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September 22, 2025 • 3:00 pm - 6:00 pm est

Investment and Careers in the Climate Economy

In the wake of federal rollbacks, climate professionals are increasingly turning to state and local governments, philanthropy, and the private sector to sustain the progress made. But where...

Event • Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, 31 West 52nd Street, 29th Floor, New York, NY 10019
Investment and Careers in the Climate Economy

  • Washington, D.C.

Biography

Dr. Karen E. Young is a Senior Research Scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University SIPA. She was founding director of the Program on Economics and Energy at the Middle East Institute and remains a senior fellow. She was a Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and has been a professorial lecturer at George Washington University, teaching courses on the international relations of the Middle East. She regularly teaches at the US Dept of State Foreign Service Institute and at Columbia’s SIPA. Earlier, she was Senior Resident Scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute and a Research Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Middle East Centre. She led a seminar series on emerging markets in MENA at Johns Hopkins SAIS. At the American University of Sharjah, she served as Assistant Professor of Political Science from 2009-2014. Prior to joining AUS, she held research and administration roles at New York University.

She is the author of two books: The Economic Statecraft of the Gulf Arab States (2022) and The Political Economy of Energy, Finance and Security in the United Arab Emirates (2014), as well as editor of Energy Transitions of the Middle East (2024) and GCC Hydrocarbon Economies and Covid (2023) and a chapter contributor in: The Economy of Saudi Arabia in the 21st Century (2024), Routledge Companion to China in the Middle East (2023), The Gulf States in the Horn of Africa (2022), and The Economics of Renewable Energy in the Gulf (2019). She has published opinion articles and research in the Financial Times, Bloomberg, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Lawfare, Al Monitor, Journal of Arabian Studies, Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, Current History, Gulf Affairs, Security Dialogue, ISPI, Internationale Politik and Middle East Policy, among other academic and analytical outlets and provided testimony in Congress. Her comments have been featured on NPR, CNBC, CBS, CBC, AFP, in the New York Times, Financial Times, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Al Arabiya, Arab News, Debtwire, MEED and MEES.

Her work has been supported by grants from Smith Richardson Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of NY, the Fulbright Program (Ecuador 1997-99; Bulgaria 2005-06), the International Research and Exchange Board (IREX), the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), the Woodrow Wilson Center, US State Department Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), APSA MENA Fellows Program and Emirates Foundation (via LSE). She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

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The Gulf’s Geo-Economic Balancing Act

Amid sustained regional conflict and global uncertainty, the Arab Gulf states are navigating a shifting economic and strategic landscape with surprising resilience. MEI Senior Fellow Karen Young joins hosts Alistair Taylor and Matthew Czekaj to break down the latest economic data and geopolitical developments affecting the Gulf economies — from the ripple effects of the Israel-Iran war and Houthi maritime threats to energy diversification and global investment strategies. Young unpacks the challenges and opportunities shaping the Gulf’s economic resilience and explains what it all means for regional stability and growth.

News and Publications with Karen E. Young • Middle East Focus • July 17, 2025
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