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hosted by Professor Andrew C. Winner


Emily Holland is Assistant Professor in the Russia Maritime Studies Institute at the United States Naval War College.

She received her PhD in political science from Columbia University in May 2017 and was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies during the 2017-2018 academic year. Along with co-authors Josh Busby (UT Austin) and Morgan Bazilian (Colorado School of Mines), Holland was the recipient of a 2023 MINERVA DECUR award to investigate Critical Minerals, Battery Technology, and Reducing Dependence on Hostile Suppliers in Clean Energy Supply Chains.

She researches energy politics, Russian foreign policy, US-Russia relations, nuclear geopolitics, populism and European foreign policy. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, Newsweek, War on the Rocks, Lawfare, the Journal of International Affairs, The Christian Science Monitor, Inkstick Media, Defense Post, Duck of Minerva, The London School of Economics United States Politics Blog, the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs and others. Media appearances include CNN, Government Matters, The Energy Show, and the WarCast. Her scholarship has also been featured in The Washington Post and Vox, and she blogs at Commenting Together.

Holland's book project, Poisoned By Gas, explains variation in energy security policy across Europe. Based on interviews, archival work and statistical evidence, she shows why some states fail to reduce energy dependence on Russia even when they have the opportunity to do so. Using an original dataset of bi-lateral natural gas contracts, she creates a new index of energy dependence that facilitates the comparison of energy security both within case across time and cross-nationally. Using new data, she offers an novel conception of measuring and evaluating energy security on a dominant supplier.

Holland has conducted fieldwork in Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania and Poland, interviewing government officials, corporate actors, policymakers and local actors. She has also held research appointments at NYU's Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia, the European Council on Foreign Relations (Berlin) and the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW).