dr. (Karim) MKA Kniou

Biography

Profile

Karim Knio (PhD University of Birmingham UK) is Associate Professor in International Political Economy and Governance at the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam. He is currently the Chair of the ISS research group Governance, Law and Social Justice and was the Associate Managing Editor of European Political Science Review (EPSR). His research focuses on the intersection between international political economy, governance and public policy with a particular interest in the literatures on varieties of capitalism, variegated neoliberalism, institutional analysis, politics of crisis management, EU Neighbourhood Policies and Lebanese politics. He is the author of The European Union’s Mediterranean Policy: Model or Muddle? A New Institutionalist Perspective (Palgrave Macmillan 2013), and *The South China Sea and Asian Regionalism: A Critical Realist perspective-*with Thanhdam Truong (Springer 2016). His recent co-edited book (2019) with Bob Jessop entitled, ‘The Pedagogy of Economic, Political and Social Crises: Dynamics, Construals, and Lessons’ is published by Routledge.

Teaching

He is the academic coordinator of the Erasmus Mundus Master’s program in Public Policy (Mundus MAPP) at the Institute of Social Studies, where he teaches the following courses:

• Contemporary Capitalism and Governance: Neoliberalism and Beyond (ISS 4212)
• Thinking about Governance and Institutions (ISS ).
• Politics of Global Development: Debating Liberal Internationalism (ISS 4307).
• Power, Politics and Development (ISS 1104)

Research

His research interests and publication record can be traced along four overlapping tracks:

Track 1 – Governance and Institutional Analysis in the Euro-Mediterranean Area

The first track was a direct spill over from his PhD years and project. It focused on the political economy of EU-Mediterranean relations (the Barcelona process and European Neighbourhood Policy) and general topics in Middle Eastern and Lebanese politics.  His book on the EU-Med relations (The EU Mediterranean Policy: Model or Muddle? A New Institutionalism Perspective, by Palgrave Macmillan 2013);  his article on the rise and fall of the Euro-Mediterranean Development Bank (‘Investigating the two faces of Governance: the case of the Euro-Mediterranean Development Bank’ in Third World Quarterly 2010); and his book chapter on the transformation of Hizballah in Lebanese politics (‘Conceptualising Hizbollah's Transformation in Lebanon’s Post-Cedar Revolution: Proxy Client or Structural Path Dependency?’ in M. Salih (ed) Interpreting Islamic Political Parties, by Palgrave Macmillan 2009) constitute a sample of key publications which reflect the content of this track. Recently, his interests within this track includes gas extraction in the Euro-Mediterranean area.

Track 2 - Political Economy of Crisis, Learning and Institutions

The second track is more focused on the political economy of crises. More specifically, it highlights the implications and prospects of analysing dynamics of different types of crises from a variety of alternative theoretical standpoints. His co-authored book with Thanhdam Truong on the South China crisis (The South China Sea and Asian Regionalism: A Critical Realist perspective, published by Springer 2016); his article on Hezbollah’s crisis of identity after the Syrian revolution against the Assad regime (‘Structure, Agency and Hezbollah: A Morphogenetic View’, in *Third World Quarterly *2010); and his book chapter on the role of EU financial supervision experts amidst the financial crisis of 2008 (‘Role of Experts and Financial Supervision in the EU: The de Larosière Report’, in M. Ambrus, K. Arts, E. Hey, and H. Raulus (eds) The Role of ‘Experts’ in International Decision-making: Advisors, Decision-makers or Irrelevant? (Cambridge, 2014) constitute a sample of key publications which reflect the content of this track. 

**Track 3 – Po