Research, ideas, and leadership for a more secure, peaceful world
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Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) are state-controlled pools of capital that hold financial and real assets, including shares of state enterprises, and manage them to grow the nation’s base of sovereign wealth. The dramatic rise of SWFs, and the fact that most are located in non-OECD countries, has raised concern about the direction of capitalism. Yet SWFs are not a homogenous group of actors. Why do some countries, such as Russia, create SWFs while other countries with large current account surpluses, such as Switzerland, do not? And why do countries with similar macroeconomic features, such as Kuwait and Qatar or Singapore and Hong Kong, choose different types of SWFs?
Juergen Braunstein works on the Geopolitics of Energy Project at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center. His research focuses on the drivers as well as consequences of the green energy ‘revolution’ for the global energy composition and its implications for existing and future interstate relations. Prior to this he coordinated the New Climate Economy Special Initiative on financing the urban transition at LSE Cities. Juergen is the author of Capital Choices: Sectoral Politics and the Variation of Sovereign Wealth. He has a B.A. from the University of Vienna and a masters and doctorate from the London School of Economics.
Juergen Braunstein, Research Fellow, Robert and Renée Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Moderator: Aurélie Bros, Senior Fellow, Energy Project, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies; Lecturer on Government, Harvard University
Sponsored by the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies.