Natalie Koch

Former Fellow

January 8, 2024 – August 23, 2024

Professional Affiliation

Professor, Department of Geography & the Environment, The Maxwell School, Syracuse University

Expert Bio

Natalie Koch is Professor of Geography at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. She is a political geographer who works on geopolitics, authoritarianism, identity politics, and state power in hydrocarbon-rich countries, primarily in the Arabian Peninsula. She has published extensively in journals such as Political Geography, Geoforum, Geopolitics, and Historical Geography, and she is editor of the new book, Spatializing Authoritarianism (Syracuse University Press 2022). Following her first monograph, The geopolitics of spectacle: Space, synecdoche, and the new capitals of Asia (Cornell University Press, 2018), her second monograph, Arid Empire: The Entangled Fates of Arizona and Arabia, was published with Verso in January 2023.

Expertise

Energy
Environment
History
Science and Technology
Society and Culture

Wilson Center Project

The Geopolitics of U.S. Science Diplomacy in the Arabian Peninsula

Project Summary

The Geopolitics of U.S. Science Diplomacy in the Arabian Peninsula” examines the historical geopolitics of U.S.-Gulf science diplomacy. For over 100 years, scientific exchange has been an essential part of American relations with the Gulf countries, though the scope of these ties is little appreciated. This longue durée study excavates this history to develop a new perspective on U.S.-Gulf relations from those individuals and institutions forging connections around scientific exchange and research, through the framework of government institutions, universities, alumni and faculty networks, corporations, and national and international foundations and organizations. In so doing, the project sheds light on the deep scientific roots of American foreign relations with leading partner countries the Arabian Peninsula, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, Qatar, and Kuwait. The project unites the social science approaches of political geography with history and STS, aiming to amplify discussions about the significance of science diplomacy for contemporary geopolitics.