New piece for @phenomenalworld.bsky.social, written with @jacktaggart.bsky.social and @tomchodor.bsky.social! It's an attempt at grasping the dismantling of multilateral global governance, in light of intensifying geopolitical rivalries, resurgent state capitalism, and hegemonic crisis. Link below:

Our forum on oligarchic sovereignty is now available from @risjnl.bsky.social! And for free, thanks to the University of Glasgow. A very affordable holiday gift for anyone in your life trying to better understand our new world of tech billionaires' massive wealth and political power.

What is "oligarchic sovereignty" and can it explain the tech bro seizure of the US government and its effects on the world? I discuss with some very thoughtful colleagues here: cup.org/3KZzRly Free to read as a Christmas gift to you all:

Wonderful to have a contribution among these incredible and thoughtful scholars trying to make sense of the Silicon Valley technology elite and corporate forms of power and sovereignty 👇👇

#OpenAccess from @risjnl.bsky.social - Oligarchic sovereignty: Technology and the future of global order - https://cup.org/3KZzRly - @maharafiatal.bsky.social, @jacktaggart.bsky.social, @sethschindler.bsky.social#OpenAccess Sarah Logan et al

new article in @reggovjournal.bsky.social that examines how corporations engage in 'venue hopping' as a means to advance agendas in multiple spaces and at multiple levels This riffs off Baumgartner and Jones' notion of venue shopping, but adapts it for an increasingly multistakeholder world

“There is little cause for celebration: progress has been dismal.” Excellent article by @benjaminfaude.bsky.social @jacktaggart.bsky.social who argue that the global governance of the Sustainable Development Goals has undermined progress. theloop.ecpr.eu/the-sustaina...

Please check out not only this piece by @jacktaggart.bsky.social & myself, but also our Special Section on 'The SDGs at 10' in @globalpolicy.bsky.social.

new blog by @benjaminfaude.bsky.social and @jacktaggart.bsky.social on the UN SDGs, drawing on a recent special issue in @globalpolicy.bsky.social lots of great contributions, including a paper by myself and Jack Taggart on institutional hybridity in global plastics governance

🌎 This month marks 10 years since the adoption of the UN’s #SustainableDevelopmentGoals. Yet there is little cause for celebration. 🗣️ @benjaminfaude.bsky.social & @jacktaggart.bsky.social argue that the global governance of the goals has undermined progress. #SDGs 👉 bit.ly/4nyzUCE

We're advertising not one but TWO permanent(!) Lecturer positions at the mighty QUB: one in International Relations and one in International Public Policy. Deadline for both 13th October. Details -> www.qub.ac.uk/sites/QUBJob...

Last chance to register for the online launch of our Ethics & International Affairs Roundtable "Global Governance in Hard Times".

Registration for online and in-person attendance of our special section launch event on the global governance of the SDGs at 10 is still open! Click here to register tinyurl.com/534s96an

The SDGs at 10: Please join us for a Special Section Launch event on Friday 12 September 14:00-17:00 (BST). Contributions by Faude & @jacktaggart.bsky.social; @policyrelevant.bsky.social; @danxuu.bsky.social; K. Abraham; J. Loginovic & @docstushi.bsky.social; B. Reinsberg. Comments: Fariborz Zelli

The Sustainable Development Goals at 10: Celebration or Commiseration? Please join us for a half-day special section launch event marking the tenth anniversary of the UN’s 2030 Agenda on Friday 12th September, 14:00 – 17:00 (BST), Bishop’s Dining Suite, Durham Castle & Online. Details here:

Ten years since the UN's adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals & both the agenda and multilateralism are in a sorry state. Join us in-person at Durham Castle or online for a special section launch event on the global governance of the SDGs. To register click here: tinyurl.com/534s96an

Delighted to see this paper out, co-written with Julia Loginovic where we think about what the #SDGs mean. Rather than concern for their apparent failure we argue they do exactly what they're supposed to: commodify and socialise ever more parts of the world under so-called "neoliberal" hegemony ...

