Course syllabus

 

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European Languages and Literatures & Europe Institute
Summer School 2019
EUROPEAN 206/302
European Integration:
After BREXIT, Putin, Trump, Macron?
Does “European integration” still exist? Did it ever exist? What sustains now the EU mantra "Ever closer union?" With BREXIT stalled and the ongoing trauma of the migration crisis, the local austerity and financial fallout of the 2008 Great Financial Crisis, rising Euroskeptic populist and protectionist nationalisms in France, Austria, Germany, and the UK, the resurgence of Russia as a political force in Eastern Europe, and the rejection of Turkey's petition to become an EU member state, are we now witnessing European DISintegration?
In this course we examine how integrated economies, governance, and regional cooperation are changing the fabric of contemporary Europe and the challenges those strategies for "ever closer union" are facing. How do economies and Eurozone policies intersect with social cohesion and communities? How are moving populations, mandated austerity measures, global finance, cultural diversity, rising nationalisms, and growing social anxiety challenging the idea of an "integrated Europe"? What will be the effects of newly elected leaders from the right and centre-right on the European Project? Can the European Project be sustained?
This team-taught cross-disciplinary course examines key aspects of "integration" and global politics in contemporary Europe:
1. European Union, its political form, foreign and security policies
2. European Constitution, enlargement, and resurgent nationalism
3. European identities in the era of bordering nationalism, migration, austerity, and BREXIT
4. Media and cultural representations of a multicultural Europe and their societal impact
5. The European Single Market, economic and monetary policy.
Lecturers have direct experience and research expertise in European and EU governance, policy, and cultural politics.

Lectures: Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 1100-1300, ARTS 1-315.
Tutorials: Thursdays, 1100-1200,  ARTS 1-216.
Coordinator: Bernadette Luciano b.luciano@auckland.ac.nz
Assessments: Exam (35%), Coursework essay (40%), In-class Test (25%)

Lecturers:
Bernadette Luciano
Fraser Cameron (frasercameron@hotmail.com), Director-EU/Asia Centre (Brussels)
Mark Swift (m.swift@auckland.ac.nz), Russian & European Studies
Maureen Benson-Rea (m.benson-rea@auckland.ac.nz) Management and International Business
Logan Carmichael (lcar558@aucklanduni.ac.nz - Office Hours Thursday 12-1pm, Arts 2 313b)

Course Outline

Week 1: European Union: Political Integration, Foreign Relations, Current Issues
Lecturer – Dr. Fraser Cameron (Former Senior Advisor in the European Commission, Director of the EU-Asia Centre, Brussels).
8 January: Introduction to the EU. What kind of actor is the EU? What are the current challenges facing the EU (migration-populism-Brexit)?

9 January: EU Structures. The role of the European Commission, the Council, the Parliament, the Court of Justice. Other stakeholders – business, civil society. Where does power lie? How to influence the EU

Week 2: European Union: Political Integration, Foreign Relations, Current Issues
Lecturer – Dr. Fraser Cameron (Former Senior Advisor in the European Commission, Director of the EU-Asia Centre, Brussels).
15 January: The EU as a global actor. The challenge of Trump and the threat to the rules-based international system (Paris climate accords, Iran nuclear deal, WTO, arms control, etc). The EU and its neighbourhood – Russia, Ukraine, W Balkans, N Africa and M East.

16 January: The EU and Asia. Relations with China, Japan, India and Korea. The EU and ASEAN. Negotiations for free trade agreements with Australia and New Zealand.

Week 3: European Identities in the Era of Nationalist Politics and Resurgent Russia
Lecturers -- Mark Swift, Russian/European Languages and Literature; Logan Carmichael,
22 January: Background to today’s East-West tension: Russia’s historical identity and ambivalence in regard to the West, from origins to the post-Soviet years; resurgent Russian nationalism under Putin (Swift)
23 January: Russian Resurgence, the Ukrainian Conflict, and their ties to the European Union (Logan Carmichael)

Week 4: European Anxieties and Identities: Immigration/Refugee 'Crisis' in the Mediterranean and its Cultural Representations
Lecturer: Bernadette Luciano, School of Languages, Cultures, and Linguistics
29 January The European Migration/Refugee Crisis and its perception: Quando sei nato non puoi piu' nasconderti/Once you are born you can no longer hide (Dir: Marco Tullio Giordana, 2005). (view prior to class available in Library)
30 January Lecture on Fuocammare/Fire at Sea (Dir: Gianfranco Rosi, 2016) (view prior to class, available on-line.)

