2023
Interview with EU Radio
Professor Ludlow was interviewed for a French based radio station to mark the 50th anniversary of Britain’s entry into the EEC. In it, he sheds important historical light on this strange anniversary.
2022
New piece in the International History blog
Professor Piers Ludlow penned a blog post titled 'Kwarteng, Barber and Europe' for the International History blog in September 2022. In it, he parallels the audacious mini-budget, with its extensive tax cuts and its focus on boosting investment and growth with Anthony Barber’s ill-fated ‘dash for growth’ budget in 1972.
2021
Thesis award for former PhD student
Dr Eline van Ommen won the British International History Group’s Michael Dockrill Memorial Thesis Prize for 2021. Her thesis, "Sandinistas Go Global: Nicaragua and Western Europe, 1977-1990", was supervised by Dr Tanya Harmer and Professor Ludlow. The Michael Dockrill Thesis Prize is awarded annually to the best doctoral thesis on any aspect and any period of International History.
2020
New article in The International History Review
“Solidarity, Sanctions and Misunderstanding: The European Dimension of the Falklands Crisis” discusses the success of foreign policy coordination amongst EC member states during the Falklands crisis. However, despite this success, the support received by Britain did not translate into any increase in British public or elite enthusiasm for European integration. Read more
New pieces by Professor Piers Ludlow
Professor Ludlow wrote a piece for the “Europe and the Rhetoric of Crisis” Forum on H/Soz/Kult. He discusses the basic pattern of the EU’s recurrent flirtation with the numerous disasters which have afflicted it since 2009 and suggests that only by invoking imminent doom can a system as cumbersome and risk-averse as the EU be spurred into action. Read the piece here.
He also wrote a piece in the LSE Brexit Blog: “Britain needs friends in the post-Brexit era. Alienating EU allies would be counter-productive” argues that the discussion underway should heed not only to how we go on doing business with our neighbours and foreign partners, but also to the type of strong and structured political relationship which will maximize the chance of our preserving some say in the way in which Europe develops. Read it here.
2019
EU publication: The European Commission, 1986-2000
Professor Ludlow has co-edited and contributed nine chapters to a new volume on the history of the European Commission, The European Commission, 1986-2000. A total of 52 academics and researchers from more than 30 universities and research centres in Europe, the United States and around 15 countries took part in the drafting of this work. Professor Ludlow’s chapters cover topics on the Commission and other EC/EU institutions, on fraud and the budget, on the Northern Irish PEACE programme and on former President of the European Commission Jacques Delors. The whole volume, released by EU publications, is available to download for free here.
"Did we ever really understand how the EU works?"
Professor Piers Ludlow penned a blog post to the LSE Brexit Blog in June 2019. He argues that the Brexit negotiations have highlighted the superficial understanding of the system acquired by much of the UK political class during the four decades spent inside the system. Find out why here.
2018
BBC Radio 4 documentary
Professor Ludlow contributed to a new BBC Radio 4 documentary named “Death of the Postwar Settlement”. The three-episode documentary started airing on 29 October and includes commentary from former Prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair, former Foreign Minister of Poland Radek Sikorski and former US Deputy Secretary for Defense Paul Wolfowitz. The documentary discusses why the international order built after 1945 is now in deep trouble. Listen to the full documentary on the BBC iPlayer (UK only).
LSE Brexit blog post
Professor Ludlow co-authored a blog post based on an event hosted by the Department in June 2018 entitled “British Influence in Brussels: Looking Back and Looking Forward”. Britain had far greater influence in Brussels since 1973 than has been recognised. For decades the UK was a driving and liberalising force when it came to the Single Market, enlargement, competition and trade, as well as foreign policy. Professor Ludlow, Sir Jonathan Faull (Kings College London), and Professor Laurent Warlouzet (Université du Littoral Côte d’Opale) outline the story of this significant and widespread British sway over the EU.
2017
On Brexit negotiations
Professor Ludlow contributed a post to the LSE Brexit blog. He argues that Britain is making the same mistake about the EU now as Harold Macmillan did about the European Community in the 1960s. Only if the UK makes major concessions is progress likely to be made. Read his insights on the Brexit negotiations.
Promotion
Dr Piers Ludlow was officially promoted to Professor on 1 August 2017.
The European Community and the Crisies of the 1960s listed in 100 Books by European Parliament
Dr Piers Ludlow’s second book, The European Community and the Crises of the 1960s: Negotiating the Gaullist Challenge (2006), was included in a list drawn up by the European Parliament of the 100 books that ought to be read about Europe. See it listed here. The European Community and the Crises of the 1960s was published by Routledge in 2006. The book is a detailed study of the European Community's development between 1963 and 1969, with a special focus on the struggle between France and its EC partners over the purpose, structure and membership of the emerging European Community.
2016
On Brexit Outcome
On 21 October 2016, Dr Piers Ludlow contributed an analysis post to KCL’s UK in a Changing Europe Initiative blog, entitled “An Elite Problem Too”. Dr Ludlow argues that Britain’s political elite, including many of those who voted remain, played a part in the Brexit referendum outcome. Read the full post.
On Brexit for the Politheor
On 29 August 2016, Dr Piers Ludlow was interviewed for the latest issue of Politheor: European Policy Network on the future of the European project. Dr Ludlow shares his views on European integration, Brexit and why he thinks that “Brexit is neither the first nor the worst crisis that the EU has confronted”. Read the interview.
LSE Excellence in Education Awards
In June 2016, Dr Piers Ludlow won an LSE Excellence in Education Award with other members of the Department. Designed to support the School’s aspiration of creating ‘a culture where excellence in teaching is valued and rewarded on a level with excellence in research’ (LSE Strategy 2020), the Excellence in Education Awards are made, on the recommendations of Heads of Department, to staff who have demonstrated outstanding teaching contribution and educational leadership in their departments.
Author interview with Dr Piers Ludlow: Portrait of a President In Dr Piers Ludlow’s latest book,
Roy Jenkins and the European Commission Presidency, 1976 –1980: At the Heart of Europe (Palgrave, 2016), he argues that Roy Jenkins brought great talent to Europe’s top job. He played a key role in re-launching European monetary integration, winning the right to attend the new global summits, and smoothing Greece’s path to EC membership. During his tenure as president of the European Commission, Roy Jenkins helped the institution emerge from a period of crisis and laid the foundations for the European Union (EU). In this interview with Peter Carrol for the LSE Review of Books (11 May 2016), Dr Piers Ludlow discusses Jenkins’s legacy in relation to Europe, British politics and how Jenkins’s gregarious personality was both a help and a hindrance in his political career. Read the
full interview. This interview was originally published as a
‘Research Highlights’ feature.