EUI Times by European University Institute

T I MES

Winter 2012

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The presidentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s plan Taking education beyond the classroom Tracing footsteps PROFILES OPINIONS EVENTS

ntroduction It is my great pleasure to introduce EUI Times, a new quarterly publication that shines the spotlight on the research underway at the European University Institute in Florence. In the first issue the Institute’s president ad interim, Marise Cremona, outlines her plan for her year in office; while we also speak to the director of the Migration Policy Centre about the work that has been done since its launch in June. The final autumn feature highlights a research project on lifelong learning, which gained a €2.5 million grant from the European Research Council and moved to the EUI in September. In the following pages you can read about the Institute’s current and previous academics. This issue features an alumnus who is currently the chief diplomatic advisor to the president of the European Parliament, a history professor reflecting on his time leading the department and a researcher at the final stage of his PhD. In the opinions section experts at the Institute reflect on current affairs affecting the EU; in this issue they examine the impact of the euro zone crisis on employment and how cyber security can be balanced with censorship. EUI Times additionally brings you details of recent publications and in-depth interviews with authors of newly-published books; currently one on the changing shape of political conflict in Europe and another on international trade. Lastly we turn to our events, drawing on a recent lecture by economist Martin Wolf and a conference on a renewed US-Gulf partnership. Coming up we have Professor Lawrence Lessig talking about the integrity and independence of policymakers and a conference in Lyon on tolerance, pluralism and social cohesion. We welcome your thoughts on this new venture and invite you to send your comments to times@eui.eu Stephan Albrechtskirchinger Director, Communications Service

T I MES Winter 2012

 Features

4 THE PRESIDENT’S PLAN

8 TAKING EDUCATION BEYOND THE CLASSROOM

EUI law professor and president ad interim, Marise Cremona, discusses her plans for the year ahead

 Profiles

14 Alumnus

THE PATH TO THE PRESIDENT

 Opinions

19 Online expression versus international security

 Features

11 TRACING

FOOTSTEPS

The director of the Migration Policy Centre, Philippe Fargues, talks about the challenges facing the EU

Professor Hans-Peter Blossfeld talks about his project into lifelong learning, supported by the European Research Council

 Profiles

16 Faculty

THE INTERNATIONAL APPROACH TO HISTORY

Alexandre Stutzmann

 Features

 Profiles

18 Researcher

THE DARKER SIDE OF EUROPEAN IDENTITY

Yun Casalilla

 Opinions

20 Labour crisis must be met with immediate action

Bart Luttikhuis

21 Events 25 The State of the Union 26 Publications

T I MES

Winter 2012

times.eui.eu

EUI TIMES Winter 2012

Director: Stephan Albrechtskirchinger Writing: Rosie Scammell Editing: Jackie Gordon Web: Francesco Martino and Federico Gaggero Online: times.eui.eu Email: times@eui.eu

European University Institute Badia Fiesolana - Via dei Roccettini, 9 50014 San Domenico di Fiesole (FI) - Italy +39 055 4685266 www.eui.eu Published in December 2012 by the European University Institute © European University Institute, 2012

The president’s plan Taking education beyond the classroom Tracing footsteps PROFILES OPINIONS EVENTS

on the cover: Grotto, Villa Salviati.

THE PRESIDENT’S PLAN

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arise Cremona became president ad interim in June; just five months into her post she is already putting plans into place to prepare the ground for her successor. A life-long academic, Cremona spent nearly 30 years teaching at London universities before joining the EUI in 2006 as a professor of European law. She went on to become head of the law department, giving her insight into the needs of researchers, professors and the Institute as a whole. One of the president’s projects for the year ahead will be to develop the Institute’s programmes on teaching and learning in the social sciences and humanities, responding to the changing nature of higher education.

The evolution of education “The internationalisation of higher education means that in university courses – especially but not only post-graduate courses - you increasingly find someone who is not English mother-tongue teaching a group of students very few of whom are English mother-tongue. We need to think about the way this affects how people learn and how people teach,” she says. The majority of the Institute’s PhD students are multilingual and write in English, although French and Italian are also regular working languages, making the EUI an ideal place to debate the challenges ahead for other institutions.

EUI TIMES | Winter 2012

“We have a kind of denationalised way of looking at the disciplines that we teach; it’s not ignoring the national traditions but we’re not so constrained by them and we tend automatically to see things from a comparative and transnational perspective. We are therefore able to start thinking seriously about what it means to teach in this way and in these international environments,” explains the president, who recently set up a working group to look into how the EUI can prepare students for this evolving academic arena.

