Matthias Matthijs
Dean Acheson Associate Professor of International Political Economy
Faculty Lead, Europe and Eurasia Focus Area
About
Matthias Matthijs holds the Dean Acheson Chair at SAIS and is associate professor of international political economy. His research focuses on the politics of economic crises, the role of economic ideas in economic policymaking, and the politics of regional integration. At SAIS, he teaches courses in international relations and comparative politics, and was twice awarded the Max M. Fisher Prize for Excellence in Teaching, in 2011 and 2015. He is also a Senior Fellow for Europe at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and served as the Chair of the European Union Studies Association (EUSA) from 2019 to 2021.
Matthijs is the editor (with Mark Blyth) of The Future of the Euro, published by Oxford University Press in 2015, and author of Ideas and Economic Crises in Britain from Attlee to Blair (1945-2005), published by Routledge in 2011. The latter is based on his doctoral dissertation, which received the Samuel H. Beer Prize for Best Dissertation in British Politics by a North American scholar, awarded by the British Politics Group of the American Political Science Association (APSA) in 2010.
Matthijs has authored numerous peer reviewed articles that have been published in academic journals including Perspectives on Politics, Politics & Society, Review of International Political Economy, the Journal of Common Market Studies, Governance, Government and Opposition, the Journal of European Public Policy, the Journal of European Integration, Comparative European Politics, and The International Spectator. He has also written multiple articles and essays for Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the Journal of Democracy, Survival, and Current History.
Among various other research and writing projects, he is currently working on a book-length manuscript that delves into the collapse of national elite consensus around European integration.
He previously taught at American University’s School of International Service in Washington, DC from 2008 to 2012, and was a visiting assistant professor of international political economy at SAIS Europe in Bologna, Italy during the spring semester of 2010 and the academic year 2016-17. He has also served as a consultant for the World Bank’s Foreign Investment Advisory Service (FIAS) from 2005 to 2007 and for the Economist Intelligence Unit from 2009 to 2011.
Dr. Matthijs received his BSc in applied economics from the University of Antwerp in Belgium, and his MA and PhD in international relations from Johns Hopkins University.
Google Scholar Profile here.
Matthijs has authored numerous peer reviewed articles that have been published in academic journals including Perspectives on Politics, Politics & Society, Review of International Political Economy, the Journal of Common Market Studies, Governance, Government and Opposition, the Journal of European Public Policy, the Journal of European Integration, Comparative European Politics, and The International Spectator. He has also written multiple articles and essays for Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the Journal of Democracy, Survival, and Current History.
Among various other research and writing projects, he is currently working on a book-length manuscript that delves into the collapse of national elite consensus around European integration.
He previously taught at American University’s School of International Service in Washington, DC from 2008 to 2012, and was a visiting assistant professor of international political economy at SAIS Europe in Bologna, Italy during the spring semester of 2010 and the academic year 2016-17. He has also served as a consultant for the World Bank’s Foreign Investment Advisory Service (FIAS) from 2005 to 2007 and for the Economist Intelligence Unit from 2009 to 2011.
Dr. Matthijs received his BSc in applied economics from the University of Antwerp in Belgium, and his MA and PhD in international relations from Johns Hopkins University.
Google Scholar Profile here.
- “Hegemonic Leadership Is What States Make Of It: Reading Kindleberger in Washington and Berlin,” Review of International Political Economy, 2020. Available online on early view. https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290.2020.1813789
- “Italy and the European Elections of 2019” (with Erik Jones), Journal of Common Market Studies (JCMS) – Annual Review (AR), Fall 2020 – DOI: 10.1111/jcms.13079.
- “Lessons and Learnings from a Decade of EU Crises – Introduction to Special Issue,” Journal of European Public Policy 27 (8), July 2020, pp. 1127-1136.
- “The Right Way to Fix the EU: Put Politics Before Economics,” Foreign Affairs 99 (3), June 2020, pp. 160-170.
- “Mind the Gap: Southern Exit, Northern Voice, and Changing Loyalties since the Euro Crisis” (with Silvia Merler), JCMS: Journal for Common Market Studies 58 (1), January 2020, pp. 96-115.
- “The Euro at Twenty: Reflections,” in Gilbert, Oberloskamp, and Raithel, German Yearbook of Contemporary History: Germany and European Integration (De Gruyter, 2019), Volume 4, pp. 187-199.
- "Rethinking Central-Bank Independence" (with Erik Jones), Journal of Democracy 30 (2), April 2019, pp. 127-141.
