Charles Grant, Director

Charles Grant studied modern history at Cambridge University. He then took a diploma in French politics at Grenoble University. Returning to London, Grant joined Euromoney, the financial magazine, in 1981.

He moved to The Economist in 1986, where he wrote about the City. In 1987 he began a series of articles which exposed the County NatWest-Blue Arrow scandal, which led to two Department of Trade and Industry inquiries and a long criminal trial. In 1988, together with David Goodhart, he wrote Making the City work, a Fabian booklet which proposed a reform programme for Britain's financial markets.

In 1989 The Economist posted Grant to Brussels, to cover the European Community. In 1992 his writing on economic and monetary union won the Adelphi Foundation's Prix Stendhal. In 1993 Grant returned to The Economist’s London office, soon becoming defence editor. His biography of Jacques Delors (Delors: Inside the House that Jacques Built, Nicholas Brealey) was published in 1994. It was subsequently translated into French, Japanese and Russian.

In 1996 Grant helped to set up the Centre for European Reform, an independent think-tank that is dedicated to promoting a reform agenda within the European Union. In January 1998 Grant left The Economist to become the first director of the Centre for European Reform. He is the author of many CER publications, including, most recently, Preparing for the multipolar world: European foreign and security policy in 2020 (2007); Can Europe and China shape a new world order? (2008); Liberalism retreats in China (2009); Is Europe doomed to fail as a power? (with a response by Robert Cooper, 2009); and Cameron’s Europe: can the Conservatives achieve their EU objectives? (2009).

Grant is a regular contributor to the Financial Times, the Guardian and many other publications. He was a director and trustee of the British Council from 2002 to 2008. He is a member of the international advisory boards of the Moscow School of Political Studies, the Turkish think-tank EDAM and the French think-tank Terra Nova. In 2004 he became a chevalier of France’s Ordre Nationale du Mérite. Hobbies include hill-walking and music.

Main areas of expertise: Russia, European foreign and defence policy, Transatlantic relations, China's relations with the West, the future of Europe debate, and the euro. 

CER publications

• India's response to China's rise
  policy brief by Charles Grant, August 2010
  
  
• Is China being beastly to foreign investors?
  (CER insight article, 30 July 2010)
  
  
• The US-China 'reset': An opportunity for the EU
  (bulletin article August/September 2010)
  
  
• Will the Conservatives' charm offensive endure?
  (bulletin article June/July 2010)
  
  
• The new Commission's economic
  philosophy
  (policy brief with Katinka Barysch, Simon Tilford and Philip Whyte, February 2010)
  
  
• How should Europe respond to China's strident rise?
  (bulletin article, February/March 2010)
  
  
• China's peaceful rise turns prickly
  (CER insight article, 22 January 2010)
  
  
• Cameron's Europe:
  Can the Conservatives achieve their
  EU objectives?
  (essay, December 2009)
  
  
• An open letter to David Cameron
  (bulletin article, December 2009/January 2010)
  
  
• What to do about the Lisbon treaty?
  Four options for the Conservatives
  (policy brief, November 2009)
  
  
• Europe leaves behind the era of
  treaty change
  (bulletin article, October/November 2009)
  
  
• The Czechs will probably ratify the Lisbon treaty this year
  (CER insight article, 2 October 2009)
  
  
• Carl Bildt and the cost of speaking plainly
  (CER insight article, 21 July 2009)
  
  
• Liberalism retreats in China
  (briefing note, July 2009)
  
  
• Is Europe doomed to fail as a power?
  (essay, July 2009)
  
  
• Can Russia contriubte to global governance?
  (CER insight article, 17 June 2009)
  
  
• Winners and losers in the new geopolitics
  (bulletin article, June/July 2009)
  
  
• Making a success of the EAS
  (CER insight article, 21 May 2009)
  
  
• Will Spain remain a small country?
  (briefing note, May 2009)
  
  
• A thaw between Russia and the West?
  (CER insight article, 13 February 2009)
  
  
• Why is Britain eurosceptic?
  (essay, December 2008)
  
  
• The EU's fleeting chance for
  global leadership
  (bulletin article, December 2008/January 2009)
  
  
• How to handle the new Russia
  (bulletin article, October/November 2008)
  
  
• Beyond banking: What the financial
  crisis means for the EU
  (policy brief with Katinka Barysch, Hugo Brady, Bobo Lo, Clara Marina O'Donnell, Simon Tilford, Tomas Valasek and Philip Whyte, October 2008)
  
  
• India's role in the new world order
  (briefing note, September 2008)
  
  
• Three scenarios for the Lisbon treaty
  (bulletin article, August/September 2008)
  
  
• Four pillars for an EU-India partnership
  (bulletin article, June/July 2008)
  
  
• Can Europe and China shape a
  new world order?
  (report with Katinka Barysch, May 2008)
  
  
• The Czechs in the EU: In the middle of
  the class
  (CER insight article, 10 March 2008)
  
  
• Poland's bold new foreign policy
  (bulletin article, February/March 2008)
  
  
• Preparing for the multipolar world: European foreign and security policy in 2020
  (essay with Tomas Valasek, December 2007)
  
