Michael Levi Named Director of Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is pleased to announce that Michael A. Levi, David M. Rubenstein senior fellow for energy and the environment and director of the program on Energy Security and Climate Change, has been named director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies (CGS). Founded in 2000, the CGS is one of the premier venues for informed analysis on the global economy and foreign policy—from international economic cooperation to the uses of economic statecraft, national security consequences of economic developments, and domestic U.S. economy.

Working with leading policymakers, businesspeople, and scholars, and anchored in CFR’s in-house strength in economics and foreign policy, the center takes an entrepreneurial approach to generating strategic insights and policy prescriptions. Its products have expanded to include not only books, articles, and reports from CGS fellows, but also timely contributions through blogs, multimedia, and Policy Innovation Memoranda.

"Universities have departments, the world doesn’t," said CFR President Richard N. Haass. "Geoeconomics is at the core where economics, national security, and strategy intersect. There is no one better placed than Michael Levi to oversee this important enterprise."

Levi has tackled quintessential geoeconomic issues during his eight-year tenure at CFR. His highly regarded book, The Power Surge: Energy, Opportunity, and the Battle for America’s Future, examines what the North American energy revolution means for the United States and the world. His most recent book, coauthored with C.V. Starr Senior Fellow and Director of Asia Studies Elizabeth C. Economy, By All Means Necessary: How China’s Resource Quest is Changing the World, explores the unrivaled expansion of the Chinese economy and the global effects of its meteoric growth.

Levi succeeds Sebastian Mallaby, who is stepping down on June 30 after seven successful years directing CGS. "Under Sebastian’s leadership, CGS established itself as a highly visible powerhouse producing some of the best scholarship around on the global economy and geoeconomics," said CFR Senior Vice President and Director of Studies James M. Lindsay. Mallaby will be based in London and will continue his affiliation with CFR as the Paul A. Volcker senior fellow for international economics.