Professor Nathaniel Copsey

Nathaniel Copsey is Honorary Professor of Politics and was previously Full Professor of Politics and Head of Department at Aston. Since 2018, he has been Head of the Future of Europe Department at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. He is also the SRO for Europe capability and expertise across HMG. Nat joined the Foreign Office in April 2015 to support the renegotiation of the UK’s EU membership and worked in the Cabinet Office during the 2016 UK referendum on EU membership. He held a Jean Monnet Chair at Aston University from 2012 to 2015 and was also Co-Director of the Aston Centre for Europe. He began his career working on Central and East European Politics, with a particular focus on Poland and Ukraine. He retains a strong interest in, and affection for, this region. Over the past decade, he has concentrated more on core EU issues, especially EU relations with the UK. With Dr Tim Haughton, he was co-editor of the Journal of Common Market Studies Annual Review of the European Union from 2008-17. His last monograph, Rethinking the European Union, was published by Palgrave in 2015. He has a BA (Hons) in Modern History from the University of Oxford, a Masters from the College of Europe and a DPhil from the University of Sussex. He is also a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe and has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Helsinki, MGIMO in Moscow and Sciences-Po in Lille and Rennes. He speaks fluent French.