- "Ever Tighter Union? Brexit, Grexit, and Frustrated Differentiation in the Single Market and Eurozone" (with Craig Parsons & Christina Toenshoff), Comparative European Politics 17 (2), Spring 2019, pp. 209-230.
- "Of Paradigms and Power: British Economic Policy Making since Thatcher" (with Martin B. Carstensen), Governance 31 (3), July 2018, pp. 431-447.
- "When Is It Rational to Learn the Wrong Lessons? Technocratic Authority, Social Learning, and Euro Fragility" (with Mark Blyth), Perspectives on Politics 16 (1), March 2018, pp. 110-126.
- "Black Swans, Lame Ducks, and the Mystery of IPE's Missing Macroeconomy" (with Mark Blyth), Review of International Political Economy 24 (2), April 2017, pp. 204-231.
- "Integration at What Price? The Erosion of National Democracy in the Euro Periphery," Government and Opposition 52 (2), April 2017, pp. 266-294.
- "Democracy without Solidarity: Political Dysfunction in Hard Times" (with Erik Jones), Government and Opposition 52 (2), April 2017, pp. 185-210.
- "Europe After Brexit: A Less Perfect Union," Foreign Affairs 96 (1), January/February 2017, pp. 85-95.
- "The Euro's 'Winner-Take-All' Political Economy: Institutional Choices, Policy Drift, and Diverging Patterns of Inequality," Politics & Society 44 (3), September 2016, pp. 393-422.
- "The Failure of German Leadership," in Hubert Zimmermann and Andreas Dür (eds.), Key Controversies in European Integration (2nd edition, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), pp. 236-243.
- "Roundtable on Ideational Turns in the Four Subdisciplines of Political Science" (with Jeffrey Checkel, Jeffrey Friedman, and Rogers Smith), Critical Review 28 (2), 2016, pp. 171-202.
- "The Three Faces of German Leadership," Survival 58 (2), April/May 2016, pp. 135-154.
- "Powerful Rules Governing the Euro: The Perverse Logic of German Ideas," Journal of European Public Policy 23 (3), March 2016, pp. 375-391.
- The Future of the Euro (co-edited with Mark Blyth), New York: Oxford University Press, Published Hardcover/Paperback 2015.
- "A Barbarous Relic: The Economic Consequences of the Euro," Challenge 58 (6), December 2015, pp. 477-491.
- “Introduction: The Future of the Euro and the Politics of Embedded Currency Areas” (with Mark Blyth), chapter 1 in Matthias Matthijs and Mark Blyth (eds), The Future of the Euro (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), pp. 1-17.
- “European Integration Past, Present and Future: Moving Forward through Crisis?” (with Craig Parsons), chapter 10 Matthias Matthijs and Mark Blyth (eds), The Future of the Euro (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), pp. 210-232.
- “Conclusion: The Future of the Euro – Possible Futures, Risks, and Uncertainties” (with Mark Blyth), chapter 12 in Matthias Matthijs and Mark Blyth (eds), The Future of the Euro (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), pp. 249-269.
- "The Euro Crisis' Theory Effect: Northern Saints, Southern Sinners, and the Demise of the Eurobond" (with Kate McNamara), Journal of European Integration 37 (2), February 2015, pp. 229-245.
- "Europe Reborn: How to Save the European Union from Irrelevance" (with R. Daniel Kelemen), Foreign Affairs 94 (1), January/February 2015, pp. 96-107.
- "Britain and Europe: The End of the Affair?" Current History 113 (761), 100th Anniversary Issue, March 2014, pp. 91-97.
- "Mediterranean Blues: The Crisis in Southern Europe," Journal of Democracy 25 (1), January 2014, pp. 101-115.
- “The Eurozone Crisis: Growing Pains or Doomed from the Start?” Chapter 14 in Manuela Moschella and Catherine Weaver (eds.), Handbook of Global Economic Governance (Routledge, 2014), pp. 201-217.
- “The Dollar Paradox: America Caught Between Managing Decline and Enjoying Exorbitant Priviliges” Chapter 3 in John Harper (ed.), A Resolute Faith in the Power of Reasonable Ideas, David Calleo Festschrift, SAIS Bologna Center, January 2014, pp. 29-47.
- "David Cameron's Dangerous Game: The Folly of Flirting With an EU Exit," Foreign Affairs 92 (5), September/October 2013, pp. 10-16.
- Ideas and Economic Crises in Britain from Attlee to Blair (1945-2005), London & New York: Routledge, Published Hardcover: 2011; Paperback: 2012.
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