It’s not that simple
It’s not that simple is a podcast by Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation dedicated to major interviews with international personalities linked to politics, economy, and society. Conducted by renowned journalist Pedro Mendonça Pinto, the conversations with our special guests aim to demystify and simplify some of the most fascinating and relevant topics of our time. They will be objective, frontal, informal and informed dialogues to clarify why some issues «are not that simple».
The Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation was founded in 2009 by Alexandre Soares dos Santos and his family to study the country’s major hindrances and bring them to the attention of the Portuguese people. The Foundation’s mission is to promote and expand the objective knowledge of Portugal today, thereby helping to develop society, strengthen the rights of citizens and improve public institutions and to cooperate in endeavors to identify, study and resolve society's problems. The Foundation is independent of political organizations and has no ideological affiliation with any political party. Its work is guided by the principles of human dignity and social solidarity and the values of democracy, freedom, equal opportunities, merit, and pluralism. www.ffms.pt
It’s not that simple
BREXIT with R. Daniel Kelemen
How disastrous was “Brexit”? How much did it affect the United Kingdom’s economy and its living standards? How has it changed the political relationship between the UK and the European Union? Could it ever be reversed? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews R. Daniel Kelemen in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation.
An expert on European Affairs, Kelemen is a Professor of Political Science and Law at Rutgers University, where he is the Chair of the Department of Political Science. Prior to Rutgers, Kelemen was Fellow in Politics at the Lincoln College, University of Oxford. He has been a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, visiting fellow in the Program in Law and Public Affairs (LAPA) at Princeton University, and a Fulbright Fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels. Kelemen is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and he is a frequent commentator on EU affairs in US and international media.
In this episode, Kelemen discusses how the pandemic and the war in Ukraine have masked the negative impact of “Brexit”, the future of the relationship between the UK and Europe, and the role of the British government led by Boris Johnson. Kelemen also addresses the way in which the public’s attitude towards politics increasingly resembles a fan’s attitude towards the football team they root for, and the process of democratic backsliding and increasing authoritarianism in some European Union countries. Finally, Kelemen looks at the 2022 French presidential elections, at how Russia's invasion of Ukraine will unite Europe, and at Putin's efforts to divide it, in a conversation well worth listening to.
• Eurolegalism: The Transformation of Law and Regulation in the European Union, R. Daniel Kelemen, 2011
• R. Daniel Kelemen on the causes, controversies and consequences of Brexit
• An article by R. Daniel Kelemen on authoritarianism in the EU
• R. Daniel Kelemen’ opinion pieces for Politico
Other references in Portuguese
• Podcast Da Capa à Contracapa, “Brexit e a Europa que temos”, with Ana Gomes and Miguel Poiares Maduro.
• Podcast Da Capa à Contracapa, “Eleições numa Europa cada vez mais fragmentada”, with Nuno Sampaio and Carlos Jalali.