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My 2021 Foreign Policy Analysis article with Francisco Urdinez received some welcome attention from the Financial Times yesterday. The article drew on an interview with Paraguay’s president about the increasingly uncommon bilateral relationship, and noted our research on the opportunity cost that recognizing Taiwan appears to have incurred during the “China boom.” Paraguay is the only country in South America to recognize Taiwan over China; under the “One China” policy, third countries face an either/or decision between the two governments.

Although President Abdo is evidently seeking greater material benefits to placate domestic pressures for investment and markets (especially for agricultural goods), we argue that material benefits alone don’t explain Paraguay’s continued recognition of Taiwan. Today, the relationship between the long-dominant Colorado Party and the United States is increasingly shaky, creating another headwind for Paraguay’s pro-Taiwain faction. Still, Abdo offered quite strong support for Taiwan at the UN General Assembly, so the relationship appears to have some life.

Many thanks to editor Michael Stott at the FT for his interest!

Ha sido un gran honor presentar mi segundo libro, Los Estados Pequeños en la Política Internacional, hoy en El Colegio de México. Es la primera vez que he tenido la oportunidad de dar una conferencia en español acerca del proyecto. Agradezco mucho la oportunidad, la invitación de Celia Toro y Élodie Brun, la asistencia y participación de excelentes estudiantes y profesores. ¡Gracias! Está disponible en YouTube, en la página de El Colegio.

Si les interesa, el libro está disponible directamente de Oxford University Press o a través de Amazon y otras páginas.

Over the last several years, I have been involved in a few projects related to North American cooperation. These will be leading to a number of publications and other activities in the months and year ahead.

First, I’ve had a brief published yesterday on “North America and the World.” The paper is part of the Woodrow Wilson Center’s series Strengthening North American Ties, edited by former US Ambassador to Mexico Tony Wayne. North America is often overlooked as a world region, especially compared to those with more active regional organizations. However, there is an important reason for giving North America a greater global profile, in my view.

Second, also with the Wilson Center, I have been coordinating and co-editing a book on policy issues for North America today. It’s called North America 2.0: Forging a Continental Future. I’ve been working closely with Alan Bersin, who has worn many different policy hats in the past. The volume will include sixteen substantive chapters from some three dozen contributors. Those authors include a wide range of experts, academics, former diplomats, military officials, private sector representatives, and policymakers. The book should be published in October by the Wilson Center Press, so more updates soon!

Finally, I continue my role as chair, co-coordinator and co-editor (all with Eric Hershberg) of a more academically focused research network: the Robert A. Pastor North American Research Initiative. We have just finished the text for an editing volume resulting from this collaboration, which will be published next year by the University of New Mexico Press. It will be called, North America: Stagnation, Decline, or Renewal? You can see the Table of Contents below. The initiative also led to my recent article in Global Studies Quarterly on public attitudes on regional cooperation in Canada, Mexico, and the United States.

Yesterday, I joined an online panel at The Atlantic Council to discuss the diverse responses from small states, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Global South more broadly to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. There has been much comment, and some derision, regarding the ambiguity or lack of condemnation of the invasion from the world beyond NATO. In this panel, we discuss why that might be the case, and how US foreign policymakers should respond.

More information on the panel and panelists is available here, or you can watch the panel on YouTube above.

If you find the panel of interest, you might want to check out A Small State’s Guide to Influence (Oxford University Press, 2022). It’s available from OUP directly, with the discount code ASFLY06, via Amazon on Kindle or hard copies in the US, or via many fine booksellers.

In the last few days, I’ve received the formal announcement that I’ve been promoted to Reader!

For those in North America, that’s probably rather cryptic. After all, those who know me also know that I’ve been doing a lot of reading for quite a long time. At Warwick, though, Reader is a title between associate professor and full professor (or “chair”); it’s something of a half-step like “senior associate professor.” Unlike in the US, in the UK, I still am not permitted to use the title “professor”!

In the traditional UK academic hierarchy, the career path went Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader, Professor. Many British universities, Warwick included, have changed from “lecturer” to assistant professor and associate professor. A few, again including Warwick, have retained Reader as a legacy; it’s a non-required half-step between associate and full professor.

(I’m not entirely sure about why these changes have happened, but I suspect that as the academic job market became increasingly global, North American applicants shunned “lecturer” positions because that term is associated with a lower, non-permanent rank in many US universities. Just a guess.)

Anyhow, I am looking forward to the new business cards. A big thanks to my colleagues at PAIS for their support in the process, to my friends and mentors at American University, to the six anonymous professors who provided external references, to friends, coauthors, and colleagues around the world. And a big thanks to Marta, Sophie, Mom and Dad.