Bio
Erik Jones is Professor of European Studies and International Political Economy
Director of European and Eurasian Studies
Director, Master of Arts in Global Risk at SAIS Europe
Erik Jones is Director of European and Eurasian Studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of the Johns Hopkins University. He is also Senior Research Associate at the Istituto per gli studi di politica internazionale (ISPI), Milan. Professor Jones teaches on topics in international and comparative political economy with a particular focus on Europe and the transatlantic relationship.
Professor Jones is a frequent commentator on European politics and political economy whose contributions have been published in, among others,
Financial Times, New York Times, USA Today, and newspapers and magazines across Europe. He has written extensively on European monetary integration and macroeconomic governance and has been active in public debates about the European response to the global economic and financial crisis. Professor Jones is co-editor of
Government and Opposition and he is a contributing editor to the Institute for International and Strategic Studies journal
Survival.
Jones earned his AB at Princeton University (1988) and his MA and PhD at Johns Hopkins SAIS (1990, 1996). Prior to joining the faculty at Johns Hopkins, he worked at the Centre for European Policy Studies, the Central European University and the University of Nottingham. A US citizen, Jones has lived in Europe for the last twenty-five years. For a recent curriculum vitae including a full list of publications,
see personal webpage
Courses
- International Political Economy
The course provides students with knowledge of and insight into political economy as a way of thinking and the substantive debates concerning the mutual interaction of economic dynamics and patterns of governance, including those pertaining to the relationship between various types of political behavior (e.g. voting, lobbying, protesting, media campaign, party politics) and economic change (e.g. globalization, (financial) market integration, labor market integration through migration, economic development). Students should thus emerge from the course with a sound understanding of how political economy developed as the integrated way of understanding society that we recognize as the contemporary field today. (Crossed listed International Political Economy/International Relations) (T&H)
- Movement Towards European Unity
This course offers an introduction to the historical development of the European Community and the European Union. That said, the perspective I adopt is grounded more solidly in political science and political economy rather than history. My argument is that European integration can be explained as a function of three types of variables: Ideas, events, and “unintended consequences”. The analytic claim is that European integration started and is perpetuated to shore up the weaknesses of individual nation-states and of the national state system. If European integration is failing, therefore, that is because of the relationship between the European Union and its member states is breaking down.
- Risk in International Politics and 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.
The course also includes a companion seminar series that involves a mix of conversations about ideas, experience, and careers in risk management. The course and companion seminar series was inspired and is supported by SAIS Bologna Center Advisory Council Member Robert S. Singer and builds on his experience as Chief Financial Officer at Gucci, and Chief Executive Officer at Abercrombie & Fitch and Barilla Holding S.p.A. (Crossed listed International Political Economy/International Relations) (T&H)
- European Financial Markets
The purpose of this course is to encourage students to develop a deeper understanding of European financial market integration. The course begins with the completion of the internal market in the late 1980s and ends with current efforts to form a European banking union. Along the way, it introduces both common institutions and distinctive national frameworks. It also looks at how regulations promulgated within Europe interact with those developed at the global level. Students should have a good understanding of Macroeconomics. Some background in international monetary theory and corporate finance would be advantageous but is not required. (Cross listed European and Eurasian Studies/International Political Economy)
