Central European University Department of International Relations EUROPE IN CRISES: INTEGRATION UNDER INTERNATIONAL AND INTERNAL THREAT Lecturer: Daniel Izsak Office Hours: By Appointment Course Description For the first time in its history, the European Union finds itself facing Russia, China, and the United States; none of them are particularly friendly. The chilling of the external environment comes at a conjuncture of internal crises: Brexit, anti-eu, nationalist movements in member states, the declining faith of pro-eu elites in the idea of an ever closer union, and the conflict of creditor and debtor countries in the Eurozone and between the core and periphery. The President of the European Council called these: unprecedented geopolitical and existential threats to the very survival of the EU. The course engages with these four crises of Europe: external, internal, ideational, and economic, and with the scholarly controversies about how to interpret them. In the final part, the course will look at whether Europe will be forged in crises, as one of the founding fathers, Jean Monnet predicted, and will consider recent proposals about how to reshape the EU, and what these possible responses may mean for the global order. The course is designed as a mix of interactive lectures and seminar discussion based on the required readings; it will engage with a wide-variety of IR, IPE, and regionalism concepts and will also make use of contemporary sources (articles, speeches, etc.) to link scholarly approaches to interpreting current affairs. Course Requirements There are no pre-set, right-or-wrong answers to the issues raised in this course; we will search for them together during seminar-style discussions by drawing on relevant texts, concepts, and theories, following in-class student presentation(s). Students do not need to have done prior studies in the workings of the EU to take this course. All students can successfully complete this course by fulfilling the formal requirements as well as demonstrating intellectual engagement, effort, and preparation: willingness to go beyond simple summaries and easy answers during class discussions and in the required papers. To succeed in this course, students are required to prepare for and actively participate in in-class discussions. They are to read the required texts for each class, bring a hard-copy of the texts with them, which will be necessary during class discussions. (No electronic devices may be used in class.) Students are required to critically engage with the texts when preparing for each class. This means, on the most basic level, identifying (taking notes, highlighting) the main arguments, their strength and weaknesses, and the theoretical concepts (when relevant) applied by the author(s). Please do not hesitate to ask for help and/or consultations.
1. Attendance and active participation in class discussions based on the readings (15 % of final grade). 2. Two 1500-word position papers (double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12-points) on the required readings, one of which (depending on the class size) is to be presented in class, in a 10-minute long presentation. Going beyond a simple summary, students are required to compare two or more views found in the readings, raise a puzzling question, or elaborate and critically comment on an interesting aspect. (40% of final grade 2 papers + 1 or 2 presentation). 3. One 3500-4000-word long (double-spaced, Times New Roman 12-points) research paper. Topics are to be discussed with the instructor (45% of final grade). While the paper is to relate to any of the topics covered in this course, I am flexible in working with you that your final paper is usable for your MA thesis. All departmental requirements about academic dishonesty, etc. apply. Learning Outcomes Through engagement with current issues and related scholarly debates students will gain a better understanding of the diverse approaches to the study of the European Union, as well as the complexity of processes shaping Europe today. By the end of the course students will be able to: 1) develop a critical understanding of the crises that challenge the EU and post-war structures in Europe 2) identify and critically assess different approaches to the study of European integration 3) to situate European political and economic developments in a global context as well as draw lessons for the future Course Outline and Required Readings The course will start with a short engagement with the definitions of crisis. What is real and what is portrayed as such by politicians? What are crises good for? Seminar 1: Introduction (Overview of course, assignment of seminar presentations) Seminar 2: Definitions of Crisis Is There a Crisis and What Is It Good For? Donald Tusk, United we stand, divided we fall: A letter to the 27 heads of state or government on the future of the EU, 2017, 1-2. Timothy Garton Ash, The Crisis of Europe: How the Union Came Together and Why it s Falling Apart, Foreign Affairs, (Vol. 91, No. 5, 2012), 2-15. Arjen Boin, Paul t Hart, and Allan McConnell, Crisis Exploitation: Political and Policy Impacts of Framing Contests, Journal of European Public Policy, (Vol. 16, No. 1, 2009), 81-106.