MARISE CREMONA

My idea is about “ offering researchers here something, but it’s also about developing best practice which can be shared with other institutions

”

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This process is already underway, as the Max Weber Programme offers one- or two-year training schemes in professional skills for postdoctoral researchers intending to become university teachers, including an online Academic Careers Observatory. Cremona believes that the Institute can build on this experience, and on the work already being done by the Language Centre and Academic Service on academic communication and teacher training, not only overcoming linguistic and communication challenges but also exploring the ethical dimensions of

teaching, researching and publishing. “My idea is about offering researchers here something, but it’s also about developing best practice which can be shared with other institutions,” she says. “It’s building on the strengths that we have and the needs of our students, and every much in line with what the European Commission’s DG for Education and Culture is thinking about in terms of the role of education in Europe.”

New initiatives Work on this initiative will continue until the spring, while Cremona is also preparing for a feasibility study on opening a European School of Government at the EUI. This project, which formed part of the strategy document prepared in May 2011, will add to the already strong programme of post-experience summer schools, the Academy of Global Governance and executive training programmes which run throughout the year, bringing tailored opportunities to public servants and professionals. Although thoughts are at an early stage, Cremona envisions a variety of programmes including short intensive courses with an element of distance learning that will enable people to build up credits towards a qualification. If this project wins the support of the faculty, external resources will be sought to develop it further since it could not be launched within the Institute’s existing financial capability. A number of new research programmes are also in the pipeline, with a centre on judicial cooperation getting underway and discussion in progress on opening a centre on social inequality. Earlier this year the EUI opened the Migration Policy Centre (MPC), which addresses the challenges of population movements affecting Europe. Cremona says rethinking research structures in this way is a direct response to new forms of funding: “We’re thinking about the institutional implications of the increasing number of externally-funded research projects that we’re do-

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ing. In particular we have a large number of ERC [European Research Council] projects. We’re thinking about ways in which we can encourage people to come together around specific research questions to establish interdisciplinary centres like the MPC.” Such confidence in innovation stems from recent successes, including the Global Governance Programme which was launched in 2010 to foster research and training on a range of issues including modes of global governance, climate change, development and international trade. A series of upcoming training seminars will bring practitioners and academics together to discuss – among other things – trade dispute regimes, the governance of aid and regulation of the internet. “The Global Governance Programme has done a huge amount in its first two years and it’s a question of building on that,” says the president, “We’ve appointed two new programme directors, in global economic governance and cultural diversity in a globalised world, so two new programmes will get underway this academic year.”

New arrivals Cremona is actively involved in hiring new directors and chairs, which she sees as “one of my most important functions as president”. With the number of chairs growing and an institutional structure that does not allow for life tenure, selecting new professors is a regular duty. “It may be regarded as routine but our future will stand or fall on the quality of the professors; these are the people who make the reputation of the Institute so it’s absolutely crucial that we appoint the best people,” she says. Over the coming months a new director will be chosen for the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS), an inter-disciplinary initiative for comparative research on issues facing integration and European society, as Stefano Bartolini moves to take up the Peter Mair Chair in Comparative Politics, recently re-named after a former EUI professor. In the coming months appointments will also be

made to a chair in international relations, a chair in macro-economics and to three chairs in history, including the new Mikhail Bakhtin chair on RussiaEurope relations. This will be funded by the Russian Federation, in the framework of its Association Agreement with the EUI. The latter agreement also provides doctoral grants for four Russian students each year, a move Cremona hails as “extremely welcome” as Russian researchers have previously had to rely on scholarships from other countries. While the number of nationalities represented at the EUI has been expanding over the years, there is a commonality among chairs, professors and researchers. “There is a form of self-selection,” explains Cremona, “People who apply to come here are prepared to engage with other cultures, they are interested in working in an international environment and in the more international or comparative dimensions of their subjects.” “People need to be a little bit adventurous, both linguistically and intellectually,” she says, as the “extraordinary” language skills found throughout the EUI must be coupled with an inquisitiveness to go beyond narrow disciplinary boundaries. As professors are called upon to supervise across a broader range of topics than would be likely at a national institution, a degree of openness and intellectual curiosity is imperative for anyone working at the EUI. This extends to the new president who will take up office in September 2013; the shortlisting process is currently underway and the final decision is expected to be taken in December.

