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21. Brexit and the Future off the European Union

Author:
Simon Glendinning
Publication Date:
06-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Turkish Policy Quarterly (TPQ)
Institution:
Transatlantic Policy Quarterly (TPQ)
Abstract:
The article explores the conception of European integration and enlargement that was consistently proposed by leading British politicians in the post-War period prior to Brexit. Two basic themes are identified in that conception: first, a clear preference for a project of both integration and enlargement; and second, an equally clear resistance to the formation of a European superstate as the final goal of that project. The article concludes that this characteristically British vision of European integration – the vision of a United Europe of States – is not exclusively British and is unlikely to disappear from the now Britain-free EU
Topic:
Regional Cooperation, European Union, Brexit, and Integration
Political Geography:
Europe

22. Turkey and the Future of Europe: A History

Author:
Giancarlo Casale
Publication Date:
06-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Turkish Policy Quarterly (TPQ)
Institution:
Transatlantic Policy Quarterly (TPQ)
Abstract:
Throughout its history, Europe has never been simply a place but a complex set of ideas and aspirations in continual evolution—of which the European Union of 2022 is only the most recent iteration. As a result, while history cannot predict the future of Europe and its relationship to Turkey, what it can do is identify clearly recurrent patterns that are likely to continue. With this in mind, the present article provides a very long view—almost as old as history itself—of the evolution of the European idea as seen from Turkey, to provide a more rooted perspective on current debates about Turkey, Europe, and where the two are headed at a moment of dynamic change for both.
Topic:
Diplomacy, Regional Cooperation, European Union, and Integration
Political Geography:
Europe and Turkey

23. Enlargement of the European Union: Lessons from the Western Balkans

Author:
Tefta Kelmendi
Publication Date:
06-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Turkish Policy Quarterly (TPQ)
Institution:
Transatlantic Policy Quarterly (TPQ)
Abstract:
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine created a new momentum for the European Union to review its political and security strategy for the neighborhood. Its enlargement policy – which has become yet another divisive issue in Europe over the past years – is now forced back into the EU’s foreign policy priorities. With Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova officially requesting membership in the EU, deciding how to go about it has become an even greater challenge. Over the past 20 years, we have evidenced a failure of the EU to show results in the Western Balkans – both in terms of driving democratic reforms and the rule of law, as well as in delivering on its promises in the accession process. The war in Ukraine might be the EU’s last chance to reinvigorate its enlargement policy and reposition itself geopolitically in eastern and southeastern Europe.
Topic:
Security, Military Strategy, European Union, Military Intervention, Conflict, and Integration
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, Ukraine, and Balkans

24. Anxiety, Dissonance and Imperial Amnesia of the European Union

Author:
Filip Ejdus
Publication Date:
04-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
International Relations Council of Turkey (UİK-IRCT)
Abstract:
According to the master commemorative narrative of the EU, the European integration project represents a break with the violent European past characterised by fragmentation and nationalism, which culminated in World War Two and the crimes of Nazism and Stalinism. However, recent scholarship has criticised the omission of 19th and 20th-century European colonialism from the memory narratives advanced by the EU. In this article, I use the permanent exhibition in the House of European History (HEH) in Brussels to take this insight one step further and make two arguments. Firstly, I show that it is not only colonialism that is erased from official memory but, more broadly, empires and imperialism, although most European history over the past 2000 years was imperial. Secondly, I understand this “imperial amnesia” as an anxiety-controlling mechanism aimed at reducing the dissonance between the self-proclaimed image of a normative and civilian power on the one hand and imperial-like tendencies in its behaviour on the other.
Topic:
Nationalism, Regional Cooperation, European Union, and Integration
Political Geography:
Europe

