Fiona Bare

I am an incoming Postdoctoral Associate at the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Starting in July 2027, I will join the Department of Political Science at MIT as an Assistant Professor.

I study international political economy and global environmental governance. My research concerns the political foundations of the global energy transition: how climate finance is negotiated and allocated across borders, why countries pursue decarbonization at strikingly different rates, and how firms shape the policies meant to regulate them. To address these questions, I combine formal modeling, observational data, surveys, and qualitative methods such as interviews. At the core of my research is a commitment to rigorous social science that advances theoretical understanding of international climate cooperation while engaging real-world challenges. My work has been published in the American Journal of Political Science and Energy Research & Social Science.

I earned my Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University. I also hold a B.A. with honors in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (summa cum laude) from Claremont McKenna College and an M.A. in Politics from Princeton University.