Enabling expansion The growth in both departments and research centres necessitates a physical expansion, with the coming months bringing the opening of new buildings and movements between others. The Historical Archives of the European Union is currently moving from its former home to Villa Salviati, a hillside Renaissance villa part of which has

EUI TIMES | Winter 2012

People need to be a “ little bit adventurous, both linguistically and intellectually

”

been converted to house documents from the EU’s main institutions. The archives take up a small area of the extensive property and it is envisaged that the remainder of the building will become the hub of the Institute’s administration. The EUI campus is housed in a number of historic buildings, with the Badia Fiesolana – part of which is still an active church – the focal point. By September 2013 the Max Weber post-doctoral Programme will be based in the Badia, while the RSCAS will be brought together in nearby buildings. Through this rationalisation Cremona hopes that the Institute can continue to be a resource for other universities, with 70 per cent of EUI graduates going on to work as academics and most taking posts in Europe. She adds that it is also important to maintain the EUI’s close ties to Brussels. “Over the last decade there has been an increasing engagement with EU institutions, not only the Commission but also the European Parliament; this is something that will continue and develop further,” she says. The president states that the EUI’s status as an independent organisation is paramount to its reputation for research and teaching. “My visit to Brussels [in September] was extremely positive and everywhere I went I heard that the work we are doing is really highly-valued, particularly because of its independence and rigour,” says Cremona. She praises the “incredible amount of work going on”, overlooking her own demanding agenda which includes 15 PhD supervisees and academic research alongside the commitments of the presidency. “It’s very good to feel that one is leading the kind of organisation where as a leader you are a facilitator,” she adds. Next September Cremona will return to the Department of Law, moving on from a presidency which seeks to prepare the EUI for new challenges.

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TAKING EDUCATION BEYOND THE CLASSROOM

n September Professor Hans-Peter Blossfeld arrived at the EUI, bringing with him an education research project supported by a €2.5 million European Research Council grant. ‘Education as a Lifelong Process – Comparing Educational Trajectories in Modern Societies’ – known by its shortened title eduLIFE – was started at the University of Bamberg and examines the impact of educational experiences on people’s lives. The project aims to overcome the pitfalls of other sociological studies which focus on one particular type of education or time period by charting people’s experiences throughout their lives. “The eduLife project is unique as it looks at all important educational decisions over the lifecourse, compares multiple countries and uses longitudinal and lifecourse data,” says Blossfeld.

We want to find “ out how certain

institutions and certain educational experiences change competences and influence decisions

”

eduLIFE looks at a person’s family background, preschool education, schooling, vocational training and adult learning. Due to data availability, the team is approaching the life course in reverse order and aim to reach the pre-school data in 2015.

EUI TIMES | Winter 2012

“We want to find out how certain institutions and certain educational experiences change competences and influence decisions,” Blossfeld explains. “In particular we are interested in studying the relationship between family background, educational environments and educational outcomes.”

Origins and approach This project builds on the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) in Germany, launched by Blossfeld in 2008 with a team of 190 and government funding amounting to €95 million. Within the NEPS project data is collected from 60,000 students and around 40,000 people connected to them, such as teachers and parents, mapping their educational experiences throughout their lives. eduLIFE uses this data set and compares it with that of several other countries such as: Australia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the US. “We want to go as far as possible to reconstruct the process of education over the life course, so we have selected countries which are representative of the most important education regimes in Europe,” Blossfeld says. The project is more extensive, however, as cross-sectional data is also being analysed from a total of 26 countries at different stages. “The problem is that I do not have longitudinal data for 26 countries, so we

for Blossfeld: “It is better to have country fellows who know more about the histories, specifics, meanings of certain [educational] certificates and so on.” Moving to Florence has boosted his own involvement in the project: “I was very much occupied by management in Bamberg and I didn’t have much time to do research. I got this ERC grant which means the principle investigator should be more engaged in research. This changes here; I can be much closer to the research process, discuss analysis and do research.” The team is analysing both prospective and retrospective data. The former approach tests people over a number of years in order to gauge how their plans are shaped by educational experiences, while the latter involves interviewing people about events in their past such as changing types of schools. “How does the later school career change if people have certain experiences, particularly children from poor families? Does it help if they are treated differently in preschool institutions; does this increase the long-term outcome or not?” Blossfeld asks.

Early results HANS-PETER BLOSSFELD

make a compromise between cross-sectional comparisons and then longitudinal comparisons over longer spans of time,” the professor explains. Blossfeld currently has six project assistants working with him at the EUI, who moved with Blossfeld to Florence after working with him for a year at Bamberg. In addition there are four people working on the project in Bamberg; two financed directly by EduLIFE and the other two externally funded. Each individual focuses on a specific country or region with which they have ties, an important element

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While the project has many years left, some facts are already known: “It’s not only that the competent children go to upper secondary school and the less competent go to lower secondary school. There is also an influence of social origin; even for children who have similar competencies, parents make different decisions.” Blossfeld states that middle class parents will do everything they can to ensure their child reaches upper secondary school, while working class families are more likely to reach only for lower secondary school. “It’s not only that a poor child is sent to a bad school; this may also be the case because of a systematic class factor in terms of decision-making,” meaning analysing family information is vital for the project. Whereas intelligence is fixed, Blossfeld says that a person’s competency - or overall ability to manage problems and succeed – is shaped by experience.

