In our very first episode in our series Beyond Neo-liberalism, our host Hagen Schulz-Forberg sits down with political scientist Michael Zürn as they explore the intersections of global governance and international relations in the current political climate. The two discuss Zürn’s work with the analytical categories of NALFI (Normativity, Authority, Liberalism, Fragmentation, Inequality), democratic regression and the tensions between national democracy and transnational authorities.
Are we moving beyond our traditional understandings of Global Governance? Do transnational authorities have too big of a grasp on national democracies? Are we moving towards a post-democracy understanding of international relations? If so, what will happen?
This episode is hosted by Hagen Schulz-Forberg.
Michael Zürn, Hagen Schulz-Forberg; The Shifting Tides of Global Governance—A Conversation with Michael Zürn. Global Perspectives 2 January 2026; 7 (1): 159010. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/gp.2026.159010
Chapter 1: [00:00-10:00] Is Global Governance Dead?
Chapter 2: [10:00-19:00] The Rise of Authoritarian Populism and the Intricacies of The Rule of Law
Chapter 3: [19:00-43:51] Normative Questions, Questions of Authority, Questions of Liberalism, Fragmentation, and Inequality (NALFI) as a Conceptual Grib to Understand Contemporary Governance
3.1: [20:57-27:20] Normativity
3.2: [27:20-33:40] Authority
3.3: [33:40-38:47] Liberalism
3.4: [38:47-40:40] Fragmentation
3.5: [40:40-43:51] Inequality
Chapter 4: [43:51- 52:55] Can We Move Beyond the Traditional Understandings of IR/Global Governance?
Chapter 5: [52:55 – 01:06:38)] Three Scenarios for the Future
5.1: [52:55-56:05] International Regulation and Open Economy
5.2: [56:05-01:04:39] Repetition of East-West Conflict
5.3: [01:04:39-01:06:38] Warfare, Economic Crashes, and Environmental Crises
Hanson, Stephen E. and Jeffrey S. Kopstein. 2024. The Assault on the State - How the Global Attack on Modern Government Endangers Our Future. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Locke, John. 1823. “Two Treatises of Government.” In the Former, The False Principles and Foundation of Sir Robert Filmer, and His Followers, Are Detected and Overthrown: The Latter, Is an Essay Concerning the Original Extent, and End, of Civil Government. New ed. Vol. V. London: Printed for Thomas Tegg, W. Sharpe and Son, G. Offor, G. and J. Robinson, J. Evans and Co.
Marshall, Catherine, and Céline Roynier, eds. 2024. Twenty-First Century Perspectives on the Scholarship of AV Dicey: The Enduring Legacy of a Victorian Constitutionalist. 1st ed. Oxford: Hart Publishing. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781509975105.
OECD (2024), PISA 2022 Results (Volume V): Learning Strategies and Attitudes for Life, PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/c2e44201-en.
Schäfer, Armin, and Michael Zürn. 2024. The Democratic Regression: The Political Causes of Authoritarian Populism. Translated by Stephen Curtis. London: Polity Press.
Tilly, Charles. 2010 [1985]. “War Making and State Making as Organized Crime.” In Bringing the State Back In, edited by Peter Evans, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, and Theda Skocpol. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Zürn, Michael. 2018. A Theory of Global Governance: Authority, Legitimacy, and Contestation. 1st ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198819974.001.0001.
Zürn, Michael. 2026. “Charting Global Futures: a Configurative Perspective on International Order.” The Chinese Journal of International Politics 19 (1): 42-63. https://doi.org/10.1093/cjip/poaf018.
Zürn, Michael, and Matthew Stephen. 2010. “The View of Old and New Powers on the Legitimacy of International Institutions.” Political Studies Association Vol. 30, (S1): 91-101. Berlin: Social Science Research Center.
In the latest episode of Beyond Neo-liberalism, our host Hagen Schulz-Forberg is joined by political scientist and executive director, Fabrizio Tassinari, as we explore his work at European University Institute’s School of Transnational Governance and his works on developing new forms of diplomatic training, suitable for an age of planetary poly-crisis.
