Todd Tucker heads up the Institute's new programme on trade and global governance.
We need more scholarly attention and systematic policy work drawing out the domestic implications of the global economic governance system, and in particular its judicialised parts.
Todd Tucker
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has been appointed a fellow at the prestigious Roosevelt Institute where he will lead a new programme on trade and global governance.
Todd Tucker [2012], who did his PhD in Development Studies, took up his appointment at the think tank whose chief economist is the Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz in July.
He is especially interested in how international treaties affect domestic law, politics, and economics – and vice versa.
He says: "The moment demands big new ideas in this space. From investor-state dispute settlement, to the World Trade Organization, to even the US Supreme Court’s forays into foreign affairs, the manner in which countries integrate has become heavily judicial and less susceptible to normal democratic influence. At the same time, corporations have more choices than ever about where to locate, produce, and incorporate. If they’re willing to “lawyer up,” a US company can become a Swiss company or a Hong Kong company, shopping for the best treaties and protections from governments. Meanwhile, domestic political actors are as suspicious as ever about foreign entanglements and actors. How these trends get reconciled (or not) will shape the course of the 21st century.
"Some have called this domestic-global impasse global “gridlock,” a regime complex, or “G-Zero” (where no country dominates decision-making). We need more scholarly attention and systematic policy work drawing out the domestic implications of the global economic governance system, and in particular its judicialised parts. That’s what I hope to do at the Roosevelt Institute."
Todd's PhD dissertation focused on the implications of the investor-state dispute settlement system for development policy.
For more on what Todd's research at the Roosevelt Institute will cover, click here.
Todd Tucker
- Alumni
- United States
- 2012 PhD Development Studies
- Queens' College
After graduating from Cambridge’s Development Studies M.Phil. programme in 2002, I worked at Public Citizen and CEPR in DC. There, I worked to ensure that U.S. policies allow countries to grow adequately and sustainably. In the fall of 2012, I will begin writing my PhD dissertation on the implications of the investor-state dispute settlement system for development policy. Few social scientists have studies this mechanism – whereby corporations can sue governments over financial and environmental policies. Rightsizing these agreements – mostly written before recent natural and man-made disasters reminded us of the virtues of sensible public interest safeguards – will be one of the central tasks for international governance in the 21st century. I hope to help train the next generation of policymakers, business leaders and advocates on how to design democratically accountable and effective global solutions to our most pressing problems, from climate change to income inequality.
