J.-P. LANDAU on Europe's moral obligation to boycott Russian energy

Jean-Pierre LANDAU, Associate Faculty member of the Department and founding Dean of Sciences Po’s School of Public Affairs, signed an important opinion piece in the Project Syndicate this week along with Markus Brunnermeier (Professor of Economics and Director of the Bendheim Center for Finance, Princeton), and Harold James (Professor of History and International Affairs at Princeton), on Europe's Moral Obligation to Boycott Russian Energy.

“The single most effective way to force the Kremlin to reverse course is to absorb the costs of cutting off the Russian war machine.”

They concede of course, that there will be high, painful costs for Europe to renounce to its oil and gas imports from Russia. Ultimately it will require reducing European energy consumption. Yet for years now, European leaders “have… been worried about the long-term costs of carbon energy and its implications for the planet... we should make some sacrifices today in order to make life better for subsequent generations. But now, Russia has made this logic even simpler."

Not only that, but it is the right, the moral thing to do, they argue. It is important that Europe “back up its lofty rhetoric with action, and to show that Europeans are not hypocrites.” For years the claim has been that “morality and the promotion of shared values… (that) Europe’s soft power is more effective than the hard power of the United States.”

The war in Ukraine is the opportunity to prove it.

Read their full demonstration in the Project Syndicate now!

More about Jean-Pierre LANDAU and his research

Also of note: 

• Jean-Pierre Landau’s co-author Markus Brunnermeier interviewed permanent faculty member Sergeï Guriev on The Implications of Sanctions on the Russian Economy earlier this month for Markus’ Academy (link to interview).
• The opinon piece also cites a paper co-authored by another permanent faculty member, Moritz Schularick - What if? The economic effects for Germany of a stop of energy imports from Russia (read paper) - that also makes the case for cutting off the German economy from Russian energy imports. 

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