As of March 2026, this website is no longer being updated. I now work mainly on climate issues, especially in Brighton and Hove, and new work can be found on the website of Climate:Change, our independent think-tank on socially inclusive action in the City: www.climatechangebh.org.uk.
Meanwhile, however, this website has over 850 entries, mostly representing my work on international development from 2010-2025. Among much else, there are over 50 book reviews, more than 20 papers and training cases on bridging research and policy and on managing think-tanks, nearly 100 articles on climate change, and many papers on other topics, including aid, food security and nutrition, and the future of international development. See ‘Topics and Themes’ for more details. I can be reached at sm@simonmaxwell.net.
Re-imagining EUEuropean Union development aid, ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Blog, Oct. 2007
Imagine the Berlaymont late at night. A full moon hangs in the sky. High up in the building, an office lamp still shines. It illuminates four people. They are sprawled comfortably in armchairs for an intimate conversation. The four lead the EUEuropean Union on international affairs. They are Commission President José Manuel Barroso, two of his commissioners - Benita Ferrero-Waldner and Louis Michel - and High Representative Javier Solana. Their topic is the new European political landscape, following the arrival in office of President Nicolas Sarkozy and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and the June 2007 agreement on the new 'Reform Treaty'.
This quartet believes that, if the EUEuropean Union can profit from the new leadership and streamlined institutions, it will gain renewed vision and energy for its external action...
This article was published in the Bulletin of the Centre for European Reform.
Read more...