PhD Spotlight: Maddie Craig-Scheckman

Navigating geopolitics and the green energy transition

Growing up in a rural mountain town in Colorado, I was exposed to environmental and economic challenges related to coal mining, ranching, drought, and flooding. Conversations around managing the positive and negative externalities of land use were a part of everyday life. This sparked my interest in pursuing a career that would help me develop solutions to these problems in my hometown and the many other towns like it across the world. 

I began my career in renewable energy policy working on developing large community solar projects in Washington, DC. At the same time, I also completed my master’s degree in Asian Studies and Environmental Security at George Washington University, where I conducted field research on solar development in Thailand. The combination of these two experiences inspired me to work at the intersection of geopolitics and the global energy transition. 

While beginning my PhD research on the green energy transition, I became increasingly aware that global decarbonization efforts were dependent on mining critical minerals. At the same time, increasing geopolitical tensions and an international shift to resource nationalism made the global market for these minerals more unstable — ultimately complicating global decarbonization efforts.  I am driven to create policies that will create stable critical mineral supply chains to support the global energy transition. I am also currently living in Taiwan to further my Mandarin fluency, which will allow me to conduct more research on China’s mineral supply chains in Southeast Asia. 

“The renewable energy transition is not occurring in a vacuum, and the policies that shape mineral extraction and industrial development will have uneven consequences across countries and communities.”

Committing to decarbonization efforts

My doctoral research examines how great-power competition, particularly between the United States and China, is reshaping global governance, investment, and trade in critical mineral supply chains. I focus on how states navigate the political, economic, and social trade-offs of mineral extraction and green industrial policy in an era defined by both climate urgency and geopolitical rivalry.

Using a mixed-methods design that pairs field interviews with time-series analysis of foreign direct investment, I compare Indonesia and Australia to analyze how policy interventions, regulatory strategies, and resource nationalism shape investment patterns and supply chain alignment. Grounded in Second Cold War theory, the project provides policymakers with clearer analytical tools to understand how geopolitical competition structures green industrial mineral policy environments and influences state responses through governance.

I want my research to support decarbonization efforts as they unfold within an increasingly complex global political context. The renewable energy transition is not occurring in a vacuum, and the policies that shape mineral extraction and industrial development will have uneven consequences across countries and communities.

My work is motivated by a desire to contribute research that helps policymakers pursue climate and industrial goals while remaining attentive to how these processes affect local communities and mineral-producing countries, particularly those facing heightened economic, environmental, and political constraints. I was drawn to the Policy School because of its emphasis on linking rigorous empirical analysis with real-world policy relevance.

My research sits at the intersection of international political economy, sustainability, and security, and I was inspired by faculty work that treats global challenges not only as technical problems, but as political and institutional ones as well. deeply political and institutional ones.

Promoting more equitable and sustainable development pathways

With my doctoral degree, I aim to work at the intersection of research and policy, contributing to institutions that shape international cooperation on energy, trade, and critical mineral governance. My long-term goal is to help design policy frameworks that reduce geopolitical tensions around resource competition while promoting more equitable and sustainable development pathways for countries and communities involved in mineral extraction.