📣 New article w/ @iliasalami.bsky.social & @tomchodor.bsky.social on the return of industrial policy globally @globalpolicy.bsky.social. Does this signal a 'New Washington Consensus'? And does the return of industrial policy 'rebuild the ladder' of economic development? 🔗➡️ tinyurl.com/yk2wvttc 1/12

Please join us for the 6th Global Policy North workshop at @uofglasgow.bsky.social on 6-7 November 2025. Details in the CfP. Cc: @globalpolicy.bsky.social; @uofgsps.bsky.social.

Important piece in the guardian that quotes our work on how the petrochemical historical bloc seeks to derail a UN global plastics treaty @jennifer-clapp.bsky.social @policyrelevant.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Ep 6 and final ep of Global Aid Rethink' podcast out now! 🌟 Hosted by Global Politics and Development WG convenors Dr Melita Lazell & @ivicapetrikova.bsky.social this week they're discussing 'the future of aid' w/ @jacktaggart.bsky.social reflecting on recent aid cuts 🌎 👉

Definitely worth a read: how plastics producers are trying to use multistakeholderism to dilute global action on plastic.

@jacktaggart.bsky.social and I have been working together on multistakeholderism, and thinking about how these hybrid forms of governance connect to multilateralism This is an attempt to think through institutional hybridity in global plastics governance www.globalpolicyjournal.com/articles/glo...

Ahead of the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the SDGs, @policyrelevant.bsky.social & @jacktaggart.bsky.social examine the Hybrid Institutional Complex (HIC) of global plastics governance: voluntary, industry‐led multistakeholder initiatives risk entrenching corporate‐friendly governance.

Check out this article by Kavi Abraham, which examines the tension between political inclusion and informal hierarchy found in the Hybrid Institutional Complex (HIC) for sustainable development. A great contribution ahead of the upcoming 10th anniversary of the adoption of the SDGs!

grateful to ISRF for supporting our research on corporate power and the political economy of plastics - it’s great to have funders that continue to support critical scholarship

As we approach additional negotiations on a UN Plastics Treaty, here we sketch the contours of a 'petrochemical historical bloc' that seeks to undermine more ambitious and stringent governance. w/ Peter Dauvergne, @policyrelevant.bsky.social @jennifer-clapp.bsky.social --> doi.org/10.1017/plc....

Excited to see this new piece out on the competing axes of power in the global plastics treaty led by Peter Dauvergne with many awesome collaborators! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @jenirisallan.bsky.social @policyrelevant.bsky.social @jacktaggart.bsky.social @racheltiller.bsky.social

new paper on the 'axes of power' in the global plastics treaty with 18 (!!) stellar colleagues, drawing on our collective expertise / experience of negotiations open access and a great overview of where things stand with 3 weeks to go until the final round of negotiations

Wrote a new piece for @the-breakdown.bsky.social on how the Second Cold War is shaping the future climate and energy transition, including in developing countries www.break-down.org/post/a-green... @campolis.bsky.social @scwobservatory.bsky.social a few quotes in the thread below: 1/6

In this podcast for Global Aid Rethink, I talk UK/USAID aid cuts, the financialisation agenda, challenges facing the OECD-DAC, and the future of foreign aid in a more geopolitical world w/ @ivicapetrikova.bsky.social & Melita Lazell. @researchpodcasts.bsky.social open.spotify.com/episode/29gu...