  
• The EU must stand firm on Bosnia
  (bulletin article with Tomas Valasek,
  December 2007/January 2008)
  
  
• A grand bargain with Russia?
  (CER insight article, 19 October 2007)
  
  
• Where next for Turkey?
  (CER insight article with Katinka Barysch,
  24 July 2007)
  
  
• The EU should talk to Hamas
  (bulletin article with Clara Marina O'Donnell, August/September 2007)
  
  
• The EU should talk to Hamas
  (CER insight article with Clara Marina O'Donnell,
  11 July 2007)
  
  
• European choices for Gordon Brown
  (report by Charles Grant, with Hugo Brady,
  Simon Tilford and Aurore Wanlin, June 2007)
  
  
• Why treaty change matters for business
  and for Britain
  (policy brief with Hugo Brady, May 2007)
  
  
• Nicolas Sarkozy:
  Turkophobe and protectionist?
  (CER insight article, 8 May 2007)
  
  
• The EU and Arab reform
  (CER insight article with Tomas Valasek,
  27 April 2007)
  
  
• Sarkozy - the new Napoleon
  (article by Charles Grant, published on the Guardian blog, 23 April 2007)
  
  
• The EU, the US and Taiwan
  (CER insight article, 16 April 2007)
  
  
• Britain and the EU: a crisis looms
  (bulletin article, April/May 2007)
  
  
• The view from 2027
  (opinion paper, 22 March 2007)
  
  
• Has Germany been Finlandised
  (and has Britain)?
  (CER insight article, 21 December 2006)
  
  
• If Turkey and the EU break up...
  (bulletin article with Katinka Barysch,
  December 2006/January 2007)
  
  
• Europe's blurred boundaries:
  Rethinking enlargement and neighbourhood policy
  (report, October 2006)
  
  
• How to strengthen EU foreign policy
  (policy brief with Mark Leonard, July 2006)
  
  
• How to build a better EU foreign policy
  (bulletin article with Mark Leonard,
  April/May 2006)
  
  
• The EU's awkward neighbour:
  Time for a new policy on Belarus
  (policy brief with Mark Leonard, April 2006)
  
  
• India and the EU: Strategic partners?
  (bulletin article, February/March 2006)
  
  
• Georgia and the EU:
  Can Europe's neighbourhood policy
  deliver?
  (policy brief with Mark Leonard, October 2005)
  
  
• Can variable geometry save
  EU enlargement?
  (bulletin article, October/November 2005)
  
  
• Germany's foreign policy: What lessons
  can be learned from the Schröder years?
  (essay, September 2005)
  
  
• Europe beyond the referendums
  (bulletin article, June/July 2005)
  
  
• Embracing the dragon
  The EU's partnership with China
  (report by Katinka Barysch,
  with Charles Grant and Mark Leonard, May 2005)
  
  
• What new transatlantic institutions?
  (bulletin article with Mark Leonard,
  April/May 2005)
  
  
• What happens if Britain votes No? Ten ways out of a European constitutional crisis
  (report, March 2005)
  
  
• Ukraine should not be part of a
  'great game'
  (briefing note with Katinka Barysch,
  December 2004)
  
  
• President Bush: Why you need
  the Europeans
  (bulletin article, December 2004/January 2005)
  
  
• Learning to live with the new Russia
  (bulletin article, October/November 2004)
  
  
• The peculiarities of the British
  (bulletin article, August/September 2004)
  
  
• If Britain votes No...
  (bulletin article, June/July 2004)
  
  
• A European way of war
  (report by Steven Everts, Lawrence Freedman, Charles Grant, François Heisbourg, Daniel Keohane and Michael O'Hanlon, May 2004)
  
  
• Serbia and the EU
  (bulletin article, April/May 2004)
  
  
• Should Britain hold a referendum on the
  EU constitution?
  (bulletin article, December/January 2004)
  
  
• EU defence takes a step forward
  (briefing note, December 2003)
  
  
• Resolving the rows over ESDP
  (opinion paper, October 2003)
  
  
• Transatlantic rift: How to bring the two
  sides together
  (report, July 2003)
  
  
• Defrosting the entente glaciale
  (bulletin article, June/July 2003)
  
  
• The decline of American power
  (bulletin article, April/May 2003)
  
  
• The return of Franco-German dominance?
  (bulletin article, February/March 2003)
  
  
• The Europeans can stick together on Iraq
  (briefing note, by Steven Everts, Heather Grabbe and Charles Grant, February 2003)
  
  
• What role for NATO?
  (briefing note, November 2002)
  
  
• New Designs for Europe
  (report, October 2002)
  
  
• Europe after September 11th
  (report, December 2001)
  
  
• Europe's Military Revolution
  (report co-authored with Gilles Andréani and Christoph Bertram, February 2001)
  
  
• Europe 2010: An optimistic vision of
  the future
  (report, September 2000)
  
  
• Intimate Relations: Can Britain play
  a leading role in European defence - and keep its special links to US intelligence?
  (working paper, May 2000)
  
  
• European defence post-Kosovo
  (working paper, June 1999)
  
  
• Can Britain lead in Europe?
  (report, October 1998)
  
  
• Strength in numbers:
  Europe's foreign and defence policy
  (report, September 1996)