The failure of imagination in Western economic policy thought for the past half century in ever sharper relief. This really should call into question a lot of the social science work of this period.

The war in Iran has revealed a hard truth: energy dependence is political dependence. Countries reliant on fossil fuel imports are paralyzed, while those powered by renewables are speaking freely & brokering peace. Read the Foreign Affairs piece by Benjamin Bradlow: https://loom.ly/8x70CCI

Brilliant piece by @bhbradlow.bsky.social www.foreignaffairs.com/iran/winners...

“For much of the global South, the lesson of the war in Iran is that geopolitical sovereignty requires being able to produce one’s own power,” writes Benjamin Bradlow.

My new essay in @foreignaffairs.com on the connections between energy and geopolitical sovereignty that the Iran energy shock has revealed.

For @foreignpolicy.com , with thanks to @bhbradlow.bsky.social for his insights: foreignpolicy.com/2026/05/08/b...

Enjoyed chatting with @ccosborn.bsky.social for her report in @foreignpolicy.com on Chinese FDI in Brazil's auto sector. foreignpolicy.com/2026/05/08/b...

Save 50% on @bhbradlow.bsky.social's Urban Power with code SPRING50 through June 9th! In this book, he explores why some #cities are more effective than others at reducing inequalities in the built environment. Find it here: press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...

Such an impressive cohort of School of Social Science members for 2026-27! I couldn't be more excited to join as visiting professor to lead the School's annual theme, "Emerging Forces in Global Political Economy." Half of the members will be pursuing projects connected to it.

The School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study is pleased to announce its 2026–27 Members. This exceptional cohort of 21 scholars was chosen from a pool of more than 600 fellowship applications. www.ias.edu/sss/2026-202...

Blown away by @jeremylevine.bsky.social's review of URBAN POWER in AJS. 🙏 "A masterclass... Bradlow not only establishes himself as one of the foremost scholars of cities in the Global South but also advances an urgent research agenda on urban governance and inequality." doi.org/10.1086/740389

The United States now has the most government restrictions on academic freedom of any high-income country. www.chemistryworld.com/news/academi... Raw data from @vdeminstitute.bsky.social —> academic-freedom-index.net/research/Aca...

Fantastic new article by @yunhanwen.bsky.social that reconceptualizes Chinese urban development as what she calls "party-state urbanism" in IJURR. doi.org/10.1111/1468...

Brilliant analysis of the Strait of Hormuz effects, by Adam Hanieh. Energy shapes so much of what is possible in politics, economics, and social life writ large.

Publication alert! 🔔 My new article in @ripejournal.bsky.social shows that the way in which credit ratings assess climate risks is detrimental to chances of the green transition. www.tandfonline.com/eprint/DEWKJ... 1/n 🧵

Huge, blockbuster new paper in the sociology of climate change by @liviosilva.bsky.social, just accepted to @amjsoc.bsky.social! Reach and Retrenchment of the Environmental State: Global Climate Politics in the Amazon Rainforest doi.org/10.1086/741696 i

The Hormuz Crisis and the Fate of the Global South by @laurabdecarvalho.bsky.social @projectsyndicate.bsky.social prosyn.org/6HPXBuZ

No matter what Scott Bessent and Bjorn Lomborg have to say, the logic of getting out of the US' yoke of fossil fuels is plainly evident to the rest of the world.

"The Chinese ambassador to the country, Hua Xin, was quick to make the energy-security argument. “The sun cannot be blocked,” he said on social media." www.wsj.com/business/ene...

It's a "shock" that the US and Israeli war on Iran will deepen. A structural cascade of markets --> social coalitions --> institutions --> geopolitics.

I would be very interested to understand why Orban conceded so quickly while Bolsonaro and Trump didn't at all. Partly it has to do with the margin of victory by their opponents, but I'm not necessarily convinced that is a sufficient explanation.

Found it strange that ppl push back on my argument that sales of electric vehicles are going to accelerate now with Iran War, coz LINE GO UP for a decade now Turns out almost no one knows this fact: Sales of internal combustion engine cars peaked way back in 2018! bsky.app/profile/70sb...

Thanks so much to Luciana de Souza Leão for her thoughtful review of URBAN POWER in the @bjsociology.bsky.social!

Very much looking forward to reading this book, which just arrived today.

I am extremely excited that in the 2026-2027 academic year, I will be a Member of the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, where I will be writing my next book, "The Climate Hinge: Green Industrial Transitions in the Global South"!

