Professional Affiliation

Professor of Political Science, Tulane University

Expert Bio

Thomas Oatley holds the Corasaniti-Zondorak Chair of International Relations at Tulane University. His current project, the Demise of the Carbon Peace, explores the relationship between energy regimes and international order. It focuses particular attention on how fossil fuels have shaped the postwar global order and thereby given rise to the so-called long peace, and it highlights the major socioeconomic transformations that the impending decarbonization will impose upon the current order. His previous work investigates the way that American financial power has shaped the international financial system and given rise to global capital flows that cycle between crises and stability. Prior to his current appointment, Oatley was a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and held visiting positions at George Washington University, Harvard University, and the National Technical University in Trondheim, Norway. He splits his time between New Orleans and the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay.

Wilson Center Project

The Carbon Peace, the Climate Crisis, and the Fragility of International Order

Project Summary

The Carbon Peace hypothesizes that the postwar international order rested on a political coalition created by the fossil fueled industrial regime. The order is now eroding because the climate crisis and the associated questions about fossil fuels and renewable energy have risen to the top of the political agenda within societies and in the international system. The ascendency of these challenges has destabilized the political coalitions that have long provided the principal support for the postwar order and galvanized the formation of new coalitions, none of which provide robust support for the current international order.

Major Publications

“Towards a Political Economy of Complex Interdependence,” European Journal of International Relations 25(2019:4): 957-78.

A Political Economy of American Hegemony: Military Buildups, Booms, and Busts. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015

International Political Economy: Interests and Institutions in the Global Economy, 6th edition. Abingdon: Routledge, 2018