Book Review: Brexit: Why Britain Voted to Leave the European Union

My review of the new book on Brexit by Harold Clarke, Matthew Goodwin and Paul Whiteley. It's the best attempt so far to answer the question of why Britain voted for Leave.

Full review here: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/2017/05/12/book-review-brexit-why-britain-voted-to-leave-the-european-union/

Globalization, domestic politics, and transatlantic relations

A joint-authored article with Brian Burgoon and Peter Trubowitz looking at the state of transatlantic relations. 

Abstract: For two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, globalization functioned as a unifying force in the West. In the absence of a common security threat, the United States and Europe found common ground in a neoliberal agenda calling for the freer movements of capital, goods, services, and peoples across national boundaries. Today, support for that neoliberal agenda has been rapidly weakening across the West. Drawing on a variety of quantitative measures, we show that Western support for globalization has declined, both at the level of national policy and at the level of party politics. We argue that this erosion of domestic support for globalization is closely linked to the rise of populist parties in Europe and the USA. We consider the implications of this shift in the West’s domestic politics for the future of transatlantic cooperation and leadership.

Full article here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41311-017-0040-1

Never mind the Brexit? Britain, Europe, the world and Brexit

My latest on Brexit, published in International Politics. 

Abstract: Britain’s vote to withdraw from the EU came as an unexpected shock to many in the UK, the rest of the EU and around the world. The UK and the remaining EU now face a fraught and potentially lengthy period of negotiations to settle Brexit. How might this change Europe? And how might it change the rest of the world’s views of Europe? This article looks at how Brexit could shape worldviews of Europe. It does so firstly by looking at the international and European roles Britain sees for itself and how the rest of Europe views those roles. The article then turns to views of both the UK and the EU from the USA, Russia and China. It argues that neither the UK nor the EU should overlook how external perceptions of Europe, the UK and Brexit matter because they will determine the strategic context in which the Brexit negotiations unfold.

Full article here: 
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41311-017-0043-y 

We need to talk about the London question

In this post for the UCL Constitution unit's blog I consider how London is talked about in UK politics, how we can assess claims that London has become too powerful and distinct from the rest of the UK, and how London’s place in the UK can be managed. I suggest that there are three broad approaches that can be taken to the ‘London question’: the status quo, separating the UK and/or England from London and devolved government for London.

https://constitution-unit.com/2017/05/10/we-need-to-talk-about-the-london-question/