Paweł Zerka

I am political scientist and economist, Latin America's maniac, based in Warsaw, Poland. My research is focused on parallels in development challenges and political choices in two apparently distant - but in many ways very similar - regions, namely Latin America and Central/Eastern Europe. I am interested in how elites and societies of both regions navigate between one option of emulating a usually idealised version of modernity (with the resulting economic reforms and foreign policy choices), and shifting to another extreme of protectionism and economic nationalism. I am also analysing the role of external actors (such as the US, the EU, China, or multilateral institutions) which may enforce or inspire a certain version of modernity to be pursued by countries situated on the 'fuzzy' borders of the Western/Northern/modern/liberal/democratic world or civilisation, whathever you call it.