Essays
54 posts
War on Iran
Will the US’s latest military adventure deal a blow to its fossil-fuel hegemony?
By Kate Mackenzie, Tim Sahay —
COP30 Without the USA
Climate cooperation, forest funds, and the tentative move toward green industrialization
By Ghost Migrations —
Plastic Planet
Stalled negotiations and accelerating accumulation in the global petrochemicals industry
By Venus Bivar —
India in the New Global Order
Between hydrocarbon coalitions and the green electro-state
By Shreyas Shende —
Insurance in the Polycrisis
The future is triage on an uninsurable earth
By Kate Mackenzie, Tim Sahay —
Beyond Neoliberalism?
In search of programs, strategies, and coalitions for a new world order
By Kate Mackenzie, Tim Sahay —
BRICS in 2025
Within the BRICS group, two competing global models of energy, growth, and influence. The future of the world’s majority will be decided by the pace of the contest between green technologies and fossil fuels.
By Tim Sahay, Kate Mackenzie —
April is the Cruelest Month
Diversification and dedollarization in the world economy
By Kate Mackenzie, Tim Sahay —
Molecules of Freedom
The hydra-headed global market for liquified natural gas
By Kate Mackenzie, Tim Sahay —
Europe Enters Its Metal Era
What kind of Europe survives a fractured transatlantic military alliance?
By Kate Mackenzie, Tim Sahay —
Polycrisis 2025
Diplomacy, finance, and extraction in the year ahead
By Kate Mackenzie, Tim Sahay, Lara Merling —
America First?
Escalation and reverberations in the trade war
By Kate Mackenzie, Lara Merling —
The Contest to Shape “Country Platforms”
IMF reforms and Bangladesh’s revolt
By Kate Mackenzie, Tim Sahay —
The View From Nairobi-Washington
Debt, austerity, and Kenya’s global positioning
By Tim Sahay, Kate Mackenzie —
New World Order?
Lender(s) of last resort, dollar dominance, and the global financial safety net
By Kate Mackenzie, Tim Sahay —
Grievance and Reform
Will the BRICS bargaining chip bear fruit for smaller and lower-income countries?
By Kate Mackenzie, Tim Sahay —
Global Boiling
Stocks and flows, action and inaction in the planetary impasse
By Kate Mackenzie, Tim Sahay —
Washington-Paris-London Calling
Modi, Mottley, Zelenskyy’s attempts to change the existing world order
By Kate Mackenzie, Tim Sahay —
Carbon Budget versus Fiscal Budget
What’s at stake in the fiscal rules debate?
By Kate Mackenzie, Tim Sahay —
Feasibility Pact?
Systemic reform, debt, and political feasibility at the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact in Paris
By Ghost Migrations —
Mottley in Paris, Modi in DC
Prospects for the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact
By Kate Mackenzie, Tim Sahay —
Friends With (Metal) Benefits
Australia’s bid for “friendshoring” in the shifting green world order
By Kate Mackenzie, Tim Sahay —
Green Industrial Strategy
The scale and scope of Biden’s landmark climate investments
By Ghost Migrations —
A New Foreign Policy
Understanding the “New Washington Consensus”
By Kate Mackenzie, Tim Sahay —
The End of the Cold Peace
Can the Asian growth miracle survive?
By Kate Mackenzie, Tim Sahay —
The Gigantic Austerity Drive Underway
Two billion people are suffering austerity as governments follow IMF diktat
By Kate Mackenzie, Tim Sahay —
Testing Loyalties
Pain and resolve: have we reached the beginning of the end of sanctions?
By Ghost Migrations —
Mercantilist Deals of the Great Powers
Decoupling from China is an uphill task in both the global North and the global South
By Kate Mackenzie, Tim Sahay —
Stranded Countries and Stranded Assets
Outsourcing the energy transition to the Gulf
By Kate Mackenzie, Tim Sahay —
Cash, Cars, Chemicals (and Corn)
Three big decarbonization plots
By Kate Mackenzie, Tim Sahay —
Debt and Power in Pakistan
The subcontinent’s embattled debtor isn’t merely the passive victim of the climate crisis—it is being plundered by its elites
By Tim Sahay, Kate Mackenzie —
The EU and the IRA
Supply and demand in the great powers’ decarbonization race
By Kate Mackenzie, Tim Sahay —
Don’t Say “Scramble for Africa”
Debt, diplomacy, and the risks of a new Cold War
By Tim Sahay, Lee Harris —
The Dollar and Climate
The climate crisis offers a new angle from which to evaluate US dollar hegemony, since carbon emissions are tied to economic activity
By Ghost Migrations —
Facts on the Ground
Uncertainty and information in the global energy system
By Alex Turnbull —
Europe’s “Leap Into the Future”
Do exceptional crisis-fighting policies signal the arrival of an interventionist Europe?
By Tim Sahay, Kate Mackenzie, Lee Harris —
Development Bank Self-Sabotage
What’s stopping MDBs?
By Tim Sahay, Kate Mackenzie, Lee Harris —
Collective Action and Climate Finance
Can the COP move markets?
By Kate Mackenzie, Tim Sahay —
A New Non-Alignment
How developing countries are flouting Western sanctions and playing the great powers off each other
By Tim Sahay —
Domestic Politics & Planetary Change
Will a Lula victory be better for the climate than anything that happens at COP27?
By Kate Mackenzie, Tim Sahay —
