Jean Monnet Courses

Fall 2023

North Atlantic and European Security (45 hours)

This course evaluates the central issues concerning European security and Transatlantic relations since the end of the Cold War. We will first review the Cold War security system of NATO, in place for more than four decades in Europe and the North Atlantic area. We will then evaluate changes to NATO in the 1990s, as well as challenges and conflicts such as the Balkan Wars.  The majority of the course will then focus on the various attempts to create a new Europe-wide security system since the 1990s. The two organizations emphasized are the existing NATO architecture and the emerging security institutions and initiatives of the European Union. These challenges include new security issues such as migration, terrorism, and trafficking, as well as existing geopolitical issues such as Russia as a power rival to Europe and European security relations with regions such as the Middle East, China and Africa. We will also examine the major powers within Europe, their national security interests, strategies, and military capabilities, as well as divisions of interests within Europe and between Europe and the United States.

European Integration (45 hours)

As the Chinese curse goes: May you live in interesting times. And the last two decades have been interesting times indeed for the European Union. Economically, having managed well through the banking crisis of 2008 and the real economy crisis of 2009, the Eurozone was roiled by the sovereign debt crisis beginning in 2010. In the aftermath of 2010, the EU faced a potential existential crisis: deepening integration further or risking disintegration under the pressures of the markets in the event of a new financial crisis. By contrast, in foreign and security policy, the 2011 incursion in Libya was a military success. However, it was a NATO operation led by Britain and France under the UN rather than a Common Security and Defense Policy initiative of the EU. In the political realm, the Lisbon Treaty, finally ratified in 2009, brought to a close the constitutional crisis that followed the defeat of the Constitutional Treaty by referenda in France and the Netherlands in 2005, providing new leadership under the new positions of Council President (to speak in one voice for the EU) and a High Representative (to coordinate foreign policy). The jury is still out, however, as to whether this has done anything more than add another two voices to the cacophony. Moreover, these reforms did little to address the question of the EU’s “democratic deficit,” a topic of increasing concern since the early 1990s and the main impetus for the launching of the Constitutional process in 2000.

On May 1, 2004, the EU added ten new member-states including former Communist East European countries. Although this enlargement—arguably the EU’s greatest achievement—has not been in question, further enlargement is, and the “illiberal” drift of many of the newer member states has been worrying. Euroscepticism, moreover, has become more generalized in many member-states, one result being the “Brexit” vote in June 2016. Even after the UK’s departure, the rise of populist parties across the EU, both on the extremes of the left (in opposition to the austerity policies imposed on countries that received loan bailouts in the Southern periphery) and on the right (contesting the open internal borders of Schengen, another great EU achievement) continues. Increasing flows of refugees seeking asylum have fueled debates over migration, creating an atmosphere of crisis on Europe’s tightly regulated external borders and putting additional pressure on its internal borders. Finally, in 2020, Europe faced its largest crisis to date in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the pandemic has dwarfed all other crises in its impact on European lives and livelihoods, for the moment at least, it seems to have reversed many of the EU’s long-standing policies, from the Eurozone’s fiscally conservative economic policy to its open internal borders.

Throughout these crises, real and so-called, European integration has continued unabated. For all of the shocks it has weathered, the European Union remains the largest market economy in the world (bigger than the US). It remains a force to be reckoned with, as a global regulator, notably, but also, setting the agenda for international trade and finance along with the United States. Over the last two decades, the EU has gone on integrating—and innovating—in quiet ways, below the radar and off the front pages, through the economic policies of the Single Market and through social policies focused on improving the environment, gender equality, and labor rights.

The unique history, configuration, and current circumstances of the European Union make it an especially interesting case for study. As for the member states, they have adapted institutionally to the EU, adopting EU policies in a range of areas, but they have had very different experiences in doing so, given their own differing institutional structures, policymaking processes, and representative politics. The integration process has brought to light the member states’ different visions of Europe and its political and economic future. It can be seen that the process of European integration, that is, the development of the European Union and the bottom-up influence of member-states in that development, cannot be separated from the process of Europeanization, or the top-down influence of the EU on member-states.

This course, as a graduate-level seminar on the history, politics, and institutions of the European Union, will do more than examine what happened since 2004 or even why it happened and how. We will also be trying to understand and theorize what kind of political entity the EU is—and will be in the future—using theories of international organization. The European Union is more economically and politically integrated than any other international institution and, as such, is one of the most challenging and complex organizations for scholars of international and comparative politics to study. It is a real time experiment testing what we think we know about politics, power, and interests. Why have sovereign states ‘pooled’ part of their sovereignty over time? How should we classify and analyze the EU in a broader context? What is the relationship between European integration, national identities, and a broader European identity? Why is the EU more successful in some policy areas than others?

What impact have market and monetary integration had on European political integration? What is the role of EU enlargement in the integration process over time? What has been the impact of public opinion on EU integration? And what has been the impact of the EU on the member state economies and institutions? We will investigate these issues using different theoretical approaches. The literature on the European Union is broader than can be covered well in a single semester, but the seminar is designed around the key debates and presents a variety of lenses for understanding European integration, equipping you to investigate other issues and policies through your own research.

