Scott M. Moore
Scott Moore is a scholar of Chinese politics and global affairs and a higher-education leader whose work bridges academia, government, and international institutions. He serves as Managing Director of Global Initiatives, Research, and Strategy, Practice Professor of Political Science, and Faculty Fellow of the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, all at the University of Pennsylvania. As Managing Director, Dr. Moore advises university leadership on international affairs and leads a team based in Philadelphia and Beijing that develops and manages Penn's strategic global initiatives. In this role he oversees the Penn Wharton China Center and the Penn Global Grant Program, an umbrella supporting research and engagement across China, India, Africa, the Middle East, and beyond, as well as programs including the Middle East Distinguished Visiting Scholars Initiative and the At-Risk Scholars Program. He also leads Penn's engagement with international institutions and policy programs, including the U.S. Department of State's DiplomacyLab program, the Fulbright Faculty Liaison program, and the Convention on Biological Diversity.
As Practice Professor of Political Science and Faculty Fellow of the Kleinman Center, Dr. Moore teaches and conducts research on Chinese politics, climate change and environmental policy, and emerging technology, especially biotechnology. His first book, Subnational Hydropolitics: Conflict, Cooperation, and Institution-Building in Shared River Basins (Oxford University Press, 2018), examines how climate change and other pressures shape the likelihood of conflict over water within countries. China's Next Act: How Sustainability and Technology are Reshaping China's Rise and the World's Future (Oxford University Press, 2022) explores China's role in providing global public goods amid geopolitical rivalry, and what constructive engagement on climate change and other shared challenges might look like. His ongoing research examines the evolution of China's climate diplomacy; climate and trade, especially border carbon adjustments; the regulation of solar radiation modification; the future of global climate governance; and climate adaptation and resilience, particularly in water resources management.
Before joining Penn, Dr. Moore was a Young Professional and Water Resources Management Specialist at the World Bank Group and Environment, Science, Technology, and Health Officer for China at the U.S. Department of State, where he worked extensively on the Paris Agreement on climate change. He has also advised the U.S. Department of Defense on China and strategic competition, and earlier served as Giorgio Ruffolo Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He is currently a non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution, the Asia Society Policy Institute, and the Council on Strategic Risk. His honors include the Wilson China Fellowship, the Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship, the National Committee on U.S.–China Relations Public Intellectuals Program fellowship, recognition as a Committee of 100 Next Generation Leader, the Fulbright fellowship, and the Truman Scholarship.
Dr. Moore's research and commentary have appeared in leading scholarly journals and media outlets, including Nature, The China Quarterly, Foreign Affairs, and The New York Times. He holds doctoral and master's degrees from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and an undergraduate degree from Princeton. Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, he lives in the New York area.