As of March 2026, this website is no longer being updated.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.
We need to talk about Europe
We need to talk about Europe
‘We need to talk about Europe’ was published on 5 November by Open Democracy. It is an exchange, a conversation in the form of three letters, between me and Anthony Barnett, prompted by his new book, ‘The Lure of Greatness: England’s Brexit and America’s Trump: Why 2016 blew away the World Order, and how we must Respond’.
Find out why Anthony thinks English nationalism drove the Brexit vote, why he thinks the way the argument to remain was made was cowardly and evasive, and why I think this is a ‘flamethrower of a book’. We touch on the ‘great intractables’ of global governance, and debate the balance between culture and calculus in collective action. We weigh the instrumental case for remaining in the EU. And we discuss whether Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel hold the key to the UK remaining in the EU.
The exchange between us can be read here, and comments can also be made. The Lure of Greatness is published by Unbound.