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MWF 11:30–12:20pm Sabine Lang
TEACHING ASSISTANT Elizabeth Zherka PEER FACILITATORS Gillian Frackelton at gillianfrackelton@gmail.com TA SECTIONS EURO 301 AB T 2:30-3:20pm PEER FACILITATOR SECTIONS EURO 301 AB TH 2:30-3:20pm – PAB B109 DESCRIPTIONThis course will introduce you to the cultural, political and economic challenges that Europe faces today. We will explore aspects of history, politics, the economy, and society and social life, in order to grasp the exciting dynamics of this continent since WWII, its integration path, and the challenges it faces in the 21st century. Relying on the expertise of University of Washington faculty from several disciplines, the course will also introduce you to different methods and approaches to studying Europe. Weekly guest lectures by invited faculty and outside experts therefore are a core part of Euro 301. Moreover, with this multidisciplinary approach we would like to encourage specialization in European Studies. Special emphasis will be placed on the politics of European integration. We will ask: How does the EU work? Is the EU a model for multilevel governance beyond state borders? How does Europe handle migration? Is there a European identity?
ASSIGNMENTS & GRADING
You can bolster your participation grade with extra-credit by attending course related lectures. Signing up on an attendance sheet for events that I will announce in lecture will result in a 0.1 increase in your participation grade.
Participation= 20% Important Course Policies Please note that late assignments will NOT be accepted, and make-up assignments will NOT be given except in cases of documented emergency, or with the express advance permission of the instructor. In the absence of these provisions, late or missing assignments will receive a grade of “0”. Required Reading (Available at the University Bookstore) Michelle Cini/Nieves Perez-Solorzano Borragan (2010). European Union Politics. Oxford University Press. Articles that are not accessible on the web are available in a course reader at Rams Copy Center, 4144 University Way at 42nd. Others you can access via the UW electronic journal database. COURSE SCHEDULE Readings:
September 29 & October 1
WEEK 2: Situating Europe From its inception, the idea of Europe seemed to be born out of hubris: Who would think about unifying such vastly different peoples? What lay at the center of the idea of Europe? Readings:
October 4: Post-War Europe October 6: Europe and the U.S– Guest lecture: Prof. Sergio Fabbrini, Professor of Political Science and International Relations and Director of the School of Government at the LUISS University in Rome. October 8: Quiz # 1
WEEK 3: 1989 – Europe’s Rebirth Readings:
October 11: The Revolutions of 1989 October 13: Soviet Disintegration and Managed Democracy – Guest Lecture: Prof. Glennys Young (Jackson School, UW). October 15: Library Research Session with University Librarian Emily Keller WEEK 4: The European Union “UPO” is what former commission president Jacques Delors called the European Union – an Unknown Political Object. Indeed, there is no precedent in history to grasp the complexity of the European integration project. Why was the European Union created? Why would nation states and their governments willingly give up considerable power to a supranational entity as undefined as the EU? How does the power arrangement between intergovernmental entities such as the Council of Ministers, EU based institutions such as the Commission and the elected European Parliament work? Is the European Union primarily an economic or a political integration project, and how might that have changed? Readings:
October 18: The History of the European Union – Guest lecture: Phil Shekleton, Associate Director of the Center for West European Studies, UW. October 20: What is the EU? – Theoretical Perspectives October 22: EU policies
WEEK 5: The Political Economy of Integration and the Euro Economic cooperation and integration have been two principles at the core of the European Community. Yet free movement of capital, goods, services and labor were slow to be realized after their pronouncement in the Treaty of Rome. The advent of the European monetary union in 1999, and the introduction of the Euro in January 2002, mark cornerstones in the economic integration process. What were the costs and benefits of establishing the monetary union? How does the German economy, once the driving force of European business and the largest net contributor to the EU, fare in the present era of economic integration? And how has the crisis of 2009/10 affected the project of European integration? Readings:
October 25: The Economic Integration Process - Guest lecture: Prof. Michelle Turnovsky, Dept. of Economics, UW. October 27: National Economies and Integration October 29: The Crisis of 2009/10: Downfall of the EU?