Throughout the episode we explore questions of what it means to educate our future diplomats in times of planetary crisis, what is left of the old forms of transnational governance and what can guide future visions of global governance.
This episode is hosted by Hagen Schulz-Forberg.
Fabrizio TassinariHagen Schulz-Forberg; Rethinking Education for Transnational Governance. Global Perspectives 2 January 2026; 7 (1): 158897. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/gp.2026.158897
Chapter 1: [00:00–14:24] The Foundation of a Transnational Governance School
Chapter 2: [14:25-23:11] The Ethics of Educating on an International Institutional Level
Chapter 3: [23:12-25:34] Language Use on an Institutional Level
Chapter 4: [25:35-53:35] Transferring Institutional Policies towards Planetary Thinking
Chapter 5: [53:36-58:06] Wrapping up the Education for Transnational Governance
European University Institute. 2026. “Young African Leaders Programme.” School of Transnational Governance. https://www.eui.eu/en/academic-units/school-of-transnational-governance/stg-fellowships/young-african-leaders
Garicano, Luis, Bengt Holmström, and Nicolas Petit. 2025 The Constitution of Innovation: A New European Renaissance. https://constitutionofinnovation.eu/
Blake, Jonathan, and Nils Gilman. 2024. Children of a Modest Star. Planetary Thinking for an Age of Crises. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Gilman, Nils. 2025.“Planetarity and the Future of Diplomacy.” Small Precaution. https://nilsgilman.substack.com/p/planetarity-and-the-future-of-diplomacy
Giuashvili, Tinatin, and Fabrizio Tassinari. 2024. Beyond Geopolitical Europe. STG Policy Brief No. 2024/1. Florence: European University Institute, School of Transnational Governance. https://hdl.handle.net/1814/76389
Tassinari, Fabrizio. 2022. The Pursuit of Governance: Nordic Dispatches on a New Middle Way. Newcastle upon Tyne: Agenda Publishing.
Tassinari, Fabrizio. 2009. Why Europe Fears Its Neighbors. 1st ed. Westport, CT: Praeger Security International. https://doi.org/10.5040/978216035633
Tassinari, Fabrizio, and Nathalie Tocci Milanese, eds. 2024. An Enlarged Europe as a Civilization of Consent: Can Europe Be a Laboratory for a New Planetary Politics? STG Policy Brief. Florence: European University Institute, School of Transnational Governance and Berggruen Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/1814/76822
U.S. Department of State. 2026. “Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI)”. https://yali.state.gov/
In the third episode of our new season, Global Governance Beyond Neoliberalism, we sit down with Vladimir Pacheco Cueva, Associate Professor in the Global Studies Department at Aarhus University.
Drawing on research in political economy and social policy, with a particular focus on Latin America, Cueva takes us through one of the most striking economic experiments of recent years: El Salvador’s adoption of Bitcoin under President Nayib Bukele.
Together with our host, Hagen Schulz-Forberg, the two explore what this unprecedented crypto-project means for governance, development, financial sovereignty, and everyday life in a country marked by political disruptions and environmental fragility. From the promises of innovation to the risks of deepening inequality, Cueva helps us understand how El Salvador’s Bitcoin project fits into longer histories of neoliberal reform and what its trajectory might reveal about the future of post-neoliberal politics across the region.
This episode is hosted by Hagen Schulz-Forberg.
