CIERP Alumni Perspectives: A Discussion with Dr. Marcus DuBois King
By Eliza Sheff
This blog post is part of CIERP and CPL’s Black History Month Blog Series, where current Fletcher students interview Black alums about their successful careers in the environment sector.
By the time current George Washington University professor Dr. Marcus DuBois King began what would be his first of two degrees at The Fletcher School, he was already intimately familiar with Washington DC culture, having obtained his bachelor’s degree at Georgetown University and worked in White House in the U.S. Department of Energy. Realizing he wanted to get his master’s degree and “critical distance” from the DC area, he followed the advice of two Georgetown deans (one of whom, Jerry Sheehan, would later become Executive Associate Dean of The Fletcher School) and came to Fletcher in 1998 to study conflict resolution and energy policy.
“[Sheehan] said, ‘Fletcher is the Valhalla of diplomacy.’” Dr. King was struck by those words and admired Dean Sheehan and the other Georgetown dean who influenced his decision-making, Peter Krogh (Ph.D., F’66). He knew he wanted to be a practitioner in international relations. Fast forward a few years later with a MALD degree under his belt, Dr. King finished out the second Clinton term working in the Department of Defense as a foreign affairs specialist. He decided to return to The Fletcher School for his Ph.D., knowing that he wanted that credential in order to have a career in government and the option to go into academia. His admiration for prominent Black scholars like Ralph Bunche and W.E.B. Du Bois, both of whom had Harvard Ph.Ds., provided the extra push that he needed to pursue his own. “[They were] like superheroes, and had Ph.Ds…I thought it was great to try to get into some sort of emulation of people that I admired in the past.”
When Dr. King was first working with the Department of Energy prior to Fletcher, there was a heavy focus on nuclear counterproliferation and nonproliferation—DOE was essentially a nuclear security agency. Dr. King gained exposure to more general energy policy through the Fletcher MALD program, where he also studied conflict resolution. He recalls taking classes on multilateral environmental negotiations with CIERP founder Bill Moomaw , and then subsequently representing the Department of Defense at the sixth COP in the Hague barely a year later.
“[We were] doing these simulations on multilateral negotiating, and then finding myself doing it within a year of graduation, it was a seamless transition from school to reality, which was pretty amazing.”
When Dr. King returned to The Fletcher School for his Ph.D. in 2003 to focus on security studies, Bill Moomaw directed his dissertation. “I believe I was maybe the second person or the first person to ever triangulate between the security field concentration, the conflict resolution concentration, and the environment, and the way that I put that together was solving conflict over environmental issues.” For him, climate change has always been a security issue. He considers there to be three dimensions to climate change—mitigation, adaptation, and a third dimension, impact. “I’m in that third space which is, what is the impact of failure to adapt on fragile states or states that are important to the U.S. for national security reasons…we are getting more into this space where climate change is a factor in instability.”
While negotiating at COP6 was a professional highlight for Dr. King, it is only one of many standout achievements over the course of his career. During his time working as a presidential appointee between his MALD and his Ph.D., one of his responsibilities was to provide the weekly report on behalf of the DOE for the White House. He remembers the first time he received one back with then-President Clinton’s comments in the margins, it was a surreal moment where he realized, “Oh my gosh, something I wrote literally generated a presidential response. It was so cool to know he had actually seen it.”
After obtaining his Ph.D. in 2008, Dr. King was immediately hired at the Center for Naval Analysis as an analyst and was hoping to teach as an adjunct professor to weave together political and academic roles and share his experiences. He is now the Director of the MAIA program at the Elliot School of International Affairs, an international relations master’s program that was shaped in no small part by his experience at The Fletcher School. Dr. King is especially proud of his work integrating gender studies into the program and asserts that his Ph.D. opened doors for him to be able to design the MAIA in a multidisciplinary way that helps to legitimize international relations as a discipline.
When asked if he had any advice for current students who are hoping to pursue a career in energy and the environment, especially for Black students, he stresses the importance of having a good mentor. “I actually never have [had a mentor]. I have people I admired that I might want to emulate, but they were historical figures. So, I never really had a personal mentor and I think that’s just really important. A lot of people I’ve seen that are from underrepresented communities that have achieved a lot have really done so in cooperation and in community with others. So that’s why it’s really important.”
He emphasizes the significance of the “Fletcher perspective” and the impact that it has had on his illustrious career, stating, “it’s the understanding that there are unique tools that different people can bring to solving the problem and you need all of them. It’s not all political science, it’s not all economics, and just knowing that is such a valuable thing when it comes to being a change agent.”
Dr. King recently wrote a book on water and conflict, and is currently writing one on the weaponization of water by extremist groups. In addition to running the MAIA program at the Elliot School, he serves as Vice Chairman of the Board for the Council on Strategic Risks.
Eliza Sheff is a second-year MALD at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and a research assistant at CIERP/CPL.
This is the second post in the Black History Month Blog Series. Read the article about Dr. Nichola Minott here.