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Erik Jones
Professor and Director of European Studies, Johns Hopkins SAIS
Director, Bologna Institute for Policy Research
Senior Research Fellow, Nuffield College
Senior Advisor, Oxford Analytica





Welcome to my personal home page. Here you can find some samples of recent research as well as a reasonably up-to-date CV. Please note that any draft work posted on this page should not be cited without checking with me first. Any and all comments are welcome.

Curriculum Vitae

The short story is that I did my BA (AB) at Princeton University, and my MA and PhD at Johns Hopkins SAIS. As an academic, I have worked at the Centre for European Policy Studies, the Central European University, the University of Nottingham, and most recently the Johns Hopkins Bologna Center. For the period from 2011 to 2013, I have the privilege of being a Senior Research Fellow at Nuffield College in Oxford. In addition, I am a regular commentator on E!Sharp, a contributing editor to the IISS journal Survival and I sit on the editorial boards for The International Spectator, the Journal of European Public Policy, Government and Opposition, and the Journal of European Integration.  I also serve on scientific committee for the Istituto Carlo Cattaneo and the steering committee for the Standing Group on the European Union of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR). 

In addition to my academic work, I also serve as Senior Advisor for Oxford Analytica, which is a global analysis and advisory firm. This association with Oxford Analytica gives me the chance to say something about what I think is happening in Europe. You can register to receive my weekly Europe Compass from Oxford Analytica.

If you want the long story, you can find my curriculum vitae here.

Press Kit

Here are a few things that may come in handy if I ever have the privilege of speaking at your institution or you ever have the obligation of having to introduce me or to advertize an event I am attending. You may find this material a lot easier to work with than a clunky academic CV. Since I live here in Italy, I am also including versions in Italian. This kit includes:

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Research Interests

My research interests fall broadly in the field of political economy. In essence, this means that I try to answer questions about how politics influences economics and how economics influences politics. I wrote my first book on the politics surrounding Europe's economic and monetary union published by Rowman & Littlefield. For a sampling of the reviews, see:

When I wrote the book on EMU, I hoped that the debate about monetary integration would slowly fade away. With the benefit of hindsight, I suppose that is one of my least impressive predictions. Instead, things have turned against me (and, more important, the single currency). The crisis in Greece is of particular concern. For those who are interested, I have collected my recent work on the single currency and the financial crisis in two packets together with explanatory notes to guide you through the reading. These packets include journal articles, breifing notes, and chapters from edited volumes. The arguments I make can be summarized as follows.

  • First, it was always clear that EMU could create a fiscal problem -- especially in smaller member states. The 2003 article where I make that prediction is the first in the pack.
  • Second, the problem with the eurozone has very little to do with the theory of optimum currency areas or any conventional (or even comprehensible) notion of competitiveness. Indeed, the euro has done more to stabilize economic performance during the crisis than most observers tend to appreciate.
  • Third, this lack of appreciation is dangerous because it threatens to undermine the functioning of the eurozone.
  • Finally, the only way forward is through macroeconomic rebalancing -- which is necessary both in Europe and across the world economy.

You can download the collection by clicking on EMU and the Financial Crisis and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and the Future of the Euro. My solution to the problem is to move toward a common issue 'eurobond' that could be used to underpin the stability and growth pact. I am hardly unique in making that proposal and there is a group of actors across Europe working along similar lines. My thoughts are sketched in a pair of recent policy briefs -- one published by ISPI in Milan and the other by the Fundación Alternativas in Madrid. After I drafted the first of those briefs, I leaned about two other groups working on a similar proposal -- one led by John Springford at CentreForum in the UK; the other by Jakob von Wieszaecker while he was still at Bruegel.

The debate about the eurobond proposal has been considerable. My own belief is that the creation of a eurobond with limited drawing rights offers the best solution to the European sovereign debt crisis. Alas, many people in Europe do not agree and opposition in Germany is considerable. This packet of essays reproduces my original proposals together with subsequent opinion pieces, comments, and speeches. Throughout, I have tried to explain why moving toward a eurobond is better than the alternatives. I also suggest why the creation of a eurobond is a less drastic reform than many suspect.

Fortunately, the eurozone crisis seems to be moving into a more quiet phase. In part, that is due to decisive action at the European Central Bank. It is also due to more incremental progress being made by Europe's heads of state and government in the development of a banking union. I have a fourth packet of essays on the European endgame. These essays carry the story up through the end of 2012. Let's hope that the title for that packet does not prove overly optimistic.

My second book is on the relationship between economic adjustment and political change in Belgium and the Netherlands.  That book was published by Oxford University Press in May 2008.  Here is a copy of the cover.

           

The image next to the book cover gives you a sense of what the book is about -- it is a "wordle" generated from the text of the book.  The larger the words, the more often they are used.  This is about as artistic as I get.

I was invited to launch the book in Belgium at the Itinera Institute, which is a relatively new think tank devoted to public policy research.  The event was well covered by the Flemish press.  For a sample of the commentary, see:

The people at Itinera were terrific and I am very grateful for their willingness to organize and publicize the event.  They also agreed to publish a short paper based on the book which you can find here.

The academic reviews of the book can be found here:

My third book is jointly written with Dana Allin from the IISS in London and looks at the future of United States global leadership. The title is Weary Policeman: American Power in an Age of Austerity. This was a fun piece that we developed over a couple of years through essays we wrote either jointly or separately for Dana's journal Survival.

Edited Books and Special Issues

I have co-edited a number of books, among the most recent of which are:

  • Oxford Handbook on the European Union. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.  With Anand Menon and Stephen Weatherill.
  • Europe Today, Fourth Edition. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011.  With Ronald Tiersky and Saskia van Genugten.
  • Developments in European Politics 2. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2011.  With Paul Heywood, Martin Rhodes, and Ulrich Sedelmeier.
  • European Security and the Future of Transatlantic Relations. Rome: Edizioni Nuova Cultura, 2011.  With Riccardo Alcaro.
  • Italian Politics: Managing Uncertainty. New York: Berghahn Books, 2010.  With Marco Giuliani.
  • The 2008 Presidential Elections: A Story in Four Acts. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.  With Salvatore Vassallo.
  • European Responses to the Global Financial Crisis. Bologna: CLUEB, 2009.  With Laura Beke.
  • The Future of European Foreign Policy. London: Routledge, 2009.  With Saskia van Genugten.

I have also edited or co-edited special issues of journals, including:


Recent Commentary

Sometimes I try to say something for the popular media.  This includes a monthly column for E!Sharp, which is an on-line policy magazine run out of Brussels. This is much harder than it looks and I am very grateful to the many people who have helped me find outlets for my essays.  I am also grateful to the editors for making sure I make sense.  Here is some of the more recent work:


Recent Articles (selected)

This is a collection of articles that I wrote for periodicals--some of which were anonymously refereed by my peers while others were not.  Comments are welcome here as well, although I cannot promise to be able to make them any better.

For a full list of publications including contributions to edited volumes, please see my cv (above).


Contact Details

SAIS Bologna Center
Johns Hopkins University
via Belmeloro 11
40126 Bologna, ITALY

Tel: +39 051 291 7886
Fax: +39 051 228 505
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