Jim Krane, Ph.D., is the Wallace S. Wilson Fellow for Energy Studies at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. He specializes in energy geopolitics, with a focus on oil-exporting countries and the challenges they face from energy subsidies, internal demand, and climate change. He teaches two courses at Rice, Energy Geopolitics and Energy Policy. Jim is the author of two books. His acclaimed 2009 volume “City of Gold: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism” is widely recognized as the seminal work on the iconoclastic city-state, while his 2019 book “Energy Kingdoms: Oil and Political Survival in the Persian Gulf” is the definitive study of energy demand in the region. Jim was a journalist for nearly 20 years, working with the Associated Press, based in Dubai and Baghdad from 2003-2009. He traveled and reported extensively in the Gulf Arab states and spent more than a year in Iraq and Afghanistan, covering the wars and related events. 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. In 2007, Jim worked as a consultant to Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum. He wrote about the Gulf region for The Economist, Financial Times and numerous other publications. At Cambridge, his PhD studies within the Electricity Policy Research Group were underwritten by a full scholarship from French energy conglomerate GDF Suez, with an additional research grant from the Qatar National Research Fund. Jim holds an MPhil in Technology Policy from the Judge Business School, a Master’s in International Affairs from Columbia University, and a BA from City College of New York.

International Relations/Affairs

Energy Studies

Gulf Studies

Political Economy

Public Policy

Theory

Middle East/Near East Studies

Arabian Peninsula

Arab States

Post-oil Economic Development Among Mideast Export

Rentier State Theory And The Resource Curse

Energy Consumption And Depletion In The GCC States

Arabic (elementary)

German (intermediate)

Spanish (advanced)