We are delighted to introduce a new way of gaining insight into our world-class academic research – the Blavatnik School of Government Working Paper Series. The series will cover a broad range of topics related to public policy and challenges of government around the world.

Based on Blavatnik School faculty members’ research activities, the working papers are pre-publication versions of academic articles, book chapters or reviews. They are designed to disseminate results that can advance knowledge and inform debates on specific public policy issues.

With the principal aim of spreading research results to external academic and non-academic audiences, the Blavatnik School of Government Working Paper Series will also help the Blavatnik School and associated academics to share ideas about a topic, encourage feedback on work in progress and protect the author’s intellectual property before formal publication.

Peter Kemp, professor of public policy at the School and series editor, said: "This series provides our talented academics with a platform for getting early versions of their research out into the public domain for comment and debate. It also offers the rest of the world the chance to see the rigorous research that is carried out to inform the work we do on developing practical real world policy solutions.”

We are launching the series with three different articles:

• How do domestic politics shape participation in transnational climate governance?, co-authored by Blavatnik School associate professor Thomas Hale. This paper analyses the scale and impact of transnational climate governance (the groundswell of climate action emerging from cities, companies, civil society groups, and other sub- and non-state actors) and the implications for policy at a national and international level.

• Even constrained governments steal: The domestic politics of transfer and expropriation risks, co-authored by postdoctoral researcher Noel Johnston. The author explores governments’ violation of property rights of foreign investments, with a particular focus on the difference between expropriation (involuntary seizure of foreign-owned assets by the host government) and transfer risk (inability to convert or repatriate hard currency). He shows that transfer risk is on the rise and is being carried out by traditionally “safe” governments. The study is aimed not only at scholars of international policy and economics, but also at lawyers, practitioners and investors who can benefit from rigorous research on phenomena they observe daily.

• How nationalism can promote democracy: Evidence from South and Southeast Asia, co-authored by Blavatnik School professor Maya Tudor. This piece explores the role of nationalist ideologies in providing or denying resources for the consolidation of democracy, and looks closely at the content of such ideologies, bringing two comparisons between Asian countries: India and Pakistan, and Indonesia and Malaysia. The article highlights the democratic dangers of building inequalities into national identities, and is relevant for countries such as Myanmar, currently grappling with democratic transition.

Ngaire Woods, Dean of the Blavatnik School of Government, said: “I’m delighted to be launching the new Blavatnik School of Government Working Paper Series with three superb papers that demonstrate just how varied the range of issues, methods and approaches that we tackle at the School can be: from climate governance to foreign investment and the ideological foundations of democracy. I already look forward to reading more working papers in the coming months.”

Explore the Blavatnik School of Government Working Paper Series section on our website and download the working papers.