PART I: The (External) Crisis of the EU s Security Underpinnings In Part 1, we examine the security rationale of regional integrations and that of Europe in particular, to reflect on whether and how the US, Russia, China, and the changing external environment can challenge that. Seminar 3: Integration as Countering Threat: Classical Realist v. Neorealist Take Sebastian Rosato, Europe s Troubles: Power Politics and the State of the European Project, International Security, (Vol. 35, No. 4, 2011), 45-86. Daniel Kenealy and Konstantinos Kostagiannis, Realist Visions of European Union: E.H. Carr and Integration", Millenium: Journal of International Studies, (Vol. 41, No. 2, 2013), 221-246. Seminar 4: Regional Security Jeffrey W. Taliaferro, "Neoclassical Realism and the Study of Regional Order", In: T. V. Paul (ed.), International Relations Theory and Regional Transformation, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 74-103. Seminar 5: Stability in Europe: the Post-WW2 Deal Peter J. Katzenstein, A World of Regions: Asia and Europe in the American Imperium, (Cornell University Press, 2005), 1-36 (Recommended 198-217). Robert Kagan, Power and Weakness, Policy Review, (No. 113, 2002), 1-18. Seminar 6: The Weakening of the Transatlantic Alliance: From Pivot to Obsolete John J. Mearsheimer, Why is Europe Peaceful Today?, ECPR Keynote Lecture, (2010), 1-11 Thomas Risse: The Transatlantic Security Community: Erosion from Within?, In: Riccardo Alcaro, John Peterson, and Ettore Greco (eds.), The West and the Global Power Shift: Transatlantic Relations and Global Governance, (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), 21-42. Seminar 7: Russia and the EU Carl Bildt, Russia, the European Union, and the Eastern Partnership, ECFR Riga Series, 2015, 1-12. http://www.ecfr.eu/article/commentary_russia_eu_and_eastern_partnership3029 Hiski Haukkala, "From Cooperative to Contested Europe? The Conflict in Ukraine as a Culmination of a Long-Term Crisis in EU-Russia Relations", Journal of Contemporary European Studies, (Vol. 23, No. 1, 2015), 25-40.
Seminars 8: China and the EU Speech by Jean-Claude Juncker at the 12 th EU-China Business Summit, European Commission, http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_speech-17-1526_en.htm Richard Maher, "The Elusive EU-China Strategic Partnership", International Affairs, (Vol. 92, No. 4, July 2016), 959-976. PART II: The (Internal) Crisis of Decision Making: In Part 2, we engage with the internal, institutional crises of Europe and its decision making. We will briefly review what drives regional integrations (states, or sub-state actors), and who makes decisions (member states or supranational institutions) to examine the increasing tensions between the EU s federal and quasi-federal policies and confederate decision making. Seminar 9: Integration Dynamics: Regionalism and Regionalisation Shaun Breslin and Richard Higgott, Studying Regions: Learning from the Old, Constructing the New, New Political Economy, (Vol. 5, No. 3, 2000), 333-352. Bjorn Hettne and Frederik Soderbaum, Theorising the Rise of Regionness, New Political Economy, (Vol. 5, No. 3, 2000), 457-473. Seminar 10: What Drives Integration Arne Niemann and Philippe C. Schmitter, "Neofunctionalism", In: Antje Wiener and Thomas Diez (eds.), European Integration Theory 2 nd Edition, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 45-64. Andrew Moravcsik and Frank Schimmelfennig, "Liberal Intergovernmentalism", In: Antje Wiener and Thomas Diez (eds.), European Integration Theory 2 nd Edition, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 67-86. Seminar 11: Who Makes the Decisions? Dermot Hodson, The Little Engine that Wouldn t: Supranational Entrepreneurship and the Barroso Commission, Journal of European Integration, (Vol. 35, No. 3, 2013), 301-314. Uwe Puetter, Europe s Deliberative Intergovernmentalism: the Role of the Council and European Council in EU Economic Governance, Journal of European Public Policy, (Vol. 19, No. 2, 2012), 161-178. Seminar 12: Federal Policies by Confederal Structures John Kincaid, Confederal Federalism and Citizen Representation in the European Union, West European Politics, (Vol. 22, No. 2, 1999), 34-58. Giandomenico Majone, "Federation, Confederation, and Mixed Government: A EU-US
