Rate My Professor Jeff Colgan

Jeff D. Colgan is the Richard Holbrooke Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Watson School for International and Public Affairs at Brown University, where he also serves as the Founding Director of the Climate Solutions Lab since September 2020. Previously, he held the positions of Richard Holbrooke Associate Professor from 2016 to 2023 and Assistant Professor from 2014 to 2016 at the same institution, as well as Director of the Rhodes Center for International Economics and Finance from 2023 to 2024 and Director of Security Studies at the Watson Institute from 2017 to 2021. Before joining Brown, Colgan was an Assistant Professor at the School of International Service of American University from 2010 to 2014 and a Residential Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars from 2012 to 2013. He has also served as a Visiting Fellow at Nuffield College, All Souls College, and St Antony’s College at the University of Oxford during 2024-2025, and as a Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen in 2019. Earlier professional experience includes roles as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company from 2002 to 2004, an economic and policy consultant at The Brattle Group from 2004 to 2005, and a policy intern at the World Bank in 2001. Colgan earned his PhD in Political Science from Princeton University in 2010, a Master of Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley as a Canada-US Fulbright Scholar in 2002, and dual Bachelor degrees in Engineering and Arts from McMaster University in 1999, graduating summa cum laude.

Colgan's research focuses on international order, with an emphasis on energy and environmental politics. He is the author of Partial Hegemony: Oil Politics and International Order (Oxford University Press, 2021), which won the Jervis-Schroeder Best Book Award from the APSA International History and Politics section in 2022, the Best Book Award (co-winner) from the APSA International Collaboration section in 2022, and the Best Book (Energy Policy—Non-Fiction) award from the American Energy Society in 2021; and Petro-Aggression: When Oil Causes War (Cambridge University Press, 2013). His peer-reviewed articles have appeared in leading journals including International Organization, International Security, World Politics, and Journal of Peace Research. Notable publications include “Oil and Revolutionary Governments: Fuel for International Conflict” (International Organization, 2010), recipient of the Robert O. Keohane Award for the best article by an untenured scholar; “The Emperor Has No Clothes: The Limits of OPEC in the Global Oil Market” (International Organization, 2014); and “Fueling the Fire: Pathways from Oil to War” (International Security, 2013). Colgan has contributed to Foreign Affairs and held editorial positions such as Associate Editor of the H-Diplo Robert J. Jervis International Security Studies Forum since 2018.