LOUKAS
TSOUKALIS

President of the Board, ELIAMEP, Professor, Sciences Po, Paris, Professor Emeritus, University of Athens
#Honorary Volume Award Ceremony at the University of Athens
#Κeynote speaker at “The State of the Union 2024”
#Conferment of the Order of the Rising Sun by the Government of Japan
LOUKAS TSOUKALIS

LOUKAS TSOUKALIS

About
President of the Board, ELIAMEP, Professor, Sciences Po, Paris, Professor Emeritus, University of Athens

Loukas Tsoukalis was born in Athens. He studied economics and international relations at the University of Manchester, the College of Europe in Bruges, and the University of Oxford where he obtained his doctoral degree and taught for many years. He later became Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration at the University of Athens (1990) and Eleftherios Venizelos Professor at the London School of Economics (1998). Meanwhile, he was part-time director of the economics department and visiting professor at the College of Europe for more than two decades. He has held visiting professorships  at the Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC, the European University Institute in Florence, King’s College London and Harvard University Kennedy School. Additionally, he has advised former Presidents of the European Commission and the European Council.

University of Athens
University of Athens
Jean Monnet Professor of European Organization
London School of Economics
London School of Economics
Professor (Venizelos Chair)
King’s College London
King’s College London
Visiting Professor
College of Europe
College of Europe
Director of European Economic Studies (1983-1999) and Visiting Professor (1980-2018)
SciencesPo
SciencesPo
Visiting Professor (2005-2007) and Professeur affilié (2018-now)
European University Institute
European University Institute
Professorial Fellow, Pierre Werner Chair
St. Antony’s College
St. Antony’s College
Research Fellow (1975-1976) and Lecturer in International Relations (1984-1990)
School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University
School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University
Visiting Professor of European Studies
St Catherine’s College Oxford
St Catherine’s College Oxford
Research Fellow in European Studies
Harvard University, Kennedy School
Harvard University, Kennedy School
Pierre Keller Visiting Professor

BOOKS

LATEST

Europe’s Coming of Age

(Polity Press, 2022) Greek edition also available by Alexandria Editions

European integration has had many successes and failures, Brexit being one of the biggest failures. Despite the setbacks, the EU has been acquiring more functions and members and has now reached a stage where it needs to become a political adult.

Book Cover Europe’s Transformations – Essays in Honour of Loukas Tsoukalis

Europe’s Transformations – Essays in Honour of Loukas Tsoukalis

(Oxford University Press, 2021) Greek edition also available by Papadopoulos Editions

Europe’s transformations is the unifying theme for this collective work that brings together leading academics and policy makers from across Europe and beyond. When the geopolitical tectonic plates are shifting, the sustainability of the Western economic model is under serious challenge, and internal divisions in Europe are deep, we aim to look at the major issues in a ‘big picture’ perspective. We draw lessons from the way Europe has responded or not to changes both within and without in multiple crises in recent years, try to understand what is at stake, and consider alternative policy proposals. All our authors have long experience and widely recognized knowledge of a wide range of issues concerning European integration and Europe’s role in the world. They cross academic and professional boundaries and bring different perspectives as top analysts and policy makers, including two former prime ministers and a former US ambassador to the EU. They come together as friends, colleagues, and former students of Loukas Tsoukalis, celebrating his scholarship and overall contribution to the European public sphere. The volume is divided into three main parts. The first deals with issues of democracy and welfare. The second part deals with major changes in the European balance of power and the balance between institutions. The third part examines changes in the global system and Europe’s present and potential role within it.

PUBLICATIONS

RECENT

Europe and the Remaking of the International System

Αrticle which appeared at the academic journal Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences on Europe and the remaking of the international system. The article was published in a special edition curated by Fudan University in Shanghai, following a workshop held in 2024.

You can read the full article here.

The EU after Brexit

Article in a collective report entitled “The Brexit Files: from referendum to reset” by UK in a Changing Europe (an academic think tank, hosted by King’s College London).

You can read his contribution on ‘The EU after Brexit’ here.
The full report is available here.

Challenges and Opportunities in the New Political Cycle of the European Union

In collaboration with diANEOsis, ELIAMEP  is publishing a report with four expert analyses titled “Challenges and Opportunities in the New Political Cycle of the European Union.” These papers provide a detailed examination of the major challenges post-EP elections in four critical areas: defenseEU enlargement, economic governance and the Stability Pact, and asylum and migration policies.

Read the report here (in Greek).

“Europe 2040: Tomorrow is today”, Report by the European Conclave

The report of the European Conclave entitled “Europe 2040: Tomorrow is Today – Co-Building a Global, Sustainable, and Responsible Power. 17 fundamental issues Europeans need to tackle to remain relevant” has been published today. Prominent personalities from across Europe participate in the project, addressing 17 pivotal questions on the future of the European Union.

Loukas Tsoukalis is a member of the Board of Directors of the Conclave. He was responsible for the geopolitical section of the report.

Read here the full report.