Weeks 5-6 The European Single Market, economic and monetary policy
Lecturer – AP Maureen Benson-Rea, Management and International Business (31 January)
5 February Economic Integration – The Single Market
6 February NO CLASS
12 February Monetary Integration – The Euro, Optimum Currency Areas
13 February The EU after the Global Financial Crisis: Asymmetry, Austerity, Anxiety, and the Future of EU Integration

Final Exam at day/time scheduled during Exams Week (18-20 February)

Assessments:
65% Coursework:
One-hour in-class test (25%). Mostly identification and short answer format on material covered in the first two weeks of the course (Dr. Cameron). Test will be given Thursday, 24 January (1100-1200).

Reflective essay (40%). Approximately 1000) words for students enrolled in EUROPEAN 206 and 1500 words for students enrolled in EUROPEAN 302. Guidelines posted to Canvas and discussed in class. Reflective essay DUE 10 February. Submit your essay electronically to turnitin.com.

35% Final Two-hour written examination
The exam consists of essay and short answer questions. Past exams for the course are accessible on the UoA Library website. The final exam is comprehensive (Weeks 1-6), with emphasis on questions and materials from Weeks 3, 5-6.

Other matters:
All course materials are available on the course website linked to Canvas. Announcements, lecture outlines or PPTs, and other course supplements will be posted to the Canvas site.

Detailed schedule with Readings and Resources:

Weeks 1-2: European Union, political integration, and foreign relations
Readings: Kristin Archick. 2015. The European Union (EU): Current Challenges and Future Prospects in Brief. Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 27/10/2015.

Following books are available on Short-Loan.
PDF files of individual chapters listed below are posted on the Canvas course website.

Dinan, D. 2005. Ever Closer Union. 3rd ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave. 337.914 D58 2005
Canvas: Chapter 1: "Reconstruction, Reconciliation. and Integration, 1945-1957."

Bomberg, E. and Stubbs, A. (eds.) 2012. The European Union: How does it work? 3rd ed. Oxford: OUP. 341.2422 B69
Canvas: Chapter 22 (D. Dinan) "How did we get here?"
Chapter with discussion questions and further reading provides a concise overview of the history and development of the EU.

Peterson and M. Shackleton (eds.) The Institutions of the European Union. 2nd ed. Oxford: OUP. 341.2422 P48
Canvas: Chapter 7 (T. Kennedy) "The European Court of Justice"
Chapter focuses on the court's role in European integration in establishing and upholding the legal authority of treaty agreements, notably in commerce.

Nugent, N. 2006. The Government and the Politics of the European Union. 6th ed. Basingtstoke: Palgrave. 341.2422 N96 2006
Canvas: Chapter 22: "Present Realities and Future Prospects"

Cameron, F. 2005. The Future of Europe, Integration and Enlargement. London: Routledge.
Canvas: Chapter 1: "Widening and Deepening"; Chapter 9: "Europe's Future"

Cameron, F. 2012. An Introduction to European Foreign Policy. London: Routledge.
Canvas: Chapter 1: "A strange superpower"; Chapter 13: "Future prospects"

Cameron, F. 2017. "After Brexit: Prospects for EU-UK cooperation on foreign and security policy." Policy Brief, European Policy Centre. 30 October.

Cameron, F. 2017. "'It's Asia, Stupid: Time for the EU to deepen relations with Asia." GIGA Focus Asia. No. 6. November.

"Re-energising Europe: A package deal for the EU 27." New Pact for Europe, Third Report. November.

Other recommended websites:
EU institutions: www.europa.eu
European Policy Centre (EPC): www.epc.edu
Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS): www.ceps.eu
Centre for European Reform (CER): www.cer.org.uk
www.fride.org
www.dgap.org
www.ifri.org
www.carnegieeurope.eu
www.chathamhouse.org
www.fiia.fi/eng
www.ecfr.eu
www.cfr.org
www.ciis.org.cn

Week 3: European Identities in the Era of Nationalist Politics and Resurgent Russia and Eastern Rising
Lecturers: Mark Swift, Logan Carmichael.
Readings (22 January)
Required:
Westphalen, Timothy. “The West,” Chapter 5 in Nicholas Rzhevsky (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Modern Russian Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge UP) 2011, pp. 94–112.
This edition of The Cambridge Companion is available as an e-book through UoA Library website:

Recommended:

Laruelle, Marlene. “Russian as an anti-liberal European Civilisation,” Chapter 10 in Pal Kolsto and Helge Blakkisrud (eds.), The New Russian Nationalism: Imperialism, Ethnicity and Authoritarianism 2000–15 (Edinburgh UP) 2016, pp. 275–296.

