Library Lecture & Dinner – Helen Thompson
Helen Thompson presents her book ‘Disorder’ in this talk on
The World’s Energy Disorder
and will consider the problems fossil fuel energy and the energy transition pose geopolitically and for growth prospects
The 21st century has brought a powerful tide of geopolitical, economic, and democratic shocks. Their fallout has led central banks to create over $25 trillion of new money, brought about a new age of geopolitical competition, destabilised the Middle East, ruptured the European Union, and exposed old political fault lines in the United States.
Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century is a long history of this present political moment. It recounts three histories – one about geopolitics, one about the world economy, and one about western democracies – and explains how in the years of political disorder prior to the pandemic the disruption in each became one big story. It shows how much of this turbulence originated in problems generated by fossil-fuel energies, and it explains why as the green transition takes place the long-standing predicaments energy invariably shapes will remain in place.
Helen Thompson is Professor of Political Economy in the Department of Politics and International Studies at Cambridge University. Her book Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century was shortlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year 2022. She is the co-presenter of the These Times podcast.
Price includes a signed copy of the book
Members may book up to three guests