You cannot build a manufacturing base in the 21st century without electrification technologies. Canada's pivot in its auto sector reflects this dynamic. Perhaps the US will be the last to learn this lesson. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

On Thursday, Florida's Board of Governors removed sociology from the general education curriculum of every university in the state. Chancellor Ray Rodrigues attacked the @asanews.bsky.social as illegitimate. On behalf of sociologists everywhere, I respond to them in today's @miamiherald.com:

@danbanik.bsky.social speaks with @bhbradlow.bsky.social, author of Urban Power, on the latest episode of the @globaldevpod.bsky.social podcast. Tune in here: buff.ly/Lo9nYpC

A global political economy told through the auto sector: Fordism : Keynesianism Just-In-Time / Toyotaism : Neoliberalism Electrified Vertical Integration / BYD-ism : ???

Thinking of buying some oil futures...

"1st, they bolster the sovereignty of a country which, despite being one of the world’s largest exporters of crude oil, still imports 10% of its petrol and 25% of its diesel. 2nd, biofuels let Brazil curb its greenhouse-gas emissions without alienating its farmers." www.economist.com/the-americas...

My latest article is online now at American Sociological Review: “Kinship Interlocks.” It’s about how some elite families manage to stay rich and powerful for many generations while others don’t. 🧵 (1/16)

Some countries to be pretty worried amidst the Iran war economic shock: Cote d’Ivoire, Dominican Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, Ghana, Honduras, Jordan, Kenya, Mongolia, Paraguay, Rwanda and Uzbekistan. High near-term debt costs coupled with new debt becoming more expensive

Updated my plots for the evolution of the CO2-intensity of GDP for OECD plus other large economies and emitters. Since 1990, CO2-intensity has declined in most major economies (points below the 45° line). Exceptions here are Saudi & Indonesia. Scroll down for the big ones, India and China.

I really enjoyed speaking about URBAN POWER with @danbanik.bsky.social for his fantastic podcast In Pursuit of Development. Along with links to the podcast, he has done a great write-up of our conversation in this post. open.substack.com/pub/globalde...

The central faultline of the emerging post-liberal international order will be a geopolitical struggle over what metabolic-industrial system will dominate the 21st century — with smaller powers struggling to avoid total alignment with either bloc. My latest: foreignpolicy.com/2026/03/23/c...

"Chinese carmakers have made inroads in places like Brazil, Mexico, the UK and the Middle East — eating away at markets that have been strongholds for Ford, General Motors Co. or Mercedes." www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Lots of speculation rn (such as this FT article) on what war in the Middle East means for the future of oil. What do we know about the conditions under which we reach tipping points in clean energy adoption? Political science can tell us a lot! 🧵

"EV sales are surging in India, Mexico and Brazil, where they now make up a higher share of the market than in Japan, according to data from Ember, a thinktank. All are buoyed up by cheap Chinese cars." www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Notably, the one sector of these four where "rest of world" has a meaningful share is EVs.

Spain's renewables build-out has structurally decoupled its electricity prices from gas markets. Gas now sets the price in only 15% of hours, compared to 90% in Italy. Countries that invested early in clean power are far less exposed to fossil fuel price shocks. Those that didn't now pay the price.

"The auto sector makes up the biggest share of SA’s manufacturing and its contribution to the country’s economic output rivals that of the mining sector, but it is buckling under the pressure of rising costs and a flood of cheaper imports from India and China." www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Interesting to see that the World Bank (!) has issued a new big report on industrial policy. blogs.worldbank.org/en/developme...

There's been a fair bit of commentary on how split the BRICS have been on the war on Iran, which is a BRICS member. Last year, I wrote in the @financialtimes.com about how energy infrastructure shapes a critical divide within the group. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

🚨 Just published in Socio-Economic Review! 🚨 @sasemeeting.bsky.social The "power to pollute" and "post-neoliberal" climate finance By Benjamin H. Bradlow and Aishwarya Swamidurai The article is available open access at the following link. doi.org/10.1093/ser/...

Someone is winning the war giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

A thread -- which world leaders are calling for a shift to clean energy as a security investment in light of Iran War? First up, French President Macron: "...everything we do to more toward the transition is also about reducing our dependence.." (1/x) #cleanenergyisnationalsecurity

The last time the Strait of Hormuz was closed in 1979, Brazil launched an industrial policy to support sugar cane-derived ethanol fuel production, called "Proálcool." The campaign slogan for the policy was "Whoever has it, doesn't depend on anybody."

New article out in Climate Policy with @james7jackson.bsky.social: "Subsidizing global decarbonization: how Chinese state support for clean technologies enables and (potentially) obstructs a worldwide green transition." www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

If the energy crisis of the 1970s produced the first tentative wave of efforts to move away from reliance on hydrocarbons, what will come of this energy crisis?