SIA Research Seminar with Dr. Natalie Koch of Syracuse University
Date & Time: January 24, 2018 | 06:00 PM – 07:15 PM
Location: Sutliff Auditorium, 118 Lewis Katz Building
Join Dr. Natalie Koch, Associate Professor of Geography at Syracuse University, for a presentation on “Greening the Gulf: Environmental Geopolitics and the Arabian Peninsula’s ‘Post-Oil’ Future” as part of her consideration for an open rank position with the School of International Affairs.
Abstract:
"As countries around the world adopt new sustainability policies and alternative energy infrastructures, environmental politics are increasingly redefining geopolitical relations both among states and within states. Furthermore, as these transitions now extend well beyond liberal democratic contexts, they raise key ethical questions about how policymakers and practitioners should understand the political significance of promoting environmental sustainability in nondemocratic contexts. The jointly geopolitical and ethical nature of global challenges surrounding sustainability, natural resources, and conservation come into especially sharp focus in the Gulf monarchies of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Arabian Peninsula has a troubled reputation regarding environmental policy, largely due to its central place in global oil and gas markets. That situation is rapidly changing, however, as the region is increasingly home to various conspicuous sustainability initiatives.
Ostensibly aimed at facilitating Gulf states’ much-touted transition to a “post-oil” knowledge economy, sustainability is now enshrined in long-term development agendas across the region, for example representing a core pillar of the Qatar National Vision 2030 and the UAE’s Vision 2021. State and urban leaders are actively trying to “green” their cities, as well as their economies more broadly. They now host a wide range of renewable energy technology and research centers, such as the new International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) headquartered in Abu Dhabi, the Middle East Centre for Sustainable Development in Dubai, and the ConocoPhillips’s Global Water Sustainability Center in Doha. At the center of these ambitious new sustainability agendas are a number of equally ambitious higher education initiatives, also defined by “post-oil” modernization agendas. Seeking to improve their sustainability credentials, many Gulf universities are now positioning themselves as hubs for green technology innovation and to serve as “living laboratories” of sustainability – itself a growing trend at US universities and around the world. The Arabian Peninsula’s best known case is the Masdar Institute in Abu Dhabi, but other universities have rapidly followed suit, including wide-ranging initiatives at NYU-Abu Dhabi in the Emirates and Qatar Foundation’s Education City.
Based on my ongoing research in Qatar and the UAE since 2012, this talk surveys recent sustainability policies and programs through the lens of critical geopolitics. Asking what explains their rise and how they factor into shifting local, state, and international politics, I highlight the ethical dilemmas they pose for scholars, policymakers, and business leaders, who are increasingly forced to consider how to evaluate and engage with these ostensibly progressive initiatives when they may augment the credentials or bank accounts of certain authoritarian leaders. More broadly, I demonstrate how ethical dilemmas surrounding environmental policy in illiberal settings extend far beyond the realm of foreign policy and increasingly demand the attention of decision-makers at universities, corporations, and international organizations alike."