After a brief introduction to the major themes of the course, we begin with discussions of the major controversies regarding the EU, including how to understand its past and its future. We look at the Eurozone crisis, EU leadership (or lack thereof) in the world, and how to explain European integration as a governance form. We then consider the institutions and governance structures of the EU, focusing in turn on the institutional structures, policymaking processes, and representative politics as well as on the problems for political identity and democratic legitimacy at the European and national levels. Next, we explore the policies of the EU with regard to the single market, monetary integration, enlargement, immigration and borders, foreign and security policy, and trade policy. Throughout the course, we will consider not only the ways in which particular member-states have influenced the construction of the EU as both an economic and political entity but also the ways in which the EU has affected the economies and politics of its member-states.

Spring 2023

Money, Guns, and Power (45 hours)

What is the relationship between money and power? Money as a critical and necessary component of exerting power is unquestioned. Yet the relationship between money and power is tenuous, particularly the relationship between money and a state’s military capabilities. For example, resource poor states have gone onto fight much longer and more victoriously than anticipated and resource rich states have lost more often than anticipated. This class will explore the relationship between money, guns, and power through the lens of military spending, economic statecraft, causes of war, innovation, defense industrial issues, national security resources, and the consequences of spending and war.

Fall 2022

North Atlantic and European Security (45 hours)

This course evaluates the central issues concerning European security and Transatlantic relations since the end of the Cold War. We will first review the Cold War security system of NATO, in place for more than four decades in Europe and the North Atlantic area. We will then evaluate changes to NATO in the 1990s, as well as challenges and conflicts such as the Balkan Wars.  The majority of the course will then focus on the various attempts to create a new Europe-wide security system since the 1990s. The two organizations emphasized are the existing NATO architecture and the emerging security institutions and initiatives of the European Union. These challenges include new security issues such as migration, terrorism, and trafficking, as well as existing geopolitical issues such as Russia as a power rival to Europe and European security relations with regions such as the Middle East, China and Africa. We will also examine the major powers within Europe, their national security interests, strategies, and military capabilities, as well as divisions of interests within Europe and between Europe and the United States.

European Integration (45 hours)

As the Chinese curse goes: May you live in interesting times. And the last two decades have been interesting times indeed for the European Union. Economically, having managed well through the banking crisis of 2008 and the real economy crisis of 2009, the Eurozone was roiled by the sovereign debt crisis beginning in 2010. In the aftermath of 2010, the EU faced a potential existential crisis: deepening integration further or risking disintegration under the pressures of the markets in the event of a new financial crisis. By contrast, in foreign and security policy, the 2011 incursion in Libya was a military success. However, it was a NATO operation led by Britain and France under the UN rather than a Common Security and Defense Policy initiative of the EU. In the political realm, the Lisbon Treaty, finally ratified in 2009, brought to a close the constitutional crisis that followed the defeat of the Constitutional Treaty by referenda in France and the Netherlands in 2005, providing new leadership under the new positions of Council President (to speak in one voice for the EU) and a High Representative (to coordinate foreign policy). The jury is still out, however, as to whether this has done anything more than add another two voices to the cacophony. Moreover, these reforms did little to address the question of the EU’s “democratic deficit,” a topic of increasing concern since the early 1990s and the main impetus for the launching of the Constitutional process in 2000.

On May 1, 2004, the EU added ten new member-states including former Communist East European countries. Although this enlargement—arguably the EU’s greatest achievement—has not been in question, further enlargement is, and the “illiberal” drift of many of the newer member states has been worrying. Euroscepticism, moreover, has become more generalized in many member-states, one result being the “Brexit” vote in June 2016. Even after the UK’s departure, the rise of populist parties across the EU, both on the extremes of the left (in opposition to the austerity policies imposed on countries that received loan bailouts in the Southern periphery) and on the right (contesting the open internal borders of Schengen, another great EU achievement) continues. Increasing flows of refugees seeking asylum have fueled debates over migration, creating an atmosphere of crisis on Europe’s tightly regulated external borders and putting additional pressure on its internal borders. Finally, in 2020, Europe faced its largest crisis to date in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the pandemic has dwarfed all other crises in its impact on European lives and livelihoods, for the moment at least, it seems to have reversed many of the EU’s long-standing policies, from the Eurozone’s fiscally conservative economic policy to its open internal borders.

Throughout these crises, real and so-called, European integration has continued unabated. For all of the shocks it has weathered, the European Union remains the largest market economy in the world (bigger than the US). It remains a force to be reckoned with, as a global regulator, notably, but also, setting the agenda for international trade and finance along with the United States. Over the last two decades, the EU has gone on integrating—and innovating—in quiet ways, below the radar and off the front pages, through the economic policies of the Single Market and through social policies focused on improving the environment, gender equality, and labor rights.

