Edward Knudsen

Edward Knudsen is a DAAD/AGI Research Fellow in Fall 2024.

Edward Knudsen is a doctoral researcher in international relations at the University of Oxford, a Research Associate for the Centre for International Security at Berlin’s Hertie School, and an Affiliate Policy Fellow at the Jacques Delors Centre. His research focuses on the political economy and economic history of the United States and Europe in the twentieth century, specifically international sanctions, organized labor, and the role of memory in international economic policy. Previously, he worked for the U.S. and the Americas Programme at Chatham House in London. He holds a master’s in international political economy from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a bachelor’s degree with majors in history and economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

His research at AGI will focus on how policymakers understand the legacy of protectionism in the United States, especially the infamous 1930 Smoot-Hawley tariff. Using the concept of historical memory, he examines how specific societal understandings of interwar economic policy were developed, who they benefitted, and who continues to advocate them today. Combining archival research with expert interviews, his research explores how and why we “remember” certain events and not others—as well as what effect this has on contemporary policymaking.

He has published academic articles on political economy and governance in the United States and EU with the journal Global Policy, opinion pieces in outlets like Project Syndicate and the Berlin Policy Journal, and is currently finishing a book on soft power with Oxford University Press. He also hosts the podcast Spaßbremse, a critical take on German politics and history, in English.