Farzaneh Hall, Room 205
Phone: 405-325-1346
Email: bo.kong@ou.edu
Bo Kong is the ConocoPhillips Petroleum Associate Professor of Chinese and Asian Studies and co-directs the Institute for U.S.-China Issues at the University of Oklahoma. He is also Senior Research Scholar of the Global Development Policy Center at the Boston University and Senior Associate of the Energy and National Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Previously, he taught at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), directed the School’s Global Energy and Environment Initiative (GEEI), and advised the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Hess Corporation, and the Revenue Watch Institute on China.
A scholar of the political economy of energy in contemporary China, his research tackles how energy in China intersects with security, foreign policy, climate change, governance, institutional change and development finance in a national, global and comparative context. He is the author of three books, including Modernization through Globalization: Why China Finances Foreign Energy Projects Worldwide (Palgrave McMillan, 2019), China’s International Petroleum Policy (Praeger Security International, 2010) and Energy Security Cooperation in Northeast Asia (co-edited with Jae Ku, Routledge 2015). His articles have appeared in journals such as Journal of Contemporary of China, Review of International Political Economy and Energy Research & Social Science, and his public commentaries have been aired by a wide range of media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, US News, China Daily, Oriental Outlook, CNBC and Phoenix Television.
He won the award of a research grant of $500,000 from the US National Nuclear Security Administration for a three-year project about “Cooperation on Peaceful Use of Nuclear Energy, Nonproliferation, and Arms Control, Northeast Asia, and North Korea” in 2009 and was the 2012 recipient of a research grant of $25,000 from the Johns Hopkins University Energy, Environment, Sustainability, and Health Institute (E2SHI) to investigate “The Visible Hand Meets the Market: Assessing China’s Two-pronged Carbon Reduction Strategy.”
His current research addresses the globalization of the Chinese energy industry and the role of state in the globalization of capital.
Representative Publications
Books
- Kong, Bo. Modernization through Globalization: Why China Finances Foreign Energy Projects Worldwide. Palgrave McMillan, 2019
- Kong, Bo and Jae Ku, eds. Energy Security Cooperation in Northeast Asia. New York: Routledge, 2015.
- Kong, Bo. China’s International Petroleum Policy. Santa Barbara: Praeger Security International, 2010.
Peer-reviewed Articles
- Kong, Bo and Kevin P. Gallagher. “Inadequate demand and reluctant supply: The limits of Chinese official development finance for foreign renewable power.” Energy Research & Social Science 71, 2021, 101838, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2020.101838.
- Kong, Bo and Kevin P. Gallagher. “Globalizing Chinese Energy Finance: The Role of Policy Banks.” Journal of Contemporary China 26, no. 108 (2017).
- Meckling, Jonas, Bo Kong, and Tanvi Madan. “Oil and State Capitalism: Government-Firm Coopetition in China and India.” Review of International Political Economy 22, no. 6 (2015): 1159-1187.
- Kong, Bo and Carla Freeman. “Making Sense of Carbon Market Development in China.” Carbon and Climate Law Review, no. 3 (2013): 194-212.
- Kong, Bo. “Governing China’s Energy in the Context of Global Governance.” Global Policy, 2, Special Issue (September 2011): 51-65.
- Kong, Bo. “China’s Energy Decision-Making—Becoming More Like the United States?” Journal of Contemporary China 18, no.62 (November 2009): 798-812.
- Kong, Bo. “Institutional Insecurity.” China Security, Summer 2006, 65-89.
Book Chapters
- Kong, Bo. “Whither Energy Security Cooperation in Northeast Asia.” In Energy Security Cooperation in Northeast Asia, edited by Bo Kong and Jae Ku. 195-209. New York, NY: Routledge, 2015.
- Kong, Bo. “The Geopolitics of the Myanmar-China Oil and Gas Pipelines.” In Energy Security and The Asia Pacific: Course Reader, edited by Mikkal E. Herberg. 269-280. Seattle: National Bureau of Asian Research, 2014.
- Kong, Bo. “One Strategy, Three Pillars: China’s Attempt to Secure Global Energy Resources.” In China’s Domestic Politics and Foreign Polices and Major Countries’ Strategies toward China, edited by Jung-Ho Bae and Jae Ku. 311-336. Seoul: Korean Institute for National Unification, 2012.
- Kong, Bo. “China’s Energy Decision-Making: Becoming More Like the United States.” In China’s Search for Energy Security: Domestic Sources and International Implications, edited by Shuisheng Zhao. 72-95. New York: Routledge, 2012.
Reports
- Kong, Bo and Kevin P. Gallagher. 2016. The Globalization of Chinese Energy Companies: The Role of State Finance. Boston, MA: Boston University.
- Meckling, Jonas, Bo Kong, and Tanvi Madan. 2015. Oil and State Capitalism: Government-Firm Coopetition in China and India. Harvard Kennedy School Belfer for Science and International Affairs Geopolitics of Energy Project.
- Kong, Bo. 2005. An Anatomy of China’s Energy Insecurity and Its Strategies (Seattle, Washington: Pacific Northwest Center for Global Security, 2005)
- Kong, Bo and David Lampton. 2011. How Safely Will China Go Nuclear? China-U.S. Focus, April 6.
- Kong, Bo. 2010. The Geopolitics of the Myanmar-China Oil and Gas Pipelines. NBR Special Report #23, pp.55-65.
- Kong, Bo. 2008. China’s Long March toward Energy Security. Global Dialogue, Vol. 13, Issue 1, pp.11-17 and 51-52.
- Lampton, David and Bo Kong. 2005. China Comes in from the Cold. SAISPhere 2005, pp.34-37.
