Jittip Mongkolnchaiarunya

Welcome! I am currently completing my PhD in Political Science at George Washington University. I also serve as a Research Fellow with the Earth System Governance Project and am a 2026-2027 IMM Spotlight Scholar with the American Political Science Association. My research lies at the intersection of global governance, science and technology studies, and climate politics, drawing on Global South perspectives with a particular focus on Southeast Asia.

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My dissertation, The Techno-Politics of Greenwashing: The Dark Underside of Green Growth Technologies, opens the black box of the science underpinning green technological solutions and examines how scientific knowledge itself is produced, simplified, and crucially, can misinform global climate governance. Through an analysis of three technologies widely promoted by international organizations—afforestation, deep-ocean carbon sequestration, and the clean energy transition through electric vehicles and wind turbines—I show how particular forms of scientific knowledge are neglected or altogether excluded from mainstream understandings of these technologies. As a result, solutions presented as environmentally beneficial can become unintentionally counterproductive for climate mitigation and even rely on deadly forms of extractive labor in the Global South.

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My paper, “Why we Grow the Wrong Trees in the Wrong Places,” which is derived from my dissertation, recently received the Edward Said Award (2026), the Best Graduate Paper Award in Science, Technology, and Art in International Relations (2026), the Best Graduate Paper Award in International Political Sociology (2026), the Best Graduate Paper Award from Women's Caucus for ISA (2026), the Robert W. & Jessie Cox Award (2024–2025), and the Honorable Mention for the Fred Hartmann Award (2024) from International Studies Association.​ The fieldwork of my research has been financially supported by the American Political Science Association's Summer Centennial Center Research Grant, GW’s Sigur Center for Asian Studies Research Grants, and the International Studies Association's Dissertation Completion Fellowship.

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Building on my dissertation, I also extend my argument to the global policy architecture of carbon markets in a working paper that analyzes why certain carbon verification standards are adopted while others are not in the voluntary markets, and how their technical design shapes environmental integrity through an in-depth analysis of the standards themselves. In addition to climate politics, ​I also have side projects on science and technology in global governance, the diplomatic logic of strategic ambiguity, and network analysis in international relations. My co-authored research has been published or is forthcoming in the Oxford Handbook of Emotions in International Relations and International Studies Quarterly. I also regularly write for broader public audiences, with commentary appearing in English in The Diplomat, New Mandala, and Rising Powers Initiative, and in Thai in The101.World.

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Prior to coming to GW, I received my MA in International Affairs from Columbia University and my BA from Thammasat University. I am the recipient of the Anandamahidol Foundation Scholarship under H.M. the King of Thailand (2015-2021).

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In my free time, I love cooking and eating :)