Alexis Montambault-Trudelle
Job Title
PhD Student
Research interests
Background
Thesis: The Rentier State Revisisted: The Politics of Sovereign Wealth Funds in Saudi Arabia
Research interests
My graduate work, published in the Review of International Political Economy and New Political Economy, explores how legacies of state-building shape state-owned investment funds. In my thesis, I find that the significant expansion of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund (SWF) allows incumbent elites to centralise political power and override veto players in economic policymaking while reorganising rent-seeking networks. More specifically, my graduate work developed the theoretical argument that sovereign funds are rentier states' adaptive strategies to external pressures (i.e. climate change and globalisation) and, simultaneously, a path of least resistance around domestic political and economic constraints stemming from legacies of state formation.
I am particularly interested in the political economy of Gulf states, how resource-rich countries adapt to low-carbon transitions and broader interaction between states and financial markets.
Supervisors
Qualifications
- Ph.D Politics and International Relations, University of Edinburgh (2019-2023)
- M.A. Études politiques apliquées, Université de Sherbrooke
- B.A. Études politiques appliquées, Université de Sherbrooke
Publications
2022 'Towards a sociology of state investment funds? sovereign wealth funds and state-business relations in Saudi Arabia', New Political Economy, Vol. 28, n°3, DOI: 10.1080/13563467.2022.2126448
2022 'The Public Investment Fund and Salman's state: the political drivers of sovereign wealth management in Saudi Arabia', Review of International Political Economy, Vol. 30, n°2 DOI: 10.1080/09692290.2022.2069143
2023 'Money trees in the Gulf: the power of sovereign wealth funds in shifting GCC international politics', Orient, Vol.64, n°2
Other Courses and Experience
Teaching Fellow, Political Systems of the Middle East, Université de Sherbrooke, 2022/2023
Teaching Fellow, Qualitative Methods in teaching the social universe, Université de Sherbrooke, 2022/2023
Research Assistant, Transformation of Public Debt Management, P.I. Dr. Charlotte Rommerskirchen, 2021/2022
Quantitative Methods for Causal Inference and Policy Evaluation, Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis, University of Essex, 2021
History of Economic Thought: Human Behaviour and Economic Activity, Oxford Summer School, University of Oxford, 2017
Conferences & Presentations
Institut de Recherche et d'Information Socioéconomique (IRIS), The Green Rentier State: Diversification and Sovereign Wealth Funds in Saudi Arabia, 8 November 2022, Montréal, Québec
BISA/International Political Economy (IPEG) Annual Workshop, IPE in (Post-) Pandemic Times, 27th-28th January 2022, University of Warwick. Paper: A King's Ransom: How Saudi domestic politics shape sovereign wealth fund choices
Warwick Critical Finance Workshop, 24th September 2021, University of Warwick. Paper: The Politics of Profits: Sovereign Wealth Funds, Regime Change and Political Interests in Saudi Arabia
Association Francophone pour le Savoir (ACFAS) 86th General Conference (2018)Paper: Rente pétrolière et solidarité arabe: le cas du Conseil de Coopération du Golfe, 2018
Guest lecturer, undergraduate course (2018): "The Geopolitics of Energy", Université de Sherbrooke
Guest lecturer, undergraduate course (2018):"The Politics of Economic Decision", Université de Sherbrooke