4EU+ MA-PhD Seminar: History of European Cooperation since 1919
MA/PhD seminar. Apply now!
Europe faces a number of serious shared challenges, ranging from security, economic organisation, environmental sustainability, migration and the protection of minorities, to the erosion of democracy. However, at a time when European cooperation seems absolutely paramount, the European Union looks fragile, challenged by Brexit and a surge in nationalist political parties. Policy makers and scholars struggle to explain the nature of the challenges and provide suitable solutions. A key reason for this is that contemporary political debate cannot draw on a coherent understanding of the deep historical roots of both the challenges currently faced and the attempts to solve them. Since the First World War, the European states have experimented with multiple forms of cooperation in order to tackle many of the fundamental challenges that are still with us today.
In the last hundred years, European cooperation has been an ongoing process materializing in a variety of ways, from alliances to technical cooperation and international and regional organisations. Although most of these cooperative experiments have been studied by social scientists, legal scholars or historians, the field remains deeply fragmented. Likewise, the normative biases of cooperation, i.e. the ideologies and interests it facilitated, are underexplored, making it difficult for contemporary political debate to fully grasp the new nationalist critique of the EU. The theme of the course will be European cooperation from 1920 to the present day, encompassing not only the history of the European Union and of its forerunner since 1950, but also all forms of European cooperation with an element of institutional formalization, from 1919, when the League of Nations and the International Labour Organisation, two international organisations with a large European operative basis, were founded. Beyond the European Union, it also includes organisations such as the Council of Europe, OEEC/OECD, NATO, the Comecon (the organisation of economic cooperation of the Eastern bloc) and the OSCE (the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe created in 1975). It also includes analyses of the societal actors that either underpinned or opposed closer European integration, ranging from non-state actors such as transnational political party organizations, professional associations and stable cartels among companies. Hence the course touches on a wide variety of sub-disciplines, including political, economic, social, cultural, legal, diplomatic and military history.
Students must apply through the regular procedure of the SAXO Institute. PhD students should e-mail Morten Rasmussen.
Application deadline: 15 August 2021.
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