusing Archival Discoveries from the Cold War (Jeff Colgan featured)

July 18, 2018 War on the Rocks

This article features amusing archived documents from the Cold War period that scholars have come across during their research. Professor Jeff Colgan chose a 1975 report by The Church Committee that revealed a play related to Fidel Castro's beard.

The Market is Valuing Climate Risk All Wrong (written by Jeff Colgan)

July 6, 2018 Global Policy Journal

Jeff Colgan in Global Policy Journal, "At the moment, property values and stock prices generally seem unaffected by the prospect of climate change, which generates a comforting illusion that our current trajectory is sustainable. But the idea that that markets rapidly update prices with all available information – an idea for which Eugene Fama won a Nobel Prize in 2013 – relies on a strict set of assumptions. In a world of climate change, those assumptions bear re-examination."

Do High Oil Prices Mean More International Conflict? (research by Jeff Colgan cited)

May 30, 2018 The American Interest

Research by Professor Jeff Colgan is cited in an article about the correlation between high oil prices and international conflict. "He also notes that oil-producers are 50 percent more likely to engage in conflict than non-oil producers."

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