SWFsEUROPE
About SWFsEUROPE
The number and size of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) has grown substantially in the last decade, leading to an unsettled debate regarding their legitimacy in the global political economy, particularly as many originate from the Global South and from illiberal political economies (e.g. China).
Some suggest they represent the (re)emergence of state-led capitalism subject to geopolitical motivations that threaten free markets. For others, SWFs represent a source of long-term patient capital capable of mitigating market short-termism. Either way, SWFs challenge the norm, particularly in the Global North, that financial markets are spaces of exchange for non-state actors. By analyzing the behavior of SWFs, their interaction with different stakeholders at home and abroad, and how they are legitimized as financial actors in the global political economy, SWFsEUROPE will provide new critical insights into the contemporary relationship between the state and the market.
Recent news
New podcast on Uneven and Combined (State) Capitalism
Ilias Alami and Adam Dixon spoke with Nick Jepson about their recent talk at the Global Development Institute. The talk contributes to the development of state capitalism as a reflexively critical project focusing on the morphology of present-day capitalism, and...
A new Washington Consensus on the role of the state?
Ilias Alami and Adam Dixon, along with Emma Mawdsley of Cambridge University, have published a blog post with the Developing Economics State Capitalism blog series, discussing their recent paper with Antipode. The post engages with a recent editorial in the Financial...
State Capitalism and the New Global D/development Regime
Ilias Alami and Adam Dixon, along with Emma Mawdsley of Cambridge University, have just published a new paper in the journal Antipode, entitled State Capitalism and the New Global D/development Regime
Interview on Doing FAIR Open Science Research
Imogen T. Liu was interviewed by Maastricht University on the process of implementing the FAIR open science principles for her PhD research. She details the challenges for qualitative researchers in making data FAIR, such as when working with elite interviewees and...
Ilias Alami interviewed for Poliko podcast
Ilias Alami was interviewed by David Karas for the podcast series Poliko on the topic of 'Marxist state theory for de-orientalizing state capitalism'. In the podcast Ilias argues that we should reject a Western liberal Orientalizing discourse, which locates state...
Guest lecture @ Global Development Institute Manchester
Ilias Alami and Adam Dixon gave a lecture on Uneven and Combined (State) Capitalism at the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester on 3 March 2021. The lecture presented work that contributes to the development of state capitalism as a reflexively...
Chapter on the China Investment Corporation in the Sovereign Wealth Funds Report 2020
Imogen T. Liu and Adam D. Dixon have contributed a chapter on the China Investment Corporation in the Sovereign Wealth Funds Report 2020 published by the Centre for Global Governance and Change at IE University, Spain. The chapter, titled, 'The great experiment: China...
New post at Developing Economics on strategic investment funds
Adam Dixon has published a blogpost based on his recent paper with Journal of Contemporary Asia at the Developing Economics State Capitalism blog series. The blog series is co-edited by SWFsEUROPE team member, Ilias Alami.
Contribution to Wilson Center Africa Program Year in Review
Adam Dixon contributed a short piece to the Wilson Center Africa Program's Year in Review. The piece discusses recent efforts at establishing a SWF in Mozambique. While there may be reasons to establish a SWF to manage natural resource revenues, most successful SWFs...
Blog post on Chinese state capital in Serbia
Imogen T. Liu has written a blog post on Chinese state capital in Serbia for the Developing Economics state capitalism series. Imogen argues that the penetration of Chinese state capital in Serbia, notably through infrastructure, contributes to the stabilisation of...
Funders and partners
SWFsEUROPE is a five-year research project titled Legitimacy, Financialization, and Varieties of Capitalism: Understanding Sovereign Wealth Funds in Europe. The project is hosted at Maastricht University and a recipient of funding from the European Research Council.