Professor Paul Sullivan

Saturdays, January 15 – February 19,
10 AM – 11:30 AM EST

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$ 300

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This class will consider the implications of climate change. It will investigate the energy-water-food nexus, VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity), strategic thinking, and circular economy/circular carbon economy for the world and for various regions of the world. A focus will be on the connections between energy systems and climate systems and what the energy transitions and revolutions might look like in the challenges to reach net-zero by 2050 (or later or earlier). “The battle of the narratives” on climate change and energy revolutions will be a big part of the course. There will be times when the class could get emotional. Students in the seminar can produce their own solutions and ideas via the Socratic method and polite discussions. We have choices. How to learn about and think about those choices will be a part of this class. There are no easy answers. In some cases, there are no clear answers. We need to listen and learn from each other.

Required Purchase/rent: 

All readings will be internet links provided by the professor.

Syllabus: 

Week 1- January 19
Climate Change, Tipping Points, the Energy-Water-Food Nexus, VUCA, Circular Economy/Circular Carbon Economy, and Strategic Thinking

 Week 2- January 22
An introduction to energy transitions in the big picture globally

Week 3- January 29
Energy transitions in the US and the EU

Week 4- February 5
Energy transitions in India and Japan

Week 5- February 1
Energy transitions Saudi Arabia and the Gulf

Week 6- February 19
Where might all of this be going? What about Russia and some of the least developed countries? What can they do? Who will be the winners? Who will be the losers? What is a just energy transition? What is an effective energy transition? Where do morality, ethics, and reason fit into energy transitions as responses to climate change?

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Dr. Paul Sullivan was a full professor at the National Defense University for over 22 years where he ran the Energy Industry Study program and taught industry analytics, and the economics of national security. He teaches classes on energy and environmental security at the Johns Hopkins University. He has taught at Georgetown University, the American University in Cairo, and Yale University. Sullivan’s PhD is from Yale, and he was in the 2006 class of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Seminar XXI. He has a certificate of completion from an ethnoarchaeology field school in Barunga, Australia run by Flinders University.

Sullivan has given talks on five continents at places as varied as Windsor Castle and Ditchley Park in the United Kingdom, Harvard University, Columbia University, The University of Pennsylvania, Jackson Hole Center for Global Policy in the United States, The Defense College of Mongolia, The Institute of Energy Economics in Japan, The German Council on Foreign Relations, The Swedish National Defense Research Institute, Headquarters of the Chilean army, The Baltic Defense College, The Jordanian Diplomatic Academy, The Diplomatic Academy of Malta, and The American Research Center in Egypt.
Dr. Sullivan has advised senior leaders on topics of his expertise. His present research interests include the energy-water-food-climate-security-resilience nexus, the U.S.-Asia-MENA energy nexus, economic and resource aspects of human security, security and resilience aspects of climate change and the environment, the energy transition, practical energy economics and policies for future changes, cyber and other security issues for energy and natural resources, and other interests.