Vladimir Pacheco Cueva, Hagen Schulz-Forberg; Bitcoin Nation? Assessing El Salvador’s Crypto Experiment. Global Perspectives 2 January 2026; 7 (1): 158699. doi: doi.org/10.1525/gp.2026.158699
Chapter 1: [00:00-09:05] Explaining Bitcoin Nation — El Salvador and the Global Conditions Behind Its Emergence
Chapter 2: [09:05-22:05] Bitcoin in Today’s Political and Economic Climate
Chapter 3: [22:05-28:15] Bitcoin Beach — A Local Experiment with Global Implications
Chapter 4: [28:15-42:16] Bitcoin’s Prospects as a Medium of Exchange
Chapter 5: [42:16-46:44] Energy Use and Planetary Implications of Bitcoin
Berger, P.L., and Michael H. Hsin-Huang, eds. 1988. In Search of an East Asian Development Model. 1st ed. Routledge. https://doi-org.ez.statsbiblioteket.dk/10.4324/9781003575719
Cueva, Vladimir Pacheco. 2024. “Anti-ideology in El Salvador? Continuities and discontinuities in a radicalised and environmentally fragile country.” In Ideology, Post-Ideology and Anti-Ideology in Latin America: Reflections from the Last Decade. 1st ed., edited by Baisotti, P. and Lagos Rojas, 157-158. London: Bloomsbury Publishing plc.
Freedman, Camilo. 2025. “’They turned our home into a cemetery’: the high price of El Salvador’s Bitcoin City dream.” The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/mar/12/el-salvador-bitcoin-city-mangroves-president-nayib-bukele
Kenen, Peter. 2008. “Bretton Woods System.” In The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Edited by Steven N. Durlauf and Lawrence E. Blume. 2 ed. Palgrave Macmillan.
Kim, Eun Mee. 1998. The Four Asian Tigers: Economic Development and the Global Political Economy. 1st ed, Emerald Publishing.
Nakamoto, Satoshi. 2008. “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.” SSRN eLibrary http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3440802
University of Cambridge. n.d. “Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index.” University of Cambridge: Centre for Alternative Finance. https://ccaf.io/cbnsi/cbeci
In this special Symposium edition of our podcast series Beyond Neo-Liberalism, we dive into Anna Schwenck’s monograph, Flexible Authoritarianism, alongside a panel of leading scholars: Jeremy Morris, Greg Yudin, and Johanna K. Bockman.
How do ambition, loyalty, status, and inequality take shape inside an authoritarian regime? Can neoliberal aspirations thrive under authoritarian rule? And how does everyday life—and innovation—unfold within a war-driven economy? Our guests unpack these questions, debate the concepts we use to understand Russian society today, and offer fresh perspectives on authoritarianism, social change, and resistance.
Chapter 1: [00:00–21:32] An Introduction to Flexible Authoritarianism by Anna Schwenck
Chapter 2: [21:33-42:36] Jeremy Morris: An Epistemological Comparison to the Russian Authoritarian Regime
Chapter 3: [42:37-53:05] Johanna Bockman: Stating Arguments and Clarifying Questions on Disputed Themes in the Book
Chapter 4: [53:06-1:07:04] Greg Yudin: Contents and Concerns with Flexible Authoritarianism as a Concept
Chapter 5: [1:07:05-1:39:16] Discussing the Nuances
Schwenck, Anna. Flexible Authoritarianism: Cultivating Ambition and Loyalty in Russia. Oxford University Press, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197751589.001.0001.
Morris, Jeremy. Everyday Politics in Russia: From Resentment to Resistance. 1st ed., Bloomsbury Academic, 2025, https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350509351.
Yudin, Greg. Governing Through Polls: Politics of Representation and Presidential Support in Putin’s Russia. Javnost (Ljubljana, Slovenia), vol. 27, no. 1, 2020, pp. 2–16, https://doi.org/10.1080/13183222.2020.1675434.
Bockman, Johanna. Markets in the Name of Socialism: The Left-Wing Origins of Neoliberalism. 1st ed., Stanford University Press, 2011. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804778961.
John Schumpeter? (mentioned by Greg around 56 minutes in, that should be in Anna’s book)
Schumpeter, Joseph Alois. The Theory of Economic Development: An Inquiry into Profits, Capital, Credit, Interest, and the Business Cycle. 8. print., Transaction Publ., 2002.
Hemment, Julie, and Project Muse Content Provider. Youth Politics in Putin’s Russia: Producing Patriots and Entrepreneurs. Indiana University Press, 2015.
Quinn Slobodian
Glasius, Marlies. Authoritarian Practices in a Global Age. Oxford University Press, 2023.
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