Greece in Europe 2040: Five Scenarios

A special bilingual edition (English and Greek) of the report “Greece in Europe 2040” has been recently released by Papazisis publications. It is the product of a working group consisting of Greek experts on European integration who participated in the project in a personal capacity. Their names and affiliations can be found herewith. The report is part of the White Paper on Greece 2040 produced under the auspices of the ‘Greece 2021’ Committee to mark the 200th anniversary of the Greek War of Independence. Loukas Tsoukalis is the Chair of the Working Group.

 

FORUM

PUBLIC

Keynote speaker at the at the 1st China-Europe Forum on Security Cooperation

Professor Loukas Tsoukalis, was one of the keynote speakers at the China-Europe Forum on Security Cooperation, organised by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing on 17 September 2025. He also spoke at the China-Europe Think Tank Dialogue the previous day.

These two major events were marked by frank exchanges between European and Chinese participants on a wide range of key policy areas, including geopolitics, security, trade, and climate change.

When Europe’s dreams turn into nightmares

With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the collapse of the Soviet empire in central and eastern Europe, and the subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Union, the West led by the United States won the Cold War. The world became unipolar and American hegemony indisputable. As for the Europeans, they saw they had much to gain with peace established on the continent and democratic governance replacing dictatorships, also with the opening up of new markets and the removal of economic borders, with powerful international institutions and common rules. A mild, global version of the European model in other words. This is what Europe’s dreams were made of in the golden age under the protection of the US, which the Europeans wanted to believe would remain generous leaving them space to promote their own interests. In recent years, however, the world has been turned upside down and those European dreams have curdled into nightmares. The worst thing is that Europeans are still struggling to wake up. An openly revisionist Russia started a war in Ukraine because it believes the victors of the Cold War had repeatedly ignored its red lines: yet another proof that it is sometimes easier to win a war than to win peace. A war began in 2022 with Russia invading Ukraine on the very doorstep of the European Union. Lives are being lost by the hundred thousand, Ukraine is being destroyed, and the cost to Europe is enormous. And now the Europeans can only observe from the sidelines, frustrated if not fearful, as President Trump negotiates directly with President Putin. The Europeans are trying to influence developments in any way they can, be it by flattering the hegemon or making economic concessions. But without a realistic plan for the next day or a seat at the negotiating table, even though they will be the ones who will ultimately have to pick up the bill. The other war in the Middle East is turning into a massacre of the Palestinians in Gaza. Mr Netanyahu’s Israel is establishing itself as a superpower in the wider Middle East region; a military superpower that systematically ignores basic rules of international law—a fact on which international institutions, humanitarian organizations, the Israeli opposition and thousands of Jews and others around the world agree on. But nothing seems likely to change as long as Mr Netanyahu continues to enjoy the active support of President Trump, or just being given a kind of carte blanche by the US president. Again, the Europeans are simply watching on, perplexed but also divided. They are unable to impose sanctions of any kind on Israel, or influence developments, primarily because Germany, for historical reasons familiar to all, continues to block any initiatives in this direction along with a few other European countries. History can sometimes play strange games when victims are transformed into persecutors. And Europe is losing its credibility. What European values can it exhort exactly? France, with a few other countries following in its wake, is trying to salvage Europe’s honour by declaring its intention to recognize a Palestinian state. But which Palestinian state? The essence of the US-Europe relationship is also changing. American interest has for some years now pivoted to Asia for geopolitical and economic reasons. And not only. The demographic composition of the US population is also changing due to the steady increase in the proportion of American citizens of Asian and Latin American origin (indeed, many of President Trump’s voters have strong views on this matter). In his second term, the US president is in practice abolishing the distinction between foes and allies, while also establishing unpredictability as a key element of his foreign policy. And he is exacting a high price for US protection.  The Europeans are giving in while hoping for better days to come. A world in which trade, investment, technology and financial transactions are increasingly being turned into instruments of strategic rivalry and political power, a world without rules in which the right of the strongest increasingly prevails, is not a world for which Europe was at all prepared. True, it is trying to adapt and react collectively, because, individually, there is no hope for European countries. Things are definitely on the move, taboos are being broken—on European defence cooperation, for example. But the EU is still moving at a snail’s pace while the world around it presses ahead at high speed. The consensual processes of a (more or less) united Europe are extremely time-consuming, many national governments are weak and, most important of all, Europe suffers from a serious leadership deficit. The image of European leaders at the NATO summit in The Hague and more recently of a smaller number of them assembled at the White House is certainly not one that will convince European citizens that Europe is a political power to be reckoned with, let alone offering a vision to inspire younger generations. And this is where a particularly dangerous vicious circle is set in motion. Europe’s leaders are not rising to the challenge and hence fail to convince their fellow citizens who in turn take more distance away from politics and the crisis of democracy deepens—this may sound rather familiar at home. Europe’s leaders will most likely claim that this is how they have so far avoided the worst. But they probably won’t convince many; indeed, I doubt they would even convince themselves.
K Report