The unique history, configuration, and current circumstances of the European Union make it an especially interesting case for study. As for the member states, they have adapted institutionally to the EU, adopting EU policies in a range of areas, but they have had very different experiences in doing so, given their own differing institutional structures, policymaking processes, and representative politics. The integration process has brought to light the member states’ different visions of Europe and its political and economic future. It can be seen that the process of European integration, that is, the development of the European Union and the bottom-up influence of member-states in that development, cannot be separated from the process of Europeanization, or the top-down influence of the EU on member-states.

This course, as a graduate-level seminar on the history, politics, and institutions of the European Union, will do more than examine what happened since 2004 or even why it happened and how. We will also be trying to understand and theorize what kind of political entity the EU is—and will be in the future—using theories of international organization. The European Union is more economically and politically integrated than any other international institution and, as such, is one of the most challenging and complex organizations for scholars of international and comparative politics to study. It is a real time experiment testing what we think we know about politics, power, and interests. Why have sovereign states ‘pooled’ part of their sovereignty over time? How should we classify and analyze the EU in a broader context? What is the relationship between European integration, national identities, and a broader European identity? Why is the EU more successful in some policy areas than others?

What impact have market and monetary integration had on European political integration? What is the role of EU enlargement in the integration process over time? What has been the impact of public opinion on EU integration? And what has been the impact of the EU on the member state economies and institutions? We will investigate these issues using different theoretical approaches. The literature on the European Union is broader than can be covered well in a single semester, but the seminar is designed around the key debates and presents a variety of lenses for understanding European integration, equipping you to investigate other issues and policies through your own research.

After a brief introduction to the major themes of the course, we begin with discussions of the major controversies regarding the EU, including how to understand its past and its future. We look at the Eurozone crisis, EU leadership (or lack thereof) in the world, and how to explain European integration as a governance form. We then consider the institutions and governance structures of the EU, focusing in turn on the institutional structures, policymaking processes, and representative politics as well as on the problems for political identity and democratic legitimacy at the European and national levels. Next, we explore the policies of the EU with regard to the single market, monetary integration, enlargement, immigration and borders, foreign and security policy, and trade policy. Throughout the course, we will consider not only the ways in which particular member-states have influenced the construction of the EU as both an economic and political entity but also the ways in which the EU has affected the economies and politics of its member-states.

Summer 2022

North Atlantic and European Security (45 hours)

This course evaluates the central issues concerning European security and Transatlantic relations since the end of the Cold War. We will first review the Cold War security system of NATO, in place for more than four decades in Europe and the North Atlantic area. We will then evaluate changes to NATO in the 1990s, as well as challenges and conflicts such as the Balkan Wars.  The majority of the course will then focus on the various attempts to create a new Europe-wide security system since the 1990s. The two organizations emphasized are the existing NATO architecture and the emerging security institutions and initiatives of the European Union. These challenges include new security issues such as migration, terrorism, and trafficking, as well as existing geopolitical issues such as Russia as a power rival to Europe and European security relations with regions such as the Middle East, China and Africa. We will also examine the major powers within Europe, their national security interests, strategies, and military capabilities, as well as divisions of interests within Europe and between Europe and the United States.

Spring 2022

Topics in International Relations | Forced Migration and Human Trafficking: Forced Migration Policy Incubator (45 hours)

There is a complete breakdown of the migration and refugee system, both globally and domestically. Existing international humanitarian and legal tools are designed to deal with refugees on an individualized basis and within short-term crises, but we are witnessing a structural human displacement problem that is becoming more and more acute. This course will harness student motivations towards resolving policy dilemmas over a particular migration issue, as students will work with policy partners in Europe and the US to formulate a user-centric needs assessment and generate user-centric innovative tools and policy proposals. It seeks to engage students in actively re-envisioning the relationship between academia and policy-making to move beyond the idea that the only way to impact policies is through policy recommendations and lobbying efforts that target national or EU policy-makers. In addition to guiding students how to address policy problems, this class is largely designed to bring the instructors and student teams into user  communities and work with NGOs or other users to design digital or information solutions that can help solve problems which require attention to local needs as well as large-scale coordination across national boundaries.

This upper level policy seminar has three objectives: First, it is a seminar that covers key concepts in global forced migration and humanitarian innovation. It provides students with a brief overview of the humanitarian and policy challenges around forced migration processes, and introduces the idea of humanitarian innovation while challenging conventional assumptions about humanitarian application of innovative technologies, strategies, and partnerships. It also aims to introduce students to the digital dimension of the theory of harm, techno-colonialism, and related risk assessment frameworks. The second goal of the class is to–carefully–use a needs assessment and user-centric methodology to specify one specific answer to the following problem statement: “why are migration processes, policies, and outcomes inhumane and inefficient at the global, European, national, and local levels, and what can be done about it?”  Migration processes are broken along multiple dimensions, from citizenship statuses to security vetting to legal criteria to local social service coordination to humane borders. While many talented and dedicated people work to resolve this, there are pervasive gaps in our institutional, activist, legal, technical, and academic knowledge and durable policy responses. For the first half of the course, students will probe written literature, find expert mentors, and question interviewees to establish the relevance of their formulated problem. For the second half of the semester, students will develop possible practical solutions to their stated problems.  The objective is to propose a prototype solution within the digital space that could be deployed and further tested to alleviate the problem.