Comparison", In: Anand Menon and Martin Schain, Comparative Federalism: The European Union and the United States in Comparative Perspective, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 121-147. Recommended reading: John McCormick, "Confederalism as a Solution for Europe", In: Riccardo Fiorentini and Guido Montani, The European Union and Supranational Political Economy, (London and New York: Routledge, 2015), 67-81. PART III: The (Ideational) Crisis of Integrative Processes: In Part 3, we will study the ideational drivers of regional integrations to be able to examine what risks Brexit, the rise of (anti-eu) nationalism, as well as the weakening of pro-eu forces may mean for Europe. Seminar 13: Regional Integration: An Idea that Reverberates Jeffrey T. Checkel, Regional Identities and Communities, In: Tanja A. Borzel and Thomas Risse, The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Regionalism, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 559-579. Seminar 14: Brexit Tim Oliver, European and International Views on Brexit, Journal of European Public Policy, (Vol. 23, No. 9, 2016), 1321-1328. Jonathan Hopkin, "When Polanyi Met Farage: Market Fundamentalism, Economic Nationalism, and Britain's Exit from the European Union", The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, (Vol. 19, No. 3, 2017), 465-478. Seminar 15: Anti-EU Nationalism Federico Ottavio Reho, "A New Europeanism Before It is Too Late", European View, (Vol. 16, No 1, June 2017), 85-91. Bowman H. Miller, "Tomorrow's Europe: A Never Closer Union", Journal of European Integration (Vol. 39, No. 4, 2017), 421-433. Seminar 16: Losing Faith in the Ever Closer Union Guy Verhofstadt, "Speak Up for Europe and Win", The New York Times, (16 May 2017), https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/16/opinion/speak-up-for-europe-and-win.html Jan-Werner Müller, "Constitutional Fantasy", London Review of Books, (Vol. 39, No. 11, 1 June 2017), 9-12. PART IV: The Crisis of Economic Integration: In Part 4, we will discuss regional economic integration to examine some of the issues the Great Recession has highlighted: the North-South division of the Eurozone, the gap
between core and periphery countries, as well as the lack of regional social policies. (Students do not need prior background in political economy to succeed.) Seminar 17: Regional Market Integration Wayne Sandholtz and John Zysman, 1992: Recasting the European Bargain, World Politics, (Vol. 42, No. 1, 1989), 95-128. Walter Mattli, Explaining Regional Integration Outcomes, Journal of European Public Policy, (Vol. 6, No. 1, 1999), 1-27. Recommended reading: Soo Yeon Kim, Edward D. Mansfield, and Helen V. Milner, Regional Trade Governance, The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Regionalism, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 323-351. Seminar 18: The Eurozone: Creditors and Debtors Philip Arestis and Malcolm Sawyer, The Design Faults of the Economic Monetary Union, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, (Vol. 19, No. 1, 2011), 21-32. Seminar 19: Core and Periphery Wolfgang Streeck and Lea Elsasser, "Monetary Disunion: The Domestic Politics of Euroland", Journal of European Public Policy, (Vol. 23, No 1, 2016), 1-24. Laszlo Bruszt and Visnja Vukov, Making States for the Single Market: European Integration and the Reshaping of Economic States in the Southern and Eastern Peripheries of Europe, West European Politics, (Vol. 40, No. 4, 2017), 663-687. Seminar 20: Where Art Thou Social Europe? Laszlo Andor, Europe s Social Crisis: Is There a Way Out?, Speech Given to the Max Planck Institute, Munich, Germany, SPEECH/13/309, 12 April 2013, 1-17. PART V: The Future of Europe In Part 5, we will link the above-discussed crises to the starting premise of the course; that crises can be tools to influence debate about where Europe is heading. We will examine possible scenarios and the missing elements of further integration. We will ask if it is becoming Fortress Europe and if yes, what this may mean for the global order and globalisation. Seminar 21: Integration Outcomes Philippe C. Schmitter, Imagining the Future of the Euro-Polity with the Help of New Concepts, In: Gary Marks, Fritz W. Sharpf, Philippe C. Schmitter, and Wolfgang Streeck, Governance in the European Union, (London: SAGE, 1996), 121-151. Seminar 22: European Demos
Lars-Erik Cederman, Nationalism and Bounded Integration: What it Would Take to Construct a European Demos, European Journal of International Relations, (Vol. 7, No. 2, 2001), 139-174. Seminar 23: Scenarios for the Future Andrew Moravcsik: Europe is Still a Superpower, Foreign Policy, (13 April 2017). European Commission, White Paper on the Future of Europe: Reflections and Scenarios for the EU27 by 2025, 15-29. Seminar 24: Conclusions