The European Union Program at Princeton

Silvia Weyerbrock

This course studies the economies of current and prospective European Union (EU) members and economic integration in Europe after 1945. It explores the political motivation for, and the economic implications of, the European Union's moves towards ever deeper integration and enlargement. Topics include policy-making in the EU, adoption of common policies including European Monetary Union and the Euro and their implications for fiscal and labor market policies, problems raised by an EU enlargement to the East, and economic transition in EU applicant countries. The course uses economic analysis to study policy issues.
 

Harold James

This course gives a broad and inter-disciplinary perspective on some of the very diverse cultural and historical roots of European identity. It examines contemporary debates over contested identity in the light of long historical trajectories in which identities were continually defined and reshaped. It is conceived as an introduction to many of the courses in Princeton dealing with European issues. The landmarks include, but are not restricted to, written texts. They include Machiavelli, Montesquieu, Marx and J.S. Mill, but also Fra Angelico, Beethoven and Thomas Mann.

Andrew Moravcsik

Mario Zucconi

In the last two decades, EU-China relations have been characterized by both burgeoning trade (since 2004, the EU has been China’s main trading partner) and a strong European interest in stimulating political reforms in China. Often qualified as a “normative power”, in the post-Cold war decades, the EU has asserted itself as a global actor and become an important and effective promoter of democratic institutions and individual rights internationally. It has done so through multilateral diplomacy, and by often attaching strings to its bilateral economic interaction. China has been increasingly cooperative especially in fields such as business or environmental regulations. With regard to political and human rights, however, the EU’s attempts at encouraging reforms have proven both difficult and complex, with progress in some areas and continuing concerns in others. Early attempts to swap reforms for access to advanced technologies, for example, proved ineffective; specific programs aimed at improving the Chinese legal system (by training judges and prosecutors) have had more success. In recent years, the collective EU approach to China has been one of “engagement and partnership” built around several “dialogues” with regular bilateral meetings focused on programs financed by the European Union; at the same time, individual European states have developed their own approaches.The task force will review the experiences of the EU on this issue and assess the strengths and weaknesses of the various strategies that have been used. Its report will be in the form of recommendations to EU officials on how to make their policies of engagement with China more incisive and effective.

James Gadsden

Crisis detection, prevention, and response management will take increasing priority in the US-EU strategic partnership. The US and the EU have made significant progress on a series of bilateral agreements establishing the legal bases and procedural structures for law enforcement cooperation. To extend this cooperation, Washington and the US Mission to the EU are currently working on a proposed framework agreement for US-EU cooperation on crisis response. This policy conference will consider whether the scope of US cooperation should be limited to crisis response or whether it should include more comprehensive cooperation on crisis detection, prevention, and response management. It will examine what priorities should be accorded to which crises, and will analyze the effectiveness and weaknesses of US and EU detection, prevention, and response management policies, structures, capabilities, and practices. The group will also examine NATO’s concept of crisis management through coordinating political, civilian, and military efforts. Finally, the conference will assess the degree to which existing US-EU mechanisms for law enforcement cooperation would permit cooperation on crisis detection, prevention, and response management. The policy conference’s final report will be in the form of recommendations to the US Department of State. This policy conference will not address post-crisis stabilization and reconstruction in foreign states.