Geopolitics of Energy Fellowship

The Research Fellow or Visiting Scholar will contribute to the Geopolitics of Energy Project at the Belfer Center, which treats energy as a core domain of strategy. Led by Professor Meghan L. O’Sullivan, Director of the Belfer Center and Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, the Project examines how energy shapes the distribution of power among states and how governments wield it as an instrument of statecraft. Its aim is to bring rigorous analysis to the questions that will soon command the attention of policymakers, and to surface them before they arrive as crises.

The Project therefore seeks fellows who can think across the whole energy system and connect it to geopolitics, technology, markets, and security.

Areas of Research

A wide range of research interests will be considered, provided they illuminate the foreign policy and national security implications of the energy system and the energy transition. The Project has particular interest in proposals along six interlocking lines:

• Energy and geopolitical power. How energy production, trade, finance, infrastructure, and access shape the distribution of power among states, from the largest producers to the middle powers that now control indispensable supply chains.
• Energy as an instrument of statecraft. How states wield energy to influence or coerce through sanctions, export controls, pricing, and infrastructure diplomacy, and how their targets manage and evade those tools.
• Energy and technology. How artificial intelligence and data centers, advanced nuclear power, storage, and grid technologies are reshaping the demand for and supply of energy, and how these technologies are becoming arenas of industrial policy and strategic dependence.
• Energy systems and security. How new physical, digital, financial, and political vulnerabilities are emerging in energy systems, from maritime chokepoints such as the Strait of Hormuz to cyber threats against critical infrastructure.
• The energy transition, climate, and world order. How decarbonization creates new dependencies, elevates the importance of critical minerals and clean technologies, and opens room for cooperation as well as rivalry. Proposals on the geopolitics of decarbonization in China and on the diversification of petroleum-based economies are especially welcome.
• Resilience and energy security redefined. How governments, markets, and institutions anticipate, absorb, and recover from energy shocks through such tools as fuel mix, infrastructure, diversification, stockpiles, and international coordination.

The Project welcomes applicants grounded in political science, economics, engineering, environmental sciences, law, or other fields who are eager to work across those disciplines. Fellows will pursue their own research while contributing to the convenings, policy engagement, and forward-looking analysis of the Project, and will take part in the wider intellectual life of the Belfer Center.

Stipend Information

There is no stipend information available for this fellowship.

Length

One Academic Year (10 Months)

Application Deadline

The fellowship application period for the 2027–2028 academic year opens on October 1 and closes on December 1, 2026.

Application Requirements

• CV or résumé
• Unofficial transcript (pre-doctoral fellow applicants only)
• Research statement (3–5 pages)
• Writing sample (fewer than 50 pages)
  • One published or unpublished piece in English, written solely by the applicant (co-authored pieces are not accepted), that demonstrates English-language writing ability
  • May be a journal article, book chapter, dissertation chapter, white paper, or similar work in the field of the applicant
• Contact information for three recommenders who will submit letters on behalf of the applicant