CONTEMPORARY EUROPEAN POLITICS

Since WWII, in a stunning historical turnaround, much of Europe has gone from centuries of war to an increasingly inclusive project of peaceful and innovative regional cooperation. Yet, despite such apparent success, the EU has recently come to face countless challenges: the European democratic deficit, the Eurozone crisis, Brexit, Euro-skepticism, the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Some observers have even come to question the limits of European integration.

In this course, we will focus on the contemporary chapter of European politics, asking crucial questions of the integration process. How do national, intergovernmental, and supranational dynamics play out across policy areas? What are the colonial and neocolonial roots of European politics? How have European politics evolved in response to the many recent crises? What further developments should we expect? Will member states follow the path of ever-greater integration and eventually form a federation? Will the European Union fall apart? Will the integration project develop into a multi-speed, modular governance system?

With these questions in mind, this course will explore the politics of the European Union across a diverse array of policy domains. Building on a foundational two sessions on the history and structure of the EU, each week will tackle a core policy realm: the economy, migration, common security, foreign policy, the environment – to name a few. In doing so, the class reviews state-of-the-art political science research with the double objective of understanding the theoretical and empirical substance of academic studies and applying their insights to real-world political issues.