Kevin Keller
@kbkeller.bsky.social
Associate Professor at University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Law. Researching history of international and comparative law, economic development. www.kevin-keller.com
Great piece, and highlights one of the strangest features of sovereign lending: that for some countries, nobody really expects (or wants) them to pay off their debts.
Felix Salmon@felixsalmon.com · 2w agoA story I've been working on and thinking about for longer than I might like to admit -- my attempt to answer the question @matt-levine.bsky.social posed about "what are the aesthetics of debt". www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
1/ Two really interesting recent pieces, both making a similar point: for at least a decade, things at universities haven't been going great. First (by @nilsgilman.bsky.social) is about AI: www.persuasion.community/p/the-multiv...
The University As We Know It Is Finished
That’s a good thing.
persuasion.community
Huge thank you to Just Money for spotlighting my forthcoming piece. There's still time to alert me to any goofs in the article!
Just Money @justmoney.bsky.social · 2mo ago📣 New article by Kevin Byrne Keller showing how the World Bank didn’t just shape a US‑led neoliberal order, but also helped support China’s state-owned enterprises and the rise of state capitalism. A fresh look at global economic legal history ! justmoney.org/world-bank-o...
1/ More developments on the elusive contracts for the Standard Gauge Rail! This is especially interesting right now, as a lot of discussion on law + China/Africa focuses on the recent cancellation of RightsCon in Lusaka.
The China-Global South Project@chinagsproject.bsky.social · 3mo agoKenya’s Court of Appeal has ordered the government to disclose China Exim Bank SGR loan contracts.
Exciting stuff!
LPE Blog@lpeblog.bsky.social · 3mo agoToday, @ntinatzouvala.bsky.social and @azohra.bsky.social kick off a series on international law under the second Trump administration. The embrace of naked coercion, they argue, represents both a genuine departure from, and the culmination of the internal contradictions of, the post-WWII order.
The final version of the paper is now published and live, with a greatly expanded application section and some new historical finds. Thanks to everyone who gave me comments and workshopped the piece with me—it’s so much better for everyone’s input! yalelawjournal.org/pdf/01KQD1GF...
yalelawjournal.org
The Yale Law Journal@yalelawjournal.bsky.social · 3mo agoIn his Article, @nwdonahue.bsky.social reconstructs the early American law of officers and the administrative state that changed it. He argues the early law of officers supported and regulated decentralized governance that sits in tension with the Supreme Court’s unitary-executive theory.
Delighted to be part of this list! My paper "The World Bank and the Origins of Chinese State Capitalism," is forthcoming in the Berkeley Journal of International Law. Getting to the draft requires a lot of clicking around, so I thought I'd pull out my most widely relevant arguments here. 1/9
LPE Blog@lpeblog.bsky.social · 3mo agoToday, a spring scouting report on some of the hottest new LPE and LPE-adjacent articles. Congrats to all the authors on such wonderful placements 🎉
Terrifically interesting interview, with helpful introductions to some ideas / terms that are trending on the Chinese internet.
China Books Review@chinabooksreview.com · 4mo agoRead Yi Liu's interview with Xiang Biao, our latest in the What China's Thinking column: chinabooksreview.com/2026/04/14/w...
Fascinating stuff from leading gun buff @katebirkbeck.bsky.social
Kate Birkbeck@katebirkbeck.bsky.social · 4mo agoSo many more things to say about the British NRA but eternal thanks to the brilliant diplo team @diplomatichistory.bsky.social and reviewers for getting this in shape. doi.org/10.1093/dh/d...
I'm so excited to return to my old stomping grounds next Monday to give a talk about The Fate of the Americas. If you're in the Boston area, it would be great to see you there! #History 🗃️
Happy to share that this article is forthcoming in the Berkeley Journal of International Law! Please send along any comments or critiques. Draft available here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Kevin Keller@kbkeller.bsky.social · 6mo agoHow did Chinese state-owned enterprises become some of the world's largest corporations? My latest paper (finally posted on SSRN!) tackles the question.
Makes me fee better about academia "When Mr. Redzepi wanted to discipline them but there were customers in the dining room, several employees said, he would crouch under the counters in the open kitchen and jab them in the legs with his fingers or a nearby utensil, like a barbecue fork."
Punching, Slamming, Screaming: A Chef’s Past Abuse Haunts Noma, the World’s Top-Rated Restaurant
nytimes.com
What motivated foreign policy in Nigeria in the 1960s? And what can this tell us about post-colonial African history? Very interesting new piece by @chloemayoux.bsky.social !
Journal of Global History (JGH)@globalhistjnl.bsky.social · 5mo ago📢 New on First View! Chloë Mayoux demonstrates how international affairs uniquely crystallized interactions between domestic and regional politics in decolonizing states. #Nigeria #diplomacy #nuclear #decolonization #Africanpolitics #ColdWar Read Open Access here: doi.org/10.1017/S174...
Terrific piece. Must add the latest book from @seanvanatta.bsky.social and @petercontibrown.bsky.social to my reading list.
The New York Review of Books@nybooks.com · 6mo ago“Austerity” after the 2008 financial crisis “was a moral, political, intellectual, and humanitarian failure, possibly the single worst and most socially destructive economic idea perpetrated on the world so far this century.” —Trevor Jackson
Fascinating piece by Yuen Yuen Ang -- that our current moment is not a "polycrisis," but a "polytunity."
Polytunity - The Ideas Letter
“Polycrisis” has become a ubiquitous descriptor for the multisector, intersecting problems afflicting the world—but the term masks the systemic nature of these crises and overwhelmingly reflects Euroc...
theideasletter.org
Tempted to steal my daughter’s sign for my office door…
How did Chinese state-owned enterprises become some of the world's largest corporations? My latest paper (finally posted on SSRN!) tackles the question.
