Jeff Colgan
Director of Security Studies
Richard Holbrooke Associate Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs
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.
Books
Petro-Aggression: When Oil Causes War (Cambridge University Press 2013)
The Promise and Peril of International Trade (Broadview Press 2005)
Selected Blog Posts
New evidence on gender bias in IR syllabi (Duck of Minerva)
From West Texas to the World (Foreign Affairs.com)
How sectarianism shapes Yemen's war (Monkey Cage / Washington Post)
Petro-aggression: how Russia's oil makes war more likely (Monkey Cage / Washington Post)
OPEC, the Phantom Menace (Monkey Cage / Washington Post)
40 years after the oil crisis: could it happen again? (Monkey Cage / Washington Post)
Published Articles
"Climate Change and the Politics of Military Bases," Global Environmental Politics, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 33-51, (2018).
"Review of _Over the Horizon_ by David Edelstein," H-Diplo, vol. 10, no. 12, 04/25/2018, Book Review, Published.
"Climate Change Will Further Complicated the Politics of U.S. Military Bases," New Security Beat, 02/19/2018, Non-Peer Reviewed, Published.
"The climate is changing. Here's how politics will also change.," Washington Post/MC, 10/08/2018, Non-Peer Reviewed, Published.
"Saudi Arabia hinted at a U.S. oil embargo. It's not 1973.," Washington Post/MC, 10/16/2018, Non-Peer Reviewed, Published.
"Qatar will leave OPEC. Here's what this means.," Washington Post/MC, 12/10/2018, Non-Peer Reviewed, Published.
"The Market is Valuing Climate Risk All Wrong," Global Policy, 07/05/2018, Non-Peer Reviewed, Published.
"Where is IR going? Evidence from graduate training" IR syllabi - Colgan ISQ (forthcoming)
"Revolutions, Personalist Dictatorships, and International Conflict" Colgan and Weeks-2015.pdf
"Oil, Domestic Conflict, and Opportunities for Democratization" Colgan 2015 JPR.pdf
"The Emperor Has No Clothes: The Limits of OPEC" Colgan-OPEC - 2014.docx
"Mechanisms of informal governance: Evidence from the IEA" [journal page]
"Oil, Domestic Politics, and International Conflict" Colgan - 2014 - ERSS.pdf
"Fueling the Fire: Pathways from Oil to War" Colgan - 2013 - IS.pdf
"Domestic Revolutionary Leaders and International Conflict" Colgan - 2013 - World Politics.pdf
"Protecting Sovereignty, Protecting the Planet" Green and Colgan 2013 - Final.pdf
"Measuring Revolution" Colgan - 2012 - CMPS.pdf
"Punctuated Equilibrium in the Energy Regime Complex" Colgan et al. - 2011 - RIO.pdf
"Venezuela and Military Expenditure Data" Colgan - 2011 - JPR.pdf
"Oil and Resource-Backed Aggression" Colgan - 2011 - Energy Policy.pdf
"Oil and Revolutionary Governments: Fuel for International Conflict" Colgan - 2010 - IO .pdf
"The International Energy Agency - Challenges for the 21st Century" Colgan 2009 - GPPi_PP6_IEA_final.pdf
November 5, 2019 Al Jazeera
Jeff Colgan in Al Jazeera, "Investors around the world are thinking, 'You know, long term we have to be worried about stranded assets in fossil fuels' and that's a real concern for not just Norway, but other investors around the world."
October 30, 2019 VOA News
Jeff Colgan in VOA News, "American oil companies would face a host of practical difficulties in operating there. Legal difficulties, practical challenges - so this would not be easy to do and I'm not sure they would be actually eager to do it."
October 29, 2019 TIME
Jeff Colgan in TIME, "A big part of the strategy of defeating ISIS was actually to try to disrupt the oil supply chain, to take out tankers carrying oil, or to destroy any kind of refineries, any sort of ISIS oil operations. The net result was Kurdish forces and U.S. forces helped occupy the territory where the oil fields are."
October 28, 2019 Reuters UK
Jeff Colgan in Reuters, "The idea that the United States would ‘keep the oil’ in the hands of ExxonMobil or some other U.S. company is immoral and possibly illegal."
September 18, 2019 Background Briefing with Ian Masters
Jeff Colgan talks to Ian Masters about Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the recent Abqaiq attacks.
September 18, 2019 Al Jazeera
Jeff Colgan talks to Al Jazeera about the Abqaiq oil attacks in Saudi Arabia and the geopolitical implications.
August 19, 2019 Washington Post
Jeff D. Colgan, an associate professor of political science, wrote this column explaining that rapidly melting ice in Greenland will expose waste that has been locked in for decades.