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Schütze, Dr. Benjamin

E-mail:
benjamin.schuetze [at] abi.uni-freiburg.de
Phone:
+49 (0)761 888 78 23
Areas of research:
external interventions and 'democracy promotion', transregional authoritarian practices, economic liberalisation, military collaboration, renewable energies
Regional focus:
Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
Professional experience:
since 2022
Head of DFG-funded Emmy Noether Junior Research Group 'Renewable Energies, Renewed Authoritarianisms? THe Political Economy of Solar Energy in the MENA'
2021-2022
Junior Fellow, Young Academy for Sustainability Research, Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS), University of Freiburg
2020-2021
Arnold Bergstraesser Institute (ABI), senior researcher
2016-2021
University of Freiburg, Chair for Development Theory and Policy, Department of Political Science, Post-Doc
2013-2014
SOAS, University of London, Department of Politics and International Studies, graduate teaching assistant
2010-2011
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Crisis Prevention and Recovery Unit, Beirut / Libanon, Carlo-Schmid-fellow
Education:
2011-2016
PhD (without corrections), Prof. Tripp, Politics and International Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK (extended field research stays in Jordan, Brussels and Washington DC)
2009-2010
MA Near & Middle Eastern Studies, SOAS, University of London, UK
2006-2009
BA Arabic studies and Political Science, University of Leipzig, Germany
2008-2009
Semester abroad at the American University of Beirut (AUB), Lebanon

Member of the Security in Context network

Fellow in the FRIAS Young Academy for Sustainability Research

Member of the Research Network External Democracy Promotion EDP

Member of the International Editorial Advisory Board of Middle East Critique

Co-Speaker in the German Oriental Studies Association's working group 'Postcolonial Perspectives'

Member of the Steering Committee of the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS)

Member of the Committee on Academic Freedom of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES)

(2024) "The Uneven Politics of Decarbonization in the Middle East and North Africa", Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP), Issue 311, Post-Fossil Politics.

(2024) "Supporting plausible acts of genocide: Red lines and the failure of German Middle Eastern Studies", Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS), Studies 51, The War on Gaza and Middle East Political Science, pp. 32-38.

(2024) "Facilitating Energy Flows, Containing Humans: Authoritarian Energy Transitions in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region", (co-authored with Elia El Khazen, Charlotte Mueller & Philipp Wagner), State of Power, Transnational Institute, February 8.

(2024) "Elsewheres of the Unbuilt: The Global Effects of Transnational Energy Infrastructure Projects", (co-authored with Maren Larsen, Alke Jenss & Kenny Cupers), International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (IJURR), open access.

(2024) "Seizing the Moment": Arab-Israeli normalization, infrastructure as a means to bypass politics and the promotion of an Israeli-Jordanian transit trade", Geopolitics, online-first.

(2023) "Follow the Grid, Follow the Violence: The Project for a Transregional Mediterranean Electricity Ring", Middle East Critique, online-first.

(2023) "The Geopolitical Economy of an Undermined Energy Transition: The Case of Jordan", (co-authored with Hussam Hussein), Energy Policy, 180: 113655, open access.

(2021) "Rethinking Authoritarian Power: The Logistics Space and Authoritarian Practices in and between Secondary Port Cities of the Global South", (co-authored with Alke Jenss), International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 65, pp. 82-94, open access.

(2019) Promoting Democracy, Reinforcing Authoritarianism: US and European Policy in Jordan (Cambridge University Press); reviewed in The Middle East Journal and Democratization.

(2017) "Simulating, marketing, and playing war: US-Jordanian military collaboration and the politics of commercial security", Security Dialogue, Vol. 48, No. 5, pp. 431-50.

Publications