Financial Stability and Energy Security in the Americas and Europe: The Role of Transnational Policy Networks

Thursday, February 14

12–1 p.m. | Welcome Lunch: Global Public Policy, Transnational Policy Communities, and their Networks

Chairs: Vivien A. Schmidt, Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration, Department of International Relations and Director, Center for the Study of Europe, Boston University; and Cornelius Hurley, Director of the Boston University Center for Finance, Law & Policy

What is the role of transnational policy networks in disseminating ideas or norms that bolster prevailing liberal economic policies?

1–3 p.m. | Private Networks and Public Authorities in Financial (In)Stability

How have private and public actors on the two sides of the Atlantic shaped the causal generators and the responses to the post-Lehman financial crisis and the subsequent Great Recession? The panel will focus on how a diverse array of actors (states, central banks, international organizations, epistemic communities, the financial sector, law firms, etc.) have established private and public rules of the game that magnified the risk of financial instability while failing to adequately reform the financial sector after the crisis erupted.

Martin Carstensen, Assistant Professor, Department of Business and Politics, Copenhagen Business School [View on BUniverse]
Aitor Erce Domínguez, Staff Economist, International Financial Agencies and Technical Cooperation Division, Banco de España [View on BUniverse]
Daniela Gabor, Senior Lecturer, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England [View on BUniverse]
Leonard Seabrooke, Professor of Business and Politics, Copenhagen Business School; Professor of International Political Economy, Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation, University of Warwick [View on BUniverse]
Chair: Cornel Ban, Assistant Professor of International Relations, Boston University

3:30–5:30 p.m. | Political Economy of the Latin American Debt Crisis: Lessons for Europe and the US

What was the role of transnational policy networks during the Latin American crises of the 1980s and 1990s and what lessons could be drawn for the European context? Many of the crises in Latin America during this period have been termed “external” debt crises but much of the literature examines the “internal” political economy dynamics that led to external debt. This panel will begin to explore the external part of the equation by specifically examining the extent to which transnational policy networks such as the international investment community coalitions, the International Monetary Fund, epistemic communities, and nongovernmental organizations contributed to the boom, bust, and recovery periods that characterized the Latin American debt crises.

Francisco Gonzalez, Riordan Roett Associate Professor of Latin American Studies, Johns Hopkins University [View on BUniverse]
Angelica Guerra-Baron, Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogota [View on BUniverse]
Barbara Stallings, William R. Rhodes Research Professor, Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University [View on BUniverse]
Judith Teichman, Professor of Political Science and International Development Studies, University of Toronto [View on BUniverse]
Chair: Kevin Gallagher, Associate Professor of International Relations, Boston University

Friday, February 15

9–10:30 a.m. | Public Authority and Transnational Policy Actors and Activists on Climate Change

What is the role of policy networks in European and North American climate change and energy action and politics? These networks may consist of a multitude of public, private, and civil society actors that can be both loosely connected and formally associated. They can operate across local, subnational, national, regional, and international governance levels. The panel examines how major networks form and the multiple ways in which they engage and shape policy developments within and across jurisdictions. Further, the panel explores drivers of policy making and different kinds of relationships between networks of policy leaders and more traditional actors including national governments and the European Union. Finally, the panel discusses key lessons from past and current efforts on networked governance.

Matt Hoffmann, Associate Professor of Political Science and Codirector of the Environmental Governance Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto [View on BUniverse]
Daniel Levy, Chair, Department of Management and Marketing; Director, Center for  Sustainable Enterprise and Regional Competitiveness, UMass Boston [View on BUniverse]
Yuliya Rashchupkina, PhD candidate in Global Governance and Human Security, University of Massachusetts, Boston [View on BUniverse]
Tim Shaw, Research Professor; Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security, and Global Governance, UMass Boston [View on BUniverse]
Chair: Henrik Selin, Associate Professor of International Relations, Boston University

11 a.m.–1 p.m. | Trash, Energy, and Livelihoods

What is the role of transnational policy networks and paradigms in environmental policy and energy innovation in Latin America? Since the 1972 Stockholm Convention, the EU has made support of livelihoods a core component of its sustainable development agenda. Case studies will focus on the use of European funds to convert a Mexican garbage dump into a biogas station while securing livelihoods for evicted residents; the prospects for external support of small-scale collectives in waste collection in Central America; market constraints on the Green Grease restaurant oil–to-diesel biofuels project in Brazil; and challenges and opportunities created by US-Brazil biofuels partnerships.

Emilio Cano, Founder of Ecobanca and Environmental Consultant on Mexico City’s Bordo Poniente Project [View on BUniverse]
Marta Marello, MA candidate, International Relations and Environmental Policy, Boston University [View on BUniverse]
Libby McDonald, Program Director, Global Sustainability Partnerships, Massachusetts Institute of Technology [View on BUniverse]
Natasha Vidangos, Latin American Energy Officer, US State Department
Chair: Ann Helwege, Visiting Associate Professor of International Relations

2–4 p.m. | Post-Crisis Implications for Governance: Public and Private Transnational Networks

What is the role of public and private nonstate actors and policy networks in North American and European regulation and governance? What is the composition of non-state actors in transnational policy networks (TPNs), from NGOs to corporations to standards-setting agencies? To what degree do non-state actors influence the management, decision-making, and rule-making of subnational, national, or international institutions? Under what conditions do TPNs bypass states in favor of private governance solutions? Under what conditions are public-private governance or corporate self-regulation solutions appropriate? Has the global financial crisis slowed or accelerated the rate of transnational private authority in global governance? To what degree is the role of private actors in transnational governance a normative concern of public-private boundaries, corruption, and illicit (or non-democratic) authority?

Clifford Bob, Raymond J. Kelley Endowed Chair in International Relations, Duquesne University [View on BUniverse]
Ed Fogarty, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Colgate University [View on BUniverse]
Stephen Kingah and Marieke Zwartjes, United Nations University, CRIS, Bruge
Josué Mathieu, Researcher – PhD Candidate, Institute for European Studies, Université libre de Bruxelles
Chair: Kaija Schilde, Assistant Professor of International Relations, Boston University

4:30–5:30 p.m. | Concluding Round Table: Active Actor Networks Forging the Future by Linking Financial Stability and Energy

Supported by Boston University’s Center for Finance, Law & Policy and the European Commission’s Framework 7 Global Reordering: Evolution through European Networks (GR:EEN).