In 1997, Tony Blair’s New Labour delivered a landslide election victory that provided a roadmap to power for other centre-left parties in Europe. Out of power since 1982,Germany’s main centre-left party, Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (Social Democratic Party of Germany, SPD), recycled Blair’s ideological outlook as the Neue Mitte (rough translation: the new centre). A new […]
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In 1949, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the communist German Democratic Republic (East Germany). In 1961, the division between the two states was cemented, quite literally, through the construction of the infamous Berlin Wall at the orders of the East German government. In 1989, the Berlin Wall […]
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A Research Puzzle: The girl who ate peanuts Sixteen years as German chancellor. A long time indeed. Much has been made of how many British Prime Ministers and US Presidents Angela Merkel has seen come and go – Prime Ministers Blair, Brown, Cameron, May, and Johnson; US Presidents Bush Jr, Obama, Trump, and Biden. Not […]
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So I’m moving on from Surrey, after 17 great years. From 1 May I’ll starting up as Professor of Politics & International Studies at the Open University, while still keeping a role as Visiting Research Fellow at our Centre for Britain and Europe, so I’ll not completely disappearing. I’ve reflected on the (rare) experience of […]
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I know my IR colleagues like nothing better than a strategic review document, since it gives them hours of enjoyment coding for stuff and generally feeling like there’s some interest in their field. And the arrival of the UK’s much-delayed Integrated Review this week has given me some sense of that, even as it almost […]
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