25. Has Europe’s hour come?

Author:
Antoine Cibirski
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Robert Schuman Foundation (RSF)
Abstract:
“Europe’s hour has come”, said a Luxembourg minister in 1991 at the beginning of the Yugoslav wars. The context seemed favourable: an initially peripheral crisis, a relative lack of interest on the part of Russia, a green light from the United States which was even encouraging invention by the Western European Union (WEU), the majority of whose activities were taken over by the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP), and later by the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). America's 'pet project' at the time was not yet Asia, but rather the management of the decay of the Soviet world, without much interest in the Western Balkans. In response, some Europeans 'held back' and feared an unfavourable division of tasks: 'noble' collective defence missions reserved for NATO and peacekeeping missions, considered 'subordinate', for Europe. Strategic prescience! Four years later, we had witnessed the bombing of civilians, the siege of Sarajevo, broken ceasefires, failed mediations and Srebreniça. We had experienced the humiliations inflicted on a UN force (UNPROFOR) that had a timid mandate and overly restrictive rules of engagement. The British and French were in the field this time round, but not the Germans. The Dayton Peace Agreement, which only France calls "the Dayton-Paris agreement" (a formal concession by Bill Clinton to Jacques Chirac) was largely a Pax Americana. In the American camp, Richard Holbrooke had pulled the strings and decided everything, by ruthlessly relegating the European leaders, including Carl Bildt, Jacques Blot and Pauline Neville-Jones[1].
Topic:
European Union, Conflict, and Integration
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, and Ukraine

26. Reviving and Reorienting Growth after the Pandemic: The Role of Local Infrastructure Investments

Author:
Nicola Bilotta
Publication Date:
12-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
The last decade has witnessed a progressive change in what had long been considered global priorities for achieving growth. The global financial crisis of 2007–2008 and the following European sovereign debt crises of 2011–2012 have brought to light important pitfalls in the functioning of globalized financial markets. Trade and financial liberalization policies have at times caused severe strains in some communities, raising concerns over the effects of rapid increases in international integration. Environmental and social risks have come to the forefront of the policy debate. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought enormous challenges to what was the normal way of living. All these events have had far-reaching consequences on the global economy. Currently, the world is facing at least three major shocks that are affecting health (COVID-19), prosperity (the recession) and the planet (climate change). These have been chosen as the three keywords for Italy’s G20 Presidency. These shocks are different in nature and have very diverse effects across countries, regions and municipalities. This calls for differentiated and targeted responses that take into account the specific needs of individual communities.
Topic:
Climate Change, Infrastructure, G20, Economic Growth, Investment, Integration, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Europe, India, Vietnam, Philippines, United States of America, and Congo

27. Muslims in the 18th-Century Habsburg Cities: The Social Integration of an Unincorporated Population

Author:
David Do Paco
Publication Date:
10-2021
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
The Harriman Institute
Abstract:
Please join the Harriman Institute and East Central European Center for a lecture by David Do Paço, István Deák Visiting Professor at Columbia University (Harriman Institute and Department of History). This lecture explores the social life of unincorporated populations in community-based societies, and analyzes how they used the social fabric of global cities to compensate for their administrative marginality, and still have a political impact. It specifically focuses on Muslims in port, continental, and recently reconquered cities in the Habsburg Empire throughout the 18th century to overcome the traditional opposition between “Islam” and “Europe,” and to support the development of inclusive memory policies. It examines the multiple affiliations of fragile populations and offers a new history of foreigners in early modern Europe. It thus fits into the perspective of a new urban history from the ground up and advocates a trans-imperial and global history of Central Europe. David Do Paço is István Deák Visiting Professor at Columbia University (Harriman Institute and Department of History) and a historian of the Habsburg Empire in the 18th century. His research lies at the intersection of urban history, diaspora studies, and historical anthropology. He defended his Ph.D. in 2012 at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and has since been a EUI Max-Weber Fellow and a CEU-IAS Core Fellow. In 2015, he published his first monograph, L’Orient à Vienne au dix-huitième siècle, as part of the Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment (Voltaire Foundation). That same year, David joined Sciences Po where, among other responsibilities, he directed the departmental seminar in European History. At Columbia University he is working on his new project “ESLAM: European Societies in the Light of Apolitical Muslims.” He has recently contributed to the Historical Journal, Urban History, and the International History Review.
Topic:
Religion, Minorities, Urban, Cities, and Integration
Political Geography:
Europe and Habsburg Empire

