Jim Krane joins Baker Institute as Wallace S. Wilson Fellow for Energy Studies

Will research geopolitical aspects of energy issues with focus on Middle East and Persian Gulf

Jim Krane, a scholar of Middle East politics and economics and an award-winning journalist, has been named the Wallace S. Wilson Fellow for Energy Studies at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, the institute announced today.

JIM KRANE

Krane recently submitted his doctoral dissertation on the interplay of energy subsidies and political stability in the Persian Gulf at the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School. At the Baker Institute, he will expand on this theme, focusing on topics including growing challenges of domestic energy demand in the Gulf producer states as well as the region’s carbon dioxide emissions and investments into renewable energy. And his research will analyze the effects of rising U.S. energy production on economies dominated by oil and gas exports.

“I am excited to join the Baker Institute and the Center for Energy Studies at a time when the global energy landscape is undergoing dramatic change,” Krane said. “As we’ve seen with the Arab Spring, there is a crucial need to understand how geopolitical currents affect energy markets. I look forward to contributing to the Baker Institute’s 20-year legacy of providing world-class research on the nexus of energy, policy and politics.”

Krane’s appointment marks an expansion of the institute’s new Center for Energy Studies (CES), which was founded in October 2012 and provides policymakers, corporate leaders and the public with quality, data-driven analysis of issues that influence energy markets. The long-standing Baker Institute Energy Forum is an integral part of CES and remains an active vehicle for participation in the center’s ongoing research and public policy programs. Krane will work with Kenneth Medlock, the James A. Baker III and Susan G. Baker Fellow in Energy and Resource Economics and senior director of CES.

“Jim Krane’s appointment adds momentum to the growth and influence of the Center for Energy Studies,” said Edward Djerejian, founding director of the Baker Institute. “His insights and scholarship will be of great value to our various national and international stakeholders.”

“Jim Krane’s research focus and deep experience in the Middle East further strengthens the Baker Institute’s leading position in energy geopolitics,” Medlock said. “His expertise allows us to explore critical questions related to the constantly changing dynamics of a region that is an essential part of the global energy market.”

Krane remains a member of the University of Cambridge Energy Policy Research Group. He has lectured on the Middle East at Cambridge’s Anglia Ruskin University and has presented his research in a range of academic, public and government forums. He is the author of the 2009 book “City of Gold: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism,” published by St. Martin’s and Picador (and in the U.K. under the title “Dubai: The Story of the World’s Fastest City” by Grove Atlantic).

As a journalist, Krane reported from the Middle East for more than five years. He was the Dubai-based Gulf correspondent for the Associated Press and covered the economic boom and developments that transformed the Emirate into one of the world’s most globalized cities. He also worked as a consultant to the Dubai ruler and wrote about the Gulf region for the Wall Street Journal, Economist Intelligence Unit and Financial Times. He was based for more than a year in Iraq, where he covered the aftermath of the U.S. invasion and ensuing insurgency for the Associated Press (AP). Previously, he was an AP business writer in New York, responsible for technology news. Krane also reported for U.S. newspapers, including The Star-Ledger and The News-Tribune in New Jersey, the Laredo Morning Times in Texas and Newhouse Newspapers’ online operations. He is the winner of several journalism awards, including the 2003 AP Managing Editors Deadline Reporting Award for coverage of Saddam Hussein’s capture in Iraq.

He holds a Master of Philosophy degree in technology policy from Cambridge University’s Judge Business School and a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University.

For more information about the Center for Energy Studies, visit www.bakerinstitute.org/programs/energy-forum.