Ties Dams is a political theorist, essayist and researcher at the Europa Institute (Leiden Law School). His dissertation is provisionally titled Europe and the power of narrative. It explores the role of narrative in the constitution of the EU in great power politics, as compared to the USA and PRC. This project is supervised by prof. dr. Luuk van Middelaar and dr. Joris Larik.

More information about Ties Dams

The Cold War has ended, but so has the Post-Cold War: for Europe, a new age of great power strife is here, a new chapter of history acted out. At least since 2022, scholars increasingly state that the EU going through a réveil géopolitique: but upon which part of its narrative has the EU embarked? And does the Union have the power to tell that story on the world stage? Ties’ dissertation combines political theory, constitutional scholarship and historical analysis to argue for a novel way of looking at great power strife and the EU’s moment therein: narrative power. It interprets pivotal moments and canonical texts in the EU’s coming of age as a person on the world stage and compares it to the United States of America and People’s Republic of China.  

Ties Dams (1993) was educated as a political theorist at University College Utrecht (B.A., magna cum laude) and UCL, University of London (M.A. Legal and Political Theory). His MA thesis explored the influence of Aristotle’s hierarchy of knowledge – theoria, praxis, poiesis – on Karl Marx’s ethics in the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts and was awarded ‘With Distinction’. While at Utrecht, he studied Mandarin Chinese at Xiamen University, Chinese Philosophy and Religion at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and interned with the UN in Beijing and the Clingendael Institute in The Hague, where he published research on China’s ideological strategy in the liberal world order.

In 2018, Ties published a Dutch-language monograph on the life and rule of Xi Jinping, entitled De Nieuwe Keizer (Prometheus), which quickly became a bestseller. An updated and expanded version – titled, Xi – was published in 2022. Since its publication, Ties has been an frequent commentator on geopolitics on TV, radio and in print. In 2020, he won the 4/5 Mei Open Call essay prize, with a piece called The myth of decay. The open society in the stories of its challengers. His work has appeared in the Financial Times, The Guardian and The European Review of Books.

Ties has been associated with the Netherlands Institute for International Relations ‘Clingendael since 2019. At Clingendael, he provides strategic advice to governments and private actors on great power politics, with special reference to the transformation of China under Xi Jinping, transatlantic relations and the EU’s narrative power. His publications included Falling on Hard Times, a comparison of China’s soft power politics in 17 European countries; Will the European Hero Please Stand Up?, an essay on Europe’s global narrative strategy; and No Way Back, an in-depth analysis of the possibilities for transatlantic diplomacy after Trump’s first election, commissioned by the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs. He serves as an external expert on foreign information manipulation and -interference with the European External Action Service. From 2020-2022, he taught the Masterclass Europe, China and Geopolitical Strategy and the University of Amsterdam.

Publications