Alumna Dr Marina Pérez de Arcos wins Willy Brandt Foundation Research Award

Dr Marina Pérez de Arcos stood giving a talk with a piece of paper in her hand, wearing a burgundy top and grey blouse.

St Cross alumna Dr Marina Pérez de Arcos (DPhil International Relations, 2012) has been awarded the 2021 Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt Foundation Research Award for her research on the 'father-son'-like bond between German politician and statesman Willy Brandt and Spanish Prime Minister Felipe González.

The article, which is yet to be published - 'Like father, like son’. Willy Brandt and Felipe González: Democracy, social democracy and internationalism in motion in the late Cold War', is based on interviews with senior policymakers; archival material from the Ebert Foundation in Bonn; and fresh material from Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Austria, and the US.

Marina’s research identifies the three key political–intellectual pillars that sustained their relationship, and the purpose, projection, and emotion that help explain the rare ‘father–son’-like relationship they shared. In doing so, it weaves into the narrative of this bond how personal exchange, linked with institutional support, contributed to the expansion of democracy and social democracy in the 1970s and 1980s. 

I am grateful and movingly honoured the Federal Willy Brandt Foundation has chosen to support and recognise my research. I am humbled by the award and thrilled by the prospect of sharing the research with other scholars and the wider public soon.

 

The Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt Foundation is a German institution that commemorates the statesman and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Projects are funded that deal with the work or legacy of Willy Brandt, or with a chapter in contemporary history linked to Brandt's name and political life.  

 

Image: Dr Marina Pérez de Arcos at Global Thinkers event in February 2020