Policy Briefs & Testimonies

The Albert H. Gordon Lecture focuses on the fields of finance and public policy with special attention to the internationalization of finance. This year’s fall 2013 Gordon lecturer was Lucas Papademos. Lucas Papademos served as prime minister of Greece from 2011 to 2012, leading a government of national unity during the most difficult phase of the Greek debt and economic crisis. Previously, he was vice president of the European Central Bank (2002–2010) and governor of the Bank of Greece (1994–2002). The lecture titled, The Political Economy of Banking Union and Finance in Europe was presented on December 2, 2013.

"...[A]bsent an overwhelming threat, the Europeans have had little reason to maintain their economic union. This is not to argue that the demise of the Soviet Union has given them a reason to dismantle the EU—only that it has removed their incentive to preserve it. Consequently, the EU has started to fray as member states have put national interests ahead of those of the union."

The swiftness with which the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has launched its civil nuclear program presents a number of challenges for policymakers in seeking to ensure the program's safety and security. At the onset of its efforts, the UAE government consulted with a set of the world's leading nuclear suppliers to develop a framework that would help its nuclear program conform to the highest standards in terms of safety, security, and nonproliferation. The UAE drew on these consultations in making a sweeping set of international commitments in April 2008 to ensure that the sensitive nuclear materials and technologies it would acquire as part of its nuclear program would be securely controlled.1 While the UAE has been widely praised for the depth and breadth of the nonproliferation commitments it has made, it will be the UAE's efficacy at complying with them by which its success will be judged.