EUROPE AS AN INTERNATIONAL ACTOR

This course will explore how Europe and its institutional embodiment, the European Union, interact with the outside world. The EU’s foreign and security policies will be part of this enquiry, but the course will adopt a broader conception of political actorness, examine the EU from multi-disciplinary angles, and scrutinize the global environment the EU is part of. The course should be of help to all students interested in international politics including those with a background in law, economy, philosophy and the humanities.
The course will reveal different theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of Europe, its policies and institutions.

Students are expected to acquire a detailed knowledge of the history and theories of European external and internal policies, the institutional developments inherent in the creation of the European Union, and the distinctive features of its policies. The course develops skills of empirical political analysis, and enables students to become familiar with some of the basic sources of information from which they can henceforth renew and update their knowledge of changes and developments in Europe and the world.
The general purpose of this course is to develop key skills relating to: an understanding of substantive and conceptual issues, and scholarly debates; an ability to research and write essays; an ability to engage in group discussions. The specific student learning outcomes and experiences are:
• to understand the development and workings of nation states in Europe
• to understand the nature of European integration and become familiar with policy-making procedures in the European Union
• to understand the relationship between developments at the international, European, national and sub-national levels;
• to become familiar with the key literature on European integration and European external policies.

Admission criteria are those required by the study programme LT6.Other curricula will be evaluated on a case by case basis. A good knowledge of English is essential.

The course will feature15 topics (not necessarily in that order):
1. EU as an actor: unique or ordinary?
2. EU as a normative power.
3. National policies: convergence versus divergence.
4. European Neighborhood Policies: successes and failures
5. How does the EU compare with the US, China and Russia?
6. Deepening and widening of European integration
7. Theories of European integration and disintegration
8. EU institutions and the limits of institutional engineering
9. Legitimizing EU policies: technocrats vs populists
10. The battle for Europe’s future: sovranisti vs federalisti
11. Borders, systems and geographies in and around Europe.
12. The Commission’s external policies: trade, development and human rights
13. European Union Foreign Policy and the External Action Service
14. European Security and Defense Policy: origins, structure, strategy and record
15. Europe’s global agenda: empire by example?

At the beginning of the course a detailed syllabus will be provided, indicating key books, articles, and chapters related to individual topics under discussion. This will also specify which readings are obligatory. The obligatory readings can be found in the library, mostly on line.
There is no textbook assigned to this course, but students are recommended to read Hill, Christopher, Michael Smith & Sophie Vanhoonacker (eds.), International Relations and the European Union, Oxford University Press 2017. However, this book is not available in the library of Ca Foscari.
Because this is an area of rapid change, it is important to keep abreast of current developments. The easiest way to do this is to read online editions of newspapers such as the Financial Times, Le Monde, Die Zeit or La Repubblica. More detailed daily information is to be found in Agence Europe. For a guide to the institutions of and recent developments in the EU, see the Europa site: http://europa.eu.int . (Various ministries of European member states have their own sites.) See also The European Security Strategy (December 2003); The European Union Global Strategy (2016), including its implementation reports; EU trade strategy “trade for all (2015).
Recommended General Academic Journals with regular coverage on EU Foreign Policy
• Journal of Common Market Studies: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/loi/14685965
• Journal of European Public Policy: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjpp20/current
• Journal of European Integration: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/geui20/current
• Journal of Contemporary European Research (JCER): http://www.jcer.net/index.php/jcer
• International Organization: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=INO
• European Foreign Affairs Review: http://www.kluwerlawonline.com/toc.php?pubcode=EERR
• European Security: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/feus20/current
• The Hague Journal of Diplomacy: http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/1871191x
• Foreign Affairs: http://foreignaffairs.com
• European Union Politics: http://eup.sagepub.com/
• West European Politics: http://www.standfonline.com/toc/fwep20/current

The assessment strategy aims at verifying students' knowledge of the theory and practice of Europe's external relations, as indicated above. The assessment of the course envisages a written exam and participation in the Forum.

The course will be blended and interactive in part. Traditional lectures will be accompanied by the Forum discussions among students on the moodle.

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