Research Institute for Sustainability Helmholtz Centre Potsdam

Jonas Nahm

Prof. Jonas Nahm

Fellow

Jonas Nahm is Assistant Professor of Energy, Resources, and Environment at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Jonas' research utilizes clean energy transitions in China, Germany, and the United States to engage two debates in comparative politics: (1) the role of the state in shaping the international division of labor in highly globalized industries, and (2) sources of state capacity in interest group politics during periods of industrial restructuring.

His book, "Collaborative Advantage: Forging Green Industries in the New Global Economy" (Oxford University Press, 2021), uses the development of renewable energy sectors to investigate the political economy of innovation and industrial development in highly globalized industries. The book shows that new possibilities for collaboration among firms in the global economy have reinforced national patterns of industrial specialization. As Nahm shows in the book, globalization not only continues to be mediated by domestic institutions, it also causes persistent and consequential divergence of such institutions and national industrial specializations over time.

In addition to his work on renewable energy industries, Jonas has ongoing research projects on the politics of greening the global auto sector, the determinants of national climate policies, and the political economy of green industrial policy.

Prior to coming to Johns Hopkins SAIS, Jonas was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University. He holds a PhD in Political Science from MIT and speaks German and Mandarin Chinese.

Publications prior to joining the RIFS

  • Jonas Nahm and Johannes Urpelainen. Forthcoming. The Enemy Within? Green Industrial Policy and Stranded Assets in China's Power Sector. Global Environmental Politics.

  • Jonas Nahm. 2021. Collaborative Advantage: Forging Green Industries in the New Global Economy. Oxford University Press.

  • Jonas Meckling and Jonas Nahm. 2021. "Strategic State Capacity: How States Counter Opposition to Climate Policy." Comparative Political Studies. (Winner, 2021 American Political Science Association Award for the best paper in public policy.)

  • John Helveston and Jonas Nahm. 2019. "China's key role in scaling low-carbon energy technologies." Science 366 (6467): 794-796.

  • Jonas Nahm. 2019. "The Energy Politics of China." In Kathleen Hancock and Juliann Allison (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Energy Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press

  • Jonas Meckling and Jonas Nahm. 2019. "The Politics of Technology Bans: Industrial Policy Competition and Green Goals for the Global Auto Industry": Energy Policy 126: 470-479

  • Jonas Meckling and Jonas Nahm. 2018. "When do States Disrupt Industries? Electric Cars and the Politics of Innovation." Review of International Political Economy 25(4): 505-529.

  • Jonas Meckling and Jonas Nahm. 2018. "The Power of Process: State Capacity and Climate Policy." Governance 31(4): 741-757. (Winner, 2018 American Political Science Association Evan J. Ringquist Award for the best paper published in a relevant journal in the last two years.)