WEEK 6: Enlargement South-East: The New EU 27 The accession of ten new member states in May 2004 is the largest and boldest accession that the EU has so far undertaken. In 2007, Bulgaria and Romania joined. Many of the CEE and Southern European countries that now are EU members were ruled by communist regimes just 15 years ago. Their democratic cultures and civic institutions being in development, accession to the EU means that the politics in Brussels have a strong political and economic impact on these countries. What were the different motives behind this accession? Who wins and who loses? Readings:
November 1: The Long Road from Europe to Europe: East Central Europe in Modern Times – Guest Lecture Prof. James Felak, Dept. of History, UW. November 3: Deepening or Widening? The Future of EU Enlargements November 5: Guest lecture: Ambassador Darryl N. Johnson (US ambassador to Lithuania from 1991-1994 and stationed in Warsaw during 1989). WEEK 7: The Nordic States Readings:
November 8: The Nordic States in Europe – Guest lecture by Prof. Christine Ingebritsen, Dept. of Scandinavian Studies, UW. November 10: What the Scandinavian States bring to Europe: Women’s Policies in the EU November 12: Social Capitalism and Social Democracy WEEK 8: Is There a European Culture? What does Europe ‘promise’ its citizens? What are the basic values and norms that the house of Europe is being built on? And why do Europe and the U.S. differ, i.e. in the conflicts about the death penalty, genetically modified food, the Kyoto protocol or the International Criminal Court? Are these arenas of European-US contestation more than short lived disagreements, and do they really reflect on a specific European citizenship and culture? Readings:
November 15: Quiz # 2 November 17: The Reluctant Superpower November 19: Debating Europe’s Promise
WEEK 9: European Migrants – Migrants to Europe Immigration is one of the most debated policy arenas in the European Union. Some commentators see the “Fortress Europe” on the rise with heavily secured outer borders and relatively free movement within the EU member states. Others point to the European legacy: Europeans, they argue, have a special responsibility for granting asylum and remaining an open continent. Moreover, migration within the EU has come to the forefront with the accession of new member states in 2004 and anxieties regarding intensive labor migration. What are the politics of European immigration today? How are migrants living in Europe? Readings:
November 22: Migration within and Immigration to Europe November 24: Will Turkey join the EU? Guest lecture: Prof. Resat Kasaba, Middle Eastern Studies and Director of the Jackson School. November 26: Thanksgiving Holiday. No school.
WEEK 10: European Identity: Religion, Citizenship, and the Constitution European supranational institutions were originally designed in response to the two World Wars: They were to form institutional arrangements that in turn would foster common identities among Europeans and thus avoid the traps of nationalisms and belligerent conflict. Half a century later, do we see a European identity in the making? What role does religion play for this identity and how does the increasing Muslim population alter conceptions of Europe? Do people support the democratic institutions of the EU? And how does the failure to gain popular acceptance for the European Constitution in France and the Netherlands affect the project of European integration? Readings:
November 29: Possibilities of a European Identity – Guest lecture: Prof. James Caporaso, Dept. of Political Science, UW. December 1: Europe and Islam: The Veil Wednesday, December 1: Take home exam will be passed out. December 3: European Identity and the Constitution plus: General discussion and preparation for take home exam.
WEEK 11: Old Europe – New Europe and Transatlantic Relations Transatlantic relations, some would argue, today are at a historic low. Germany’s and France’s refusal to support the US war in Iraq, simmering conflicts over the International Criminal Court, the signing of the Kyoto Treaty and genetically modified food contribute to these irritations. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has confronted harsh criticism after juxtaposing the “Old Europe” of Germany and France to the “New Europe” of countries like Poland and the Czech Republic. How deep do these transatlantic rifts run? Are Americans from Mars and Europeans from Venus, as Robert Kagan argues? Readings:
(at http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/3460246.html)
December 6: Film “Does Europe Hate Us?” by Thomas Friedman (2006). December 8: Where is Europe heading? Euro-optimists versus Euro-skeptics? Wednesday, Dec. 8: Take home exam due in class December 10: Conclusions – Outlook – Course Evaluation |