Research
You will find a complete range of our peer-reviewed monographs, multi-authored and edited works, including original scholarly research across the social sciences and aligned disciplines. We publish long and short form research and you can browse the Bristol University Press and Policy Press archive.
Policy Press also publishes policy reviews and polemic work which aim to challenge policy and practice in certain fields. These books have a practitioner in mind and are practical, accessible in style, as well as being academically sound and referenced.
Books: Research
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This afterword engages critically, yet constructively, with this book’s attempt to combine insights from the literatures on international financial subordination (IFS) and financial statecraft to explain variations within the Global South in the context of a hierarchically structured world. To clarify the terms of the debate, the afterword attempts to expose the different theories of capitalism that underly the understandings of states and finance in the Global South in these different literatures. The chapter raises questions about the theoretical compatibility of the different approaches and cautions against the watering down of IFS to make it more compatible with other literatures, and, thereby, stripping the concept of its radical origins. Finally, the afterword reflects on to what extent debates about IFS and financial statecraft can be connected to broader discussions of Eurocentrism and decolonization in the social sciences.
This chapter deals with Finland and Sweden’s accession process since their applications to become full members in the Alliance. The focus is laid on the Turkish reservations, both before the invitation at the Madrid Summit 2022 and concerning the following ratifications. The chapter argues that the trilateral negotiations with Turkey had three phases, each with different dynamics. The dynamics are summarized in six analytical points: the cards of the applicant countries were weak; the difference in negotiation cultures; the different bargaining power and negotiation cultures did not fully explain the delay of ratifications; Sweden was a bargaining chip in Turkish-US relations for an F-16 fighter aircraft deal; Hungary was not an important actor; and Secretary General Stoltenberg pushed the limits of his negotiation role.
States and international institutions increasingly recognize that climate change constitutes a security issue. But to what extent does this point to an embrace of alternative logics and registers of security necessary for meaningfully addressing ecological crises in the Anthropocene epoch? This chapter explores this question. After outlining dominant forms of engagement with climate security in theory and in practice, it points to the problematic pathologies of this engagement. Principally, it identifies a tendency to (continue to) view security through the lens of the insulation of self-contained units from deliberate external threat, a conception clearly at odds with the nature of the challenge posed by climate change. However, in recent critical scholarship making a case for ecological security, and an associated focus on the resilience of ecosystems themselves, we can identify progressive potential for reimagining and reconfiguring security in a manner consistent with responding to the climate crisis.
In the second chapter, counter-arguments for austerity being a flawed economic policy (for example, Mark Blyth) or a deliberate act of capitalist crisis management (Clara Mattei) and class warfare from above are considered. The author finds the latter more convincing and, drawing on the work of Mattei, takes a detour through mainland Europe and Britain after the First World War when revolution was in the air. He shows how austerity came to the rescue of capitalism, as explained by Mattei’s analysis of fiscal and industrial austerity. Marxism is then presented as a theory in direct contrast to austerity theory. Towards the end of the chapter, a statement by a multimillionaire is analysed that encapsulates the thinking of an entire social class and adds weight to the conclusions the author has come to. The chapter concludes by noting that from a Marxist perspective, the (immediate) solution is to tax the rich instead of imposing austerity on the working class.
The introduction to Chapter 4 notes how, during May’s premiership, Home Secretary Sajid Javid unsuccessfully tried to replace the term ‘hostile environment’ with ‘compliant environment’. The chapter proper begins with a discussion of Johnson’s own up-front colour-coded colonialist and imperialist racism when a journalist and as Foreign Secretary. He made derogatory comments about Black people and published an article by a scientific racist. His infamous Islamophobic comments about Muslim women is also addressed. His premiership saw the end of free movement to the UK from the European Union and the European Economic Area, and, with the hardline right-wing Priti Patel as his Home Secretary, the intensification of the hostile environment. This included the Nationality and Borders Act and the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act that had implications for both colour-coded and non-colour-coded racism. Johnson’s time as Prime Minister also saw the fomenting of the plan to offshore people seeking asylum to Rwanda. The chapter also provides updates on the Grenfell Tower disaster and the Windrush scandal.
In Chapter 7 ’s introduction, it is pointed out that, once again, Keynesian policies were briefly enacted, this time to deal with COVID-19. The UK’s ability to utilize its welfare state, however, was constrained by the effects of the ‘age of austerity’. After a brief discussion of Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s first budget, the chapter turns to the increase in inequality during COVID-19 and Boris Johnson’s premiership, focusing on Tory patronage with respect to personal protective equipment and VIP lanes. Items from the latter were much more expensive and Tory donors and associates were given preferential treatment. At the same time the ‘test and trace’ system was a failure, despite an eye-watering budget. Johnson’s demise was largely because of ‘Partygate’. The chapter concludes with Liz Truss’ brief time as Prime Minister, which included her disastrous mini budget that led to higher mortgage interest rates, higher rents and homelessness.
The chapter examines Brazil’s experience contesting the liberal global financial order through financial statecraft. In the context of the crisis of the liberal global financial order, especially in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, emerging economies have been adopting policies that confront the ideology underlying the order established in the last quarter of the 20th century. These policies can be framed as state capitalist, as opposed to hegemonic liberal policies, and have gained prominence from the experience of the BRICS. Compared to its peers, however, Brazil emerges as a puzzling case that often reconciles liberal and state capitalist policies. We contend that such ambiguity reflects Brazil’s internal political dynamics, where there has been an alternation of power between governments to a greater or lesser extent aligned with the underlying ideology of the liberal financial order. This argument develops from the analysis of the economic policy implemented by different Brazilian governments throughout the 21st century (2003–22), as well as by specific foreign policy initiatives, in light of the theoretical framework developed by Petry and Nölke (2024) to assess the contestation of the liberal financial order. Our analysis is consistent with this argument and contributes to a better understanding of the challenges to the global financial order, especially the one coming from the Brazilian experience.
The chapter summarizes the key conclusions of the book and discusses the causes and consequences of NATO’s northern enlargement to European security in terms of multiple paradoxes. For Finland and Sweden, NATO membership represented both change and continuity. For the region, NATO’s northern enlargement represented both increased stability and heightened tensions. Regarding the future, the greatest paradox may be that Finland and Sweden joined the Alliance just before its entire logic was challenged by a new NATO-sceptical US administration.