ICYM @iliasalami.bsky.social @jacktaggart.bsky.social & I wrote a piece for @phenomenalworld.bsky.social about the return of industrial policy, asking if it heralds the return of policy space for development, or just recreates new hierarchies. Check it out 👇 www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/ind...

with the final round of UN plastic treaty negotiations in 4 weeks time, we've written a short piece that sets out the concept of a 'petrochemical historical bloc' to reveal the depth and extent of forces opposing strong global governance of plastic

Happy to have been part of the writing team on this paper on the petrochemial historical bloc and the UN plastics talks with Peter Dauvergne, @policyrelevant.bsky.social & @jacktaggart.bsky.social

"Despite its promise, the revival of industrial policy space cannot be divorced from broader structures of power in the global financial and monetary system." NEW @iliasalami.bsky.social, @tomchodor.bsky.social, and Jack Taggart

New essay on Industrial Policy and Imperial Realignment, co-written with comrades @jacktaggart.bsky.social and @tomchodor.bsky.social for @phenomenalworld.bsky.social www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/ind... @campolis.bsky.social

CfP for the 5th Global Policy North workshop at the University of Edinburgh and hosted by @policyrelevant.bsky.social. Submit your abstracts here and details below: tinyurl.com/awckrjjk

How is Chinese development finance affecting policy space in Sub-Saharan Africa? New article in Journal of International Development by Han Cheng, @marcusjpower.bsky.social & @jacktaggart.bsky.social explores this through the concept of productive incoherence: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

1/ How does Chinese development finance affect policy space across Sub-Saharan Africa? In our new article in the Journal of International Development, Han Cheng, @marcusjpower.bsky.social and I explore this through Grabel’s concept of productive incoherence. 🔗 doi.org/10.1002/jid....

NEW: #OpenAccess article by @DrLeeJones and me in Development and Change: 'International Development Financing in the Second Cold War: The Miserly Convergence of Western Donors and China'. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.... 1/

The New York Times is the first to put out comprehensive estimates on the cost of a year without U.S.A.I.D. and they’re higher than I thought: - 1.65 million deaths from AIDS - 500,000 from lack of vaccines - 550,000 from lack of food aid - 290,000 from malaria - 310,000 from TB

Our February issue is online, featuring incisive work on populism, plastics, gender, tech & int'l cooperation, & more by @frabitz.bsky.social, @nives-dolsak.bsky.social, @policyrelevant.bsky.social, @jacktaggart.bsky.social, @pmhaas.bsky.social & others not on Bluesky! direct.mit.edu/glep/issue/2...

new paper with @jacktaggart.bsky.social in @gepjournal.bsky.social on corporate power, multistakeholderism and the Global Plastics Treaty we contend that multistakeholder partnerships constitute a key hedging strategy for companies facing regulatory pressures to address plastics pollution

Just saw that James Ferguson has died stanforddaily.com/2025/02/19/j... His work from the 1990s with Akhil Gupta on culture, power, place, and identity was hugely influential to me as a young geographer trying to figure out where I wanted to go with my career. Sad news. #Geography #Development.

What does development aid have to do with geopolitics? Quite a lot, as our Research Associate @jacktaggart.bsky.social explains. The end of USAID has captured headlines; read about the long decline of development aid here: t.co/SpO4Cf2ceJ

The crisis facing #USAID is just the latest morbid symptom of the long-term decline of the Western foreign aid project and the liberal international order. Read my latest piece in the Second Cold War Observatory! www.secondcoldwarobservatory.com/dispatch-202...

really important reporting on the multistakeholder initiatives that are delaying action on plastic pollution been working on AEPW with @jacktaggart.bsky.social for a while, and we should have a paper forthcoming on industry ‘hedging’ strategies in the global plastics treaty

Published today @ispjournal.bsky.social (open access): Toward the future of #UnitedNations development work. Our suggestion: UN should embrace differentiated universality and move beyond developed/developing divide. academic.oup.com/isp/advance-... @idos-research.bsky.social, #polisky

Whoever is running this simulation, you're drunk. Take the day off.

To what extent is neoliberal global economic governance transforming in a world where states play greater roles as promoters, supervisors and owners of capital? Find this question answered in Jack Taggart and Ilias Alami's new EJIR article: t1p.de/u4mnc