The Great Simplification #98 – Helen Thompson: “The Complex History of Energy and Geopolitics”

In this episode, political economist Helen Thompson and Nate discuss how energy and geopolitics have interconnected over the past century, building the entangled political relationships we see around us today. The dynamics of power on a global scale are complex – stemming from access to energy, financial control, military strength, credibility/trust, and much more – yet we can understand these a bit better by learning the history that shaped them. How have geologic provinces of energy-dense carbon created inherent hot spots on the geopolitical playing field? How has the global monetary system and debt evolved to strengthen the power of a select few countries and how difficult is it to break from this system? Do our leaders have the capability/knowledge to connect energy and geopolitical policy in order to guide us through a future of declining energy availability?

About Helen Thompson

Helen Thompson is Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge since 1994. Her current research concentrates on the political economy of energy and the long history of the democratic, economic, and geopolitical disruptions of the twenty-first century. She is a regular panelist on Talking Politics and a columnist for the New Statesman. She is a co-presenter of UnHerd’s podcast, These Times, and recently published Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century.

Listen to the podcast here and to previous episodes here.