Category / Recent Research

by Erik Jones

Abandoning Institutionalism

The rise of populism and the weakening of democracy have captured attention across advanced industrial societies, particularly among liberal elites on the centre left. How could voters elect politicians who undermine the provision of social services, chip away at the rule of law, coopt or constrain the free media, and at times even threaten to bankrupt the state? How could they reward or even tolerate those leaders for engaging in overt acts of corruption while at the same time preventing any plausible alternative or opposition group from holding them to account through free and fair elections? Sure, people may feel they got a bad deal from globalization, and they may resent the pretensions – both cultural and intellectual – of an overly educated, out-of-touch elite. A little outrage and protest seem appropriate to gain attention. But why are they turning against the institutions that were created to serve advanced industrial societies, from the smallest local authority through the welfare state to the rules-based multilateral system?

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by Erik Jones

Transatlantic Crisis? Why This Time is Different

To appreciate the radical changes that have taken place in the transatlantic relationship, it helps to have a sense of perspective.  Why is the ‘crisis’ so much more real now than it was in decades past?  You don’t need to do a lot of reading to learn that the relationship has never been easy.  Somehow, this time feels different.  To explain why, I pulled together a collection of thirteen articles I wrote about the evolution of the transatlantic relationship over the past twenty years.  One of the articles was published in Italian and so I included the English-language working paper for those who are interested.  There are three big themes in this collection – about the changing nature of power in international relations, the challenge of maintaining domestic support for engagement with the outside world, and the progressive loss of trust across the Atlantic together with the breakdown of solidarity on either side.  The articles in this collection were not written to trace these themes.  Those themes arose as I kept coming back to the same subject matter from one year, election, administration, ‘crisis’, or decade to the next.

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by Erik Jones

Europe Today — A Twenty-First Century Introduction (Sixth Edition)

European politics is changing, and fast. But the significance of that change is hard to appreciate without a deep understanding of ‘Europe’, meaning its history, politics, culture, and economics. Unfortunately, so much of what we ‘know’ about Europe is based on caricatures and stereotypes. (The same is no doubt true for the rest of the world as well. I blame the demise of area studies, but that is another conversation.) This edited volume — called Europe Today and published by Rowman & Littlefield — can help shed important light.

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by Erik Jones

Sovereign Debt Restructuring and Debt Mutualisation in the Euro Area

The euro area lacks a framework for sovereign debt restructuring and it lacks a common risk-free asset. Both issues are important in looking ahead to the prospect of any future crisis. Of the two, however, the creation of some kind of sovereign debt restructuring mechanism appears to attract the most political attention. This briefing note outlines the issues that would need to be addressed to bring greater stability to the euro area.

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