Conferences and Working Groups

The European Union as a Foreign Policy Actor

This project is a series of four small workshops, each with two invited speakers that will focus on the EU as a foreign policy actor in the broader context of the current debates in comparative politics and international relations on the impact of external actors in domestic political change. The core question of the new working group is a vital one for policy makers: what determines the quality of emerging democratic institutions in states that are transitioning away from authoritarianism, and how do international actors influence the process? The EU's evolution as a foreign policy actor, whether in cooperation with or as a counterweight to the US , will be the prime focus of the series.

The proposed format of the mini-workshops integrates invited speakers into EU Studies courses and into Professor Vachudova's course in the Transatlantic Masters program. The format will allow students to read scholarly papers in advance and attend the workshops prepared to discuss. The second workshop, falling at the end of the semesters, will provide a forum where selected students will also be invited to present their work.