Europe’s Brexit Question
Published on by Tim Oliver | Comments Off on Europe’s Brexit Question
Focusing on what a Brexit could mean for Britain overlooks the more important question of what it could mean for Europe.
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News and comment from UACES events and activities
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The Commission after the 2014 EP Elections
Published on by Anchrit Wille | Comments Off on The Commission after the 2014 EP Elections
Following the 2014 European Parliament elections Anchrit Wille considers the normalization of the European Commission.
Power shift? The EU’s pivot to Asia
Published on by Reuben Wong | 1 Comment
Over the last two decades, the world has witnessed the economic resurgence of Asia and the region is now a top priority in all global players’ agenda. In 2011, the US made official their strategic pivot to the Asia-Pacific, and decided to strengthen their trade relationships and their diplomatic presence with a heightened security presence. […]
100 Books on Europe to be Remembered
Published on by blog | 1 CommentThe owls at the European Parliamentary Research Service have recently compiled an excellent list of ‘100 Books on Europe to be Remembered’. The list includes a summary of each book, a biography of the author and in some cases, access to the full text. You’ll see many familiar names there, including a number of current […]
For a Global European Studies?
Published on by Ben Martill | 1 CommentThe study of the European Union (EU), as we all know, is a commitment to a particular set of theoretical attachments as much as it is an interest in the institutions within the region of Europe. Terms such as ‘multi-level governance’, ‘supranationalism’, ‘neofunctionalism’ and ‘liberal intergovernmentalism’ are seldom deployed outside of European Studies, or even […]
EU Member State Building in the Western Balkans
Published on by blog | Comments Off on EU Member State Building in the Western Balkans
In this article, Soeren Keil looks at the EU’s more active role in the process of state (and nation) building in the countries of the former Yugoslavia. He argues that the EU’s technical approach to highly political issues has led to misconceptions between the EU and elites in these countries, and has in turn alienated citizens. He lastly offers some ideas as to how the EU might change its approach to enlargement to meet these challenges.
Same aims, different approaches? Recent EU and US free trade agreements in Asia
Published on by blog | Comments Off on Same aims, different approaches? Recent EU and US free trade agreements in Asia
Over the past two decades preferential and free trade agreements (FTAs) have proliferated around the globe. FTAs differ in the level of liberalization they commit to, and the scope of economic sectors brought into the agreement. Asian FTAs tend to be ‘shallow’, that is, they reinforce commitments already taken at the WTO and lower tariffs […]
Premature donors? Development aid from Central and Eastern Europe ten years on
Published on by blog | Comments Off on Premature donors? Development aid from Central and Eastern Europe ten years onWhen they joined the EU Central and East European states committed themselves to meet EU norms on international development aid. Small budgets, weak social support and limited political commitment have so far limited the impact of aid from CEE. However, it is too early to dismiss them as ‘premature donors’ argue Simon Lightfoot and Balazs Szent-Ivanyi.
‘Nobody falls in love with a Common Market’: Why Cross-border Interactions Don’t Always Foster European Identity
Published on by Theresa Kuhn | 3 Comments The idea to promote familiarity, mutual trust, a collective European identity and support for European integration by giving citizens the possibility to interact across borders is at the heart of a wide array of EU policies, such as the Erasmus student exchange or town twinning projects. This idea goes back to Karl W. Deutsch’s transactionalist […]
The europeanisation of euroscepticism?
Published on by blog | 1 CommentAcademics studying the EU should be the real eurosceptics. Not only can we translate the greek word skepsis as “enquiry”, modern science owes much to philosophical and methodological scepticism. However, it seems that academics interested in the EU have struggled to come to grips with a the phenomenon of political euroscepticism which appears to be quite a different thing compared the philosophical notions of skepticism.