European, Integration, and the World
S06
Geoffrey Pigman
In summer 2005, voters in France and the Netherlands firmly rejected a proposed Constitutional Treaty for the European Union. Why does European integration seem so natural to some and so threatening to others? Why does the European Union seem so inevitable and yet so difficult? Who is European and who is not? What sort of polity is the EU, and what is its role in the world? The next global hegemonic power? Specialist in peacemaking and peacekeeping? This course investigates the controversial project of European integration, beginning with identity theory and theories of integration. We examine the history of Europe’s integration and evolution of European political and economic institutions, including the European Union and other pan-European bodies such as the OSCE, Council of Europe and the European Courts. We explore the emerging foreign and security policies of the EU as Europe seeks to find and define a new role for itself as a new type of polity in the global political economy.