Elliot Posner Ph.D. – Associate Professor of Political Science

Luke Reader Ph.D. – SAGES Lecturer

Dear Colleagues:

It seems that breaking up is hard to do.

A referendum in the United Kingdom voted to exit the European Union 22 months ago (June 23, 2016). After delays for minor problems like the subsequent resignation of British Prime Minister David Cameron, Prime Minister Theresa May on March 29, 2017, invoked Article 50 of the Treaty on the European Union, starting a withdrawal process that would be completed two years later. But that left open the terms of Britain’s future relationship to “Europe,” setting off a complex series of negotiations and posturing that continues now.

On March 19, negotiators for both sides announced a framework for a “transition” between the March 29, 2019 withdrawal date and the end of 2020. But much still needs to be worked out, including endorsement of eventual terms by the U.K. Parliament. So what are the prospects for agreement and its likely terms? That depends on both the EU and UK sides of the negotiations. Professor Posner’s expertise on EU politics will inform his discussion of the EU side, while Dr. Reader’s expertise especially in British party politics informs his discussion of the British side of the negotiations. They will comment and then engage each other and the audience on what might come next, and why. 

A Special Note:

This week’s discussion will be the final meeting of the 2017-18 academic year. The Friday Lunch will begin anew on the first Friday of the Fall 2018 semester, which will be August 31, in the Dampeer Room of Kelvin Smith Library.

I’d like to express my deep appreciation and thanks to and for the kind scholars who stepped up to fill the role of moderator and convenor of the discussions during my absence on sabbatical. Thank you very much to Professors Jon Entin, Peter Haas, Tom Mortimer, and Peter Pesch. I hope they have not set a standard that I will have difficulty matching upon my return – though I am sure they have set a high standard indeed!

I would also like to thank all the others who make the Friday Lunch discussions possible: Angela Sloan and Dr. Arnold Hirshorn for facilitating and making library space available; Jessica Jurcak and Anna Conboy for their work for the Center for Policy Studies; Tim O’Shea, whom participants see every week as the student assistant who takes care of everything on site; and Dr. Andrew Lucker who puts together the weekly newsletter and special announcements of other events.

The meetings would not be possible without Dean Cyrus Taylor’s support for the CPS, but the refreshments would not be as good without further donations by some of the participants. Many thanks to you all!

And of course a discussion is nothing without discussants. So thank you to all this semester’s speakers and to all of you who came and participated.

May the Summer be full of joy and we meet again refreshed and engaged at the end of August.

Very best wishes,
Joe White
Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies

About Our Guests

Elliot Posner’s research focuses on cooperation, soft law, regulatory power and new market formation in the global political arena. His publications on the politics of finance explore the internal sources of the EU’s external power, the changing terms of Transatlantic regulatory cooperation and the distributive effects of international soft law. Voluntary Disruptions: International Soft Law, Finance and Power (Oxford University Press, forthcoming), co-authored with Abraham Newman, is about the impact of non-binding financial regulatory agreements on the United States, the European Union and financial services industry groups. It investigates core theoretical topics about temporality, institutional context and power. The Origins of Europe’s New Stock Markets (Harvard University Press, 2009) is about the EU politics surrounding smaller company finance and venture capital. It addresses classic and new questions about the nature and origins of markets, their relationship to politics and bureaucracy, and institutional change and innovation. His articles and book chapters have appeared in the European Journal of International Relations, Journal of European Public Policy, International Organization, the Review of International Political Economy, World Politics and edited volumes.

He is the recipient of a 2012 European Union Affairs Fulbright research grant and spent the 2011-12 academic year as a visiting scholar at Sciences-Po’s Centre d’études européenes in Paris and at Bruegel, a Brussels-based think tank.

Luke Reader is a lecturer in the English Department at Case Western Reserve University. He received his Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Irvine in 2013, for which he examined the development of imperial and international policy within the British Labour Party between the 1920s and 1940s and its impact on left-wing cultural life. Before teaching at Case Western, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor in the History Department at John Carroll University. Dr. Reader has published in a number of academic and mainstream periodicals, including International History Review and Newsweek. Before graduate school he was a civil servant writing press releases and speeches for different departments of the UK government.

* Kelvin Smith Library requires all entrants to show identification when entering the building, unless they have a university i.d. that they can magnetically scan. We are sorry if that seems like a hassle, but it has been Library policy for a while in response to security concerns. Please do not complain to the library staff at the entrance, who are just doing their jobs.

This week’s meeting is in Room LL06 on the lower level of the library. From the main entrance, visitors can go down the stairway or the elevator one level. A door across from the elevator opens on a corridor, and the entrance to the room is on the right just after entering the corridor.

Parking Possibilities

The most convenient parking is the lot underneath Severance Hall. We regret that it is not free. From that lot there is an elevator up to street level (labeled as for the Thwing Center); it is less than 50 yards from that exit to the library entrance. You can get from the Severance garage to the library without going outside. Near the entry gates – just to the right if you were driving out – there is a door into a corridor. Walk down the corridor and there will be another door. Beyond that door you’ll find the entrance to an elevator which goes up to an entrance right inside the doors to Kelvin Smith Library.