Harold James is Professor of History and International Affairs at Princeton University and a senior fellow at the Center for International Governance Innovation. A specialist on German economic history and on globalization, he is a co-author of the new book The Euro and The Battle of Ideas, and the author of The Creation and Destruction of Value: The Globalization Cycle, Krupp: A History of the Legendary German Firm, and Making the European Monetary Union.
Despite their differences, British Prime Minister Theresa May, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have one thing in common. All are building a new type of politics –… read more
The centrist Emmanuel Macron’s success in the first round of the French presidential election is likely to re-energize Europe. But Macron’s plurality of the popular vote was narrow, and a much larger … read more
Although critics often complain about the EU's internal negotiating process, it has undoubtedly produced positive results, especially in the tumultuous years since the 2008 financial crisis. The same … read more
Like the Bolsheviks in 1917, the political movements behind Trump and Brexit consider themselves to be the vanguard of an international revolt. But the states they seek to dismantle are far more exten… read more
Having overseen a large debt-financed real-estate business, Donald Trump's intuition is that debt renegotiation can be used to win back for America what “other countries” have supposedly taken from it… read more
Humans are ingenious and adaptable, but only in some circumstances; so we must continue to search for viable opportunities that allow people to participate creatively and meaningfully in the economy. … read more
Contagion is a well understood process in finance: a shock in one place produces tremors elsewhere, because pattern-seeking market participants perceive fundamental forces at work. Today’s populist po… read more
Financial markets are giving a thumbs-down to Brexit, and they are right to do so. But because it is finance, rather than democratic civil society, that is pushing back against the UK’s decision to le… read more
Evidence that globalization is reversing continues to pile up: trade and international capital flows are sluggish, and migration is increasingly being restricted. But these trends emerged in the after… read more
