Bio
Hartmut Mayer is Steven Muller Professor at SAIS Europe
Fellow and Tutor in Politics (International Relations), St. Peter's College, University of Oxford (since 2002, on leave AY 2024-25)
Professor Mayer has held visiting professorships at the University of Hamburg and GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies (2011-2014), Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo (2010); Wiener Ansprach Visiting Professor at Universite Libre de Bruxelles (2014), and OXPO Visiting Professor at Science Po, Paris (2014). He has also held research positions at the European University Institute, Florence; UPI, Helsinki; SWP, Berlin; JSPS Fellow at Waseda University, Tokyo (2006-07) and at SAIS Johns Hopkins, Bologna. Since 1997 Mayer is Region Head Europe at Oxford Analytica, a political and economic consultancy firm. Prior to his academic career, more than 10 years as a journalist, among others with
DIE ZET,
Sueddeutsche Zeitung and the German Press Agency. Professor Mayer was Director, European Studies Centre, University of Oxford, St. Antony's College (2017-2022), Acting Director, EUROPAEUM (2017-2020), Executive Chair, EUROPAEUM (2020-2024), and a member of the Oxford University Board of Alumni Relations. He received his D.Phil. (i.e. PhD) in International Relations, University of Oxford (St. Antony's College); M.Phil. in International Relations, Cambridge University (Gonville and Caius College); M.A.L.D., Fetcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University; and (Zwischenpruefung) Freie Universität Berlin.
Professor Mayer has written articles in various journals such as
South African Journal of International Affairs, Journal of European Integration, and
International Affairs.
Courses
- Risk in International Politics & Economics
The purpose of this course is to help students work through the challenge of understanding risk in international political and economic relations. That challenge is both methodological and substantive. Students will have to tackle ‘how’ we understand and ‘what’ we understand at the same time. Along the way, they will have to consider those things we cannot understand or anticipate with any meaningful degree of precision. They will have to deal with the ‘uncertainty’ that lies beyond the boundaries of ‘risk’. The subject matter is open-ended. Virtually every aspect of politics or economics can be cast in terms of risk and uncertainty, no matter whether we look to the future or reflect upon the past. Therefore, the course builds on a thematically structured, case study approach. Each week introduces a new principle that is useful in understanding risk; each week provides cases that illustrate the usefulness of that new principle. Moreover, as our understanding of risk becomes more sophisticated, the cases become more complex. The
ultimate goal is to be able to analyze matters of risk and uncertainty as they manifest around decisions taken by leaders in government or business in the real world.
- Risk in International Politics and Economics
This is a course on social science research methods as they apply to decision-making under conditions of uncertainty. In other words, it looks at how the skills of a social scientist can be put to use in the ‘real world’. The course begins by looking at how decision makers anticipate future events, it explores what evidence they consider and what they ignore, and it looks at the standard models they apply in projecting the future based on the present. The case studies applied in this early part of the course focus on seemingly straightforward economic and financial questions. The problem is that most of the predictions that were made in these areas ended in disaster. Hence the course turns to explore the bias that is built into estimates of the future to understand whether the problem lies in the way the world works or in how we try to understand it. It introduces students to a conceptual vocabulary based on systems theory to make it easier to build more complex relationships into the analysis. And it explores the unintended consequences of policy decisions. Here the case studies move from economics to politics and from crisis to stagnation. This does not offer much of an improvement. Therefore the course makes a third analytic turn to bring the dynamics of human interaction more firmly into focus. It looks at negotiation, communication, and culture as possible sources of error or misunderstanding. The case studies focus on conflict, terrorism, and popular protest. By the end of the course students have a better grasp of where their predictions are likely to falter. They will also understand why such predictions must nevertheless be made. Risk in the international political economy derives from decision-making under conditions of uncertainty. The problem is that uncertainty is inevitable, but decisions must be made regardless of this.
- Foreign Policy Analysis
This course aims both to introduce the subject of Foreign Policy Analysis to those who have not studied it before, and to allow those with some existing familiarity the opportunity to develop their understanding to an advanced level, and in particular to apply concepts to the countries and cases of their choice. It should also provide a good foundation for those intending to write their dissertations on any aspect of foreign policy or of decision-making. In making agency its main concern it provides an essential complement to courses in International Relations (usually the majority) which focus on structural or system-wide features. (T&H)
- Europe in the World
The course offers both a general introduction and a more in-depth approach to the way in which the European Union (EU) acts in international relations. It is meant to provide a balanced analysis of all the main issues involved inside as well as outside Europe proper, and to stimulate the students to address specific themes while giving them a flavor of how policy is actually made in Brussels.