28. Sino-Russian Convergence on Eurasian Integration: Understanding the Long-Term Engagement

Author:
Shabir Amhad Khan
Publication Date:
01-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
South Asian Studies
Institution:
Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab
Abstract:
Russia and China surrounding Eurasia, realizing Halford Mackinder‘s Heartland theory by integrating the Eurasian landmass. Economic, political and strategic complementarities between Russia and China plus geography are the integrative forces compelling both the powers to accommodate each other‘s interests and provide indispensable benefits to each other in the context of Eurasian integration. By developing both the components of cross border connectivity infrastructure i.e. hardware (Roads, Railways, Pipelines, Ports) as well as software (harmonization and coordination of policies, regulations) the dyad is turning the 21st Century into ―Eurasian Century‖. Historically, with the inventions of maritime (Sea lanes of Communication) transportation, the power shifted to Sea powers(West) as they controlled the main transportation routes. The development and hence control over the transportation routes over Eurasia will result into a power shift from Sea powers to land powers (Russia & China). Therefore the stakes are high for both the continental powers in integrating Eurasia. One is World‘s largest energy producer while the other is largest energy consumer. All this mean a permanent need for each other and long-term engagement for at least the rest of 21st century. This complementarily between Russia and China is also turning the heartland i.e. landlocked geography of Central Asian Republics into a blessing for these republics as opposed to the landlocked Afghanistan for which its geography turned to be a curse. Both consider Central Asia as their backyard and therefore unanimous on keeping the backyard stable and developed.
Topic:
International Cooperation, Conflict, Regional Integration, and Integration
Political Geography:
Russia, China, Europe, and Asia

29. COVID-19 and the Demand for Labor and Skills in Europe: Early Evidence and Implications for Migration Policy

Author:
Terence Hogarth
Publication Date:
02-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
The European Union and several of its Member States have in recent years launched policies designed to increase the demand for and supply of skilled workers in Europe. This includes educating or attracting non-EU workers with in-demand digital skills and those with the expertise needed to further other policy aims, such as the European Union’s Green Deal. These were already ambitious goals before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, heralding an economic recession and high levels of unemployment. Weathering this crisis and setting the stage for a speedy recovery are now top priorities for policymakers across Europe. Yet longer-term labor market trends linked to technological developments and demographic shifts in some countries—as residents age and older workers leave the workforce—remain important, even as pandemic-related labor market disruptions and constrained national budgets may make pursuing policies to adapt to these changes more difficult. This MPI Europe issue brief explores how the pandemic is shaping the demand for workers and skills in the European Union, and how policymakers can respond to these trends. It also considers how leaders can keep one eye on Europe’s longer-term skills needs. Among its recommendations are investments in education and training systems; in measures that ensure migrants living in Europe are able to successfully integrate into the labor market and apply their skills; and in data-driven, transparent mechanisms to detect where resident workers are unable to meet labor demands and migration from beyond the European Union may be needed.
Topic:
Education, Migration, Labor Issues, Economy, Integration, COVID-19, Workforce, and Skills
Political Geography:
Europe

30. Solidarity in Isolation? Social Cohesion at a Time of Physical Distance

Author:
Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan and Aliyyah Ahad
Publication Date:
07-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
In addition to its widespread public-health and economic impacts, the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged social cohesion in many countries by forcing changes in how people interact. Physical connection, the most human response to collective adversity, has been largely out of reach during long periods of lockdown, social distancing, and remote work and learning. The temporary closure of public spaces such as libraries and schools has also limited the spontaneous, casual encounters that can build bridges between disparate groups. This MPI Europe report explores ways to assess the pandemic’s effects on social capital and social infrastructure in Europe and North America. It also presents an initial analysis of how and where social cohesion is in peril and where it may actually be gaining strength, and highlights the importance of governments taking an inclusive approach and prioritizing social cohesion as societies move toward recovery. The authors identify three trends: Bridges between groups are weakening, even as new forms of connection may be strengthening bonds within existing networks. Immigrant integration programs have worked hard to move their offerings online, but digital tools may capture only a fraction of what in-person programming can and they may leave behind some people who most need assistance overcoming integration barriers, such as those with limited access to and familiarity with technology. A wide range of volunteering, mutual aid, and other grassroots forms of solidarity have emerged during the pandemic, but it remains to be seen which can make the switch from emergency response to longer-term engagement.
Topic:
Immigration, Citizenship, Integration, Social Cohesion, Social Capital, COVID-19, and Civic Engagement
Political Geography:
Europe, North America, and Global Focus