CAROLYN KISSANE

Associate Dean and Clinical Professor at the NYU Center for Global Affairs

Carolyn Kissane is a leading voice on energy geopolitics and the forces reshaping the global economy. At a moment when energy, artificial intelligence, climate, national security, and great-power competition are increasingly intertwined, she helps audiences understand what is changing, why it matters, and what leaders should be preparing for next.

Carolyn Kissane

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Carolyn Kissane is a leading expert on the geopolitics of energy, climate, and global security, known for making sense of the forces reshaping the global economy and translating complex global developments into clear, compelling insights for a broad audience.

She is Associate Dean and Clinical Professor at the NYU Center for Global Affairs, where she also founded and directs the Energy, Climate, and Sustainability Lab. Her work focuses on the geopolitics of energy, energy security, U.S.-China competition, critical minerals, climate and national security, and the rapidly growing energy and infrastructure demands of artificial intelligence.

Kissane writes and speaks regularly on how energy is reshaping global power. She has written for Project Syndicate on energy security, Russia's energy economy, and the widening impact of geopolitical conflict, and for Barron's on global energy markets and their implications for consumers and the economy. She is the author of Energy Common Sense, a widely read weekly newsletter that connects developments in energy, geopolitics, climate, technology, and the global economy (see below).

A frequent media commentator and experienced moderator and speaker, Kissane brings a teacher's ability to explain complicated issues without oversimplifying them. Her talks connect what can often seem like separate challenges, from wars and shifting trade routes to AI, electricity demand, critical minerals, climate pressures, and infrastructure, and help audiences understand not only what is happening, but why it matters for business, policy, and investment.

Kissane is a Lifetime Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. She is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines, a Senior Fellow at the George H.W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations, and an Industry Advisor to Ridgewood Infrastructure.

At NYU, Kissane has taught the geopolitics of energy for more than two decades and has received multiple awards and nominations for teaching excellence. Across the classroom, the boardroom, and the public stage, her focus is the same: connecting the dots, challenging assumptions, and helping people better understand a world in which energy, technology, geopolitics, and economic security are increasingly inseparable. She has a PhD from Columbia University.

Carolyn Kissane is exclusively represented by BrightSight Speakers. Reach out to agent Luke Neilssen via luke@brightsightspeakers.com or 908-448-6518.

CAROLYN'S PRESS KIT

Speech topics

The New Geopolitics of Energy: Power, Security and a World in Disruption

Energy is back at the center of geopolitics. War in the Middle East, great-power competition, critical minerals, changing trade routes and the race for electricity are rewriting assumptions about energy security. Drawing on the upheavals transforming global energy markets, Carolyn Kissane explains where the new vulnerabilities lie, how power is shifting among countries and companies, and what business leaders need to understand about operating in an era when energy security is once again economic security.

The Age of Constraints: Leading When Energy, Infrastructure and Geopolitics Collide

For decades, businesses operated on an assumption of abundance: abundant energy, frictionless trade, available infrastructure, and relatively predictable geopolitics. That world is changing. From power shortages and supply-chain vulnerabilities to geopolitical conflict, critical-mineral competition, and infrastructure bottlenecks, constraints are increasingly shaping where companies invest and how quickly they can grow. This talk provides leaders with a framework for identifying the constraints that matter and turning resilience from a defensive strategy into a source of competitive advantage.

AI Runs on Energy: The Physical Reality Behind the Artificial Intelligence Revolution

The AI revolution may be digital, but the infrastructure supporting it is decidedly physical. Data centers require enormous amounts of electricity, land, water, transmission, equipment, capital, and increasingly community consent. The race for AI leadership is therefore becoming a race to build energy and infrastructure at extraordinary speed. Carolyn Kissane takes audiences behind the algorithm to explore the growing demands AI is placing on energy, infrastructure, and communities, and what the race to build AI means for geopolitics, competitiveness, and the future of the global economy.

Less Room for Error: Resilience in an Age of Disruption

For decades, the global economy built layers of resilience that allowed it to absorb shocks. Today, many of those buffers are thinner. Wars are disrupting energy supplies and trade routes, U.S.-China competition is reshaping supply chains and access to critical resources and extremes are testing infrastructure, while AI is adding enormous new demand for electricity and investment. This talk connects these pressures and asks a question every leader should be thinking about: where are we most exposed when the next shock comes, and have we built enough resilience to absorb it?

Substack

Energy, climate, security: I connect the dots. From fossil fuels to renewables, I decode the forces reshaping our world and explain why it all matters, clearly, boldly, and without jargon. SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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