Eu centers proposal submission guidelines

Geopolitics as Trans-National Policy Challenge

The EU has emerged as a critical power in global economics and politics. The EU is the world’s largest market, a critical actor in international trade negotiations, and a major force in shaping commercial and legal regulations worldwide. The Euro, which is now celebrating its eleventh anniversary, is a leading international currency that has weathered a major crisis and continues to be sought as a reserve currency by governments across the globe. The EU as a whole, and its most powerful members individually, wield considerable diplomatic clout on issues ranging from nuclear proliferation, to climate change, to the Middle East peace process. The EU has been at the forefront of the ongoing humanitarian intervention in Libya and has played a central role in the evolution of democracy in the Middle East.

Many Americans, and especially many Texans, do not understand or appreciate Europe’s emergence as a global power—a power that in many respects rivals that of the US. They are still wedded to a cold war view in which Europe is a decidedly junior partner to America, despite the roles being reversed to a large extent in the ongoing Libyan intervention. And they certainly do not understand the EU and its crucial role in European life. This tendency to see Europe as it was, rather than as it is and will be, has played a role in many of the trans-Atlantic disputes of recent years.
The Center will address these issues by examining Europe’s evolution and emergence as a major global actor, seeking to understand Europe’s responses to a number of geopolitical issues as instructive case studies. The Center will help UT faculty and students, as well as the broader Central Texas community, to understand the current state of play in Europe’s capacities to respond to geopolitical crises—from the 2008 Russo-Georgian war to the ongoing situation in Libya—as well as the global reach of the EU. The Center will pay special attention to the rich and varied debates within Europe over the future evolution of the EU, including issues such as the EU’s enlargement policy and the development and maturation of its Common Foreign and Security Policy, and to the EU’s critical role in dealing with secessionist regions and frozen conflicts on its borders. In pursuing these efforts, the Center will draw heavily on its professional schools, especially the schools of business, law, and public affairs, all of which have considerable expertise and interest in these areas.
In looking at the evolution of Europe as a geopolitical actor, the Center will examine Europe’s relations with nations of the former Soviet Union and the post-Communist Central/Eastern Europe. There is a divergence within Europe on what role Russia should play in this region. The Central/Eastern European members of the EU have a different perception of Moscow’s interests in the post-Soviet sphere than the West European member states. Indeed, Europe’s growing economic ties with Russia have outpaced its political ties. Further, Russia is Europe’s main supplier of natural gas and a consumer for European exports. But Russian leaders dismiss European concerns about anti-democratic developments in Russia and criticize Europe for being too willing to follow the US in international affairs. The Center will examine the Russian-European relationship, particularly in the cases of energy security and frozen conflict management, both in the Balkans and in the Caucasus.
The Center’s work on transnational policy challenges will also investigate specific instances of US-European cooperation on so-called out of area issues. One such topic involves the whole constellation of issues subsumed under the umbrella of peacekeeping and post-conflict governance. First in the Balkans, then in Afghanistan, and currently in Libya, US and European governments, both through NATO and independently of it, are working cooperatively to reduce ethnic and sectarian violence and to build lasting structures of peace. These efforts have gone well beyond—indeed, have had to go well-beyond—“ordinary” military deployments to encompass a broad array of diplomatic, economic, social, and judicial initiatives. The Center’s efforts in this area will seek to identify what lessons Europeans and Americans have learned over the past decade and to assess what new steps need be taken.