Also recommended: other chapters in the above-named Cambridge Companion on various aspects of Russian history, thought, and culture.
Readings (23 January):
Required:
Legvold, Robert. ‘Managing the New Cold War: What Moscow and Washington Can Learn from the Last One,” Foreign Affairs 93, no. 4 (July/August 2014): 74-84. [Foreign Affairs paywall; Can be accessed through Auckland University Library database]
MacFarlane, Neil and Anand Menon. ‘The EU and Ukraine,’ Survival 56, no. 3 (2014): 95-101. [Can be accessed through Auckland University Library database]

Recommended:
Charap, Sam. ‘The Ukraine Impasse,’ Survival 56, no. 5 (2014): 225-232.
Legvold, Robert. Return to Cold War. Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2016.
Reid, Anna. Borderland: A Journey Through the History of Ukraine. London, UK: W&N, 2015.
Saryusz-Wolski. ‘Euromaidan: Time to Draw Conclusions,’ European View 13, no. 1 (2014): 11-20.

Week 4: European Anxieties and Identities: Immigration/Refugee 'Crisis' in the Mediterranean and its Cultural Representations
Required Films:
Quando sei nato non puoi piu' nasconderti/Once you are born you can no longer hide (Dir: Marco Tullio Giordana, 2005). (Available in Library)
Fuocammare/Fire at Sea (Dir: Gianfranco Rosi, 2016) Available on line at: https://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/tv-radio/titleFL_00172_01

ASMAT-Names in memory of all victims of the sea. (Dir.Dagmawi Yimer) https://vimeo.com/114343040

Required Readings:

De Swert,Knut, Laura Schacht & Andrea Masini (2015) "More than Human Tragedy? A Quantitative Comparison of Newspaper Coverage on Irregular Migration and Lampedusa in Five European Countries," Italian Studies, 70:4, 506-520, DOI: 10.1080/00751634.2015.1120947 (Week 4 files)

Mazzara, Federica (2015) "Spaces of Visibility for the Migrants of Lampedusa: The Counter Narrative of the Aesthetic Discourse," Italian Studies, 70:4, 449-464, DOI: 10.1080/00751634.2015.1120944 (Week 4 files)

Ponzanesi, Sandra (2016) "Of shipwrecks and weddings: borders and mobilities in Europe," Transnational Cinemas, 7:2, 151-167, DOI: 10.1080/20403526.2016.1217627 (Week 4 files)

Additional Readings:

Faleschini, Giovanna. 2010. "From the Other Side of the Mediterranean: Hospitality in Italian Migration Cinema," California Italian Studies Journal. http://scholarship.org/uc/item/45h010h5 or Talis Reading List

O'Healy, Aine. 2010. "Mediterranean Passages: Abjection and Belonging in Contemporary Italian Cinema," California Italian Studies Journal. http://scholarship.org/uc/item/2qh5d59c or Talis Reading List

Weeks 5-6 The European Single Market, economic and monetary policy

Benson-Rea, M., and Gerke, A. (2018). Single Market Evolution and its Business Impact, in Suder, G, Riviere, M, and J Lindeque, (eds). The Routledge Companion to European Business, Routledge, https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Companion-to-European-Business/Suder-Riviere-Lindeque/p/book/9781138226586
El-Agraa, A (ed.) 2011. The European Union: Economics and Policies. 9th ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
Canvas. Chapter 7: "The economics of the single market"
Canvas. Chapter 11: "The development of EU economic and monetary integration"
Canvas. Chapter 12: "The operation of EMU"
Canvas. Jager, J. and Hafner, K. A. 2013. “The Optimum Currency Area Theory and the EMU: An Assessment in the Context of the Eurozone Crisis”, Intereconomics, 5:315–322.
Five short videos, transcripts of the videos, and questions for discussion available on Canvas at: http://www.europe.auckland.ac.nz/en/research-projects/year-1.html.
Canvas. Karamichailidou, G., Mayes, D., and Margaritis, D. 2017. “Asymmetry, Austerity and Anxiety: The Approach to the Greek Debt Crisis”, in Christos Floros and Ioannis Chatziantoniou (eds), The Greek Debt Crisis – In quest of Growth at Times of Austerity, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

 

Course summary:

Date Details Due