European Studies

This is an elective course designed as an introduction to Italian culture from a variety of perspectives. It is designed for non-specialists, so students do not need to be familiar either with Italian language or with the country of Italy before taking this course.

This course provides a critical understanding of the major issues currently faced by European countries, and the interplay between Member States, European institutions, global challenges and democratic legitimacy concerns. It analyzes the facts to understand the major causes and potential consequences and think of possible solutions to address challenges existing in the euro area, those created by the unprecedented migrant flows in Europe, stemming from climate change. The course also looks at the rise of Euroscepticism and the issue of democratic deficit in the European Union. The course provides a critical approach and a solid understanding of the major issues and debates on the topics covered during the class.

This course deals with some of the most fundamental questions concerning the development of the European Identity: what have been the decisive common experiences that have fostered a sense of European community and identity, and how have they evolved over time? The course provides an overview of the concept of Europe and the development of European identity, highlighting the specific characteristics of European political/social/cultural history, notably in comparison with that of other (non-European) societies, that contributed to a sense of European community and the European identity.

This course focuses on the comparative study of the four formerly Communist Central European countries, commonly referred to as the Visegrad Group. The course draws upon students' basic knowledge of current and classic themes of comparative politics and takes these to the next level by analyzing how applicable they are to the region under study where democratic institutions are young. It focuses on historical and current developments in Central Europe, looking at how the legacy of Communist rule shaped the creation of a particular type of political institutions and political actors. The course looks at and compares the systems of legislatures, executives in the four countries and analyses the role of the fragile judiciary systems in the region. Among other topics covered are corruption, democratization, mass protesting, party development as well as changing values. The course briefly looks at the backlash in the European integration process and rise of populism and far-right movements in the region.

The course provides students with a theoretically-grounded understanding of the role of the European Union as an international actor. Using theories of international relations, European integration and Foreign Policy Analysis, it analyzse and evaluate the EU’s evolving external identity and policy capabilities across a range of external relations, including membership conditionality, trade and development, international crime and terrorism, asylum and immigration, foreign, security and defense policy, and democracy and human rights promotion. The course then examines the nature of key bilateral relationships between the EU and selected countries (US, Russia, and China) and regions (former colonies, regional groups), explaining the extent to which they have been institutionalized and the challenges that define them. It will end by assessing what sort of international actor the EU ‘is’ and ‘wants to be’ – namely civilian, normative or military – and evaluating the likelihood of the EU emerging as a global superpower in the future.

This course explores the creation, evolution, and subsequent disintegration of the Soviet Union, as well as the emergence of a new Russia from the wreckage of the world’s first socialist state. Emphasis is placed on key political, social, and cultural developments, seen within the context of Soviet, post-Soviet and, more broadly, European history.

This course aims at a broader and deeper understanding of Europe, developing a panorama of the meaning of the term “Europe” using a hybrid approach at once historical/cultural and institutional/political. It provides the basic knowledge needed to be an informed citizen of/in Europe and read and interpret accurately European current events. The course builds fundamental knowledge of the basics of European geography, and its common history and politics. It considers Europe as not simply a geographical area nor a multilateral treaty but a civilizational mosaic, and a whole. The course allows students to become familiar with the mainstays of French academic literature on European integration. The approach this course takes is to highlight and examine the key moments, what Solzhenitzyn called the nodal points, of the European adventure as a way of understanding what drove the artistic and religious revolutions that accompanied Europe's tremendous expansion on the basis of overseas conquest. Subsequently, and based on the understanding of the European historical ensemble, the course reflects on the political, economic, social, and even cultural convergence constituting the European integration which has been taking place over the past seventy years. 

This seminar introduces the scientific study of European politics. The course applies the basic theoretical tools, concepts, and empirical methods of comparative politics to analyze, understand, and explain some of the systematic relationships that exist between economic, political, and social variables within European countries and the European Union. The seminar is divided thematically into three parts. Following a brief introduction to the course and review of the comparative method, the first section covers the origins of European states and democracy in Europe as well as the democratic transition processes of the ‘third wave’ in Southern, Central, and Eastern Europe. The second section focuses on the domestic political institutions of liberal European democracies and the variation that exists between them and the institutions of the European Union. While the course covers country-specific knowledge, the course is not an in-depth study of individual countries. Instead, the course discusses the similarities and differences in the executive-legislative relations, electoral systems, and party systems across Europe. The final section of the seminar deals with the effects and policy consequences that the variation in these institutional arrangements has on government accountability, representation, economic performance, political stability, and various economic and social policies.