“The interesting question is how can we improve the situation? Where can we intervene and change the rules?” He points to Finland as the most positive European example of education equality. “This country demonstrates that you can have a high average level of competencies, move people up to a high level at low social differentiation. While in other countries there’s a conflict – if you lift up the mass and give better education then the average level goes down – Finland shows that this is not necessarily the case.” The professor laments the great number of bad examples, drawing on Germany because of its early selection. “In Germany after age 10 most of the students move to certain tracks and it is hard to get off this track. It is hard to move down, but it’s very hard to move up,” he says. The German system is changing, although Blossfeld says this will not necessarily help children of lower social classes: “The real beneficiaries are middle class children because middle classes are much more willing to take the risks and use these newly-created opportunities and are much more successful. Opening up the system is good because people are not fixed on certain tracks, but if you do this then this is also more for the middle class children than working class children because they are more risk-adverse.”

Education and “ opportunities to get

lifelong learning are very much dependent on your professional and private lives

”

While a poor education in early life will have a tangible impact in adult years, early findings show that people can go on to improve their standing through vocational training. In Russia, for example, formal adult education has a positive impact on labour market success, but only if one obtains at least tertiary

EUI TIMES | Winter 2012

level adult education. This may not prove to be the case in other countries under investigation, however. Blossfeld and his team will also be looking at how private life events, such as marriage or having children, affect people’s access to education. “Education and opportunities to get lifelong learning are very much dependent on your professional and private lives,” he says, “Lots of life events can be disastrous for people, such as divorce. Being a single mother you have to earn money, take care of your children and further education; it’s not so easy.” The research group has spent 2012 focusing on adult learning and next year will move on to examine the consequences of vocational training on people’s ability to enter the labour market. The final two years of the project will address preschool education and schooling, concluding with a public conference to present the findings.

Having an impact Blossfeld aims to regularly publish articles in academic journals and four books covering preschools, the education system, entering the labour market and lifelong learning. He and his project assistants will additionally present at conferences, workshops and summer schools while also hosting conferences. The intention is to have an impact on policy-makers and have them look beyond the school classroom. “Many or maybe too many people are responsible for adult education – employers, the state, private institutions – while if you talk about school it’s very clearly the ministry. We are hoping for an impact on the individual state level because education is still very much a nationstate issue. We have a comparative dimension and can say, ‘Look at another country that is different in institutional terms; if you change your system you could expect those results’.” If policy-makers follow eduLIFE’s advice, success found in Finland may soon emanate across Europe.

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TRACING FOOTSTEPS

...migration has “ to be considered

he Migration Policy Centre opened in June, creating a unique hub for multidisciplinary, policy-driven research on population movements affecting the EU. The advent of the new centre marks a new area of cooperation with the European Commission, which has identified key topics for the centre to report back on, the most recent being the impact of the economic crisis and the Arab Spring. “We work very closely with the European Commission to understand what their needs are, in particular in the global approach to mobility and migration; the external dimension of international migration,” says the MPC’s director, Philippe Fargues. “While the Commission has been able to internally access to the countries of origins of migrants. This is build a European migration network made up of rep- exactly what we do – we cover the external countries resentatives of the 27 member states, they don’t have of international migration in order to address the

as something with an origin and a destination; we have to have a foot in the origin countries of migrants to the European Union

”

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“

In North Africa, the only country you had refugees from is Libya because there was a civil war there. More than ninety per cent or more of the refugees from Libya went to bordering countries in Africa, not to Europe

”

needs of the Commission, providing evidence and analysis,” he explains. EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström cemented this relationship at the MPC’s opening, when she said it would be integral in developing a common migration and asylum policy. The MPC’s director has extensive experience working within academic centres, at the American University of Cairo, Harvard University and others and sought to replicate this structure in Florence. He spent two years running a project at the EUI looking at international migration in the southern neighbourhood of Europe, returning to the Institute in 2009 to put plans for a new centre in place. “Migration is very much a multidisciplinary domain – you cannot study migration contenting yourself with the department of economics, or political science, or law. You have to have all of the disciplines in one specific place, so a centre makes sense,” he says. “In addition, migration has to be considered as something with an origin and a destination; we have to have a foot in the origin countries of migrants to the European Union,” says Fargues. “Through a centre you can build a network of scholars that is not attached to your university but is scattered all around the world and working with you.” The MPC has a team of 21 based in Florence, with

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over 100 correspondents working in the field. While most are based close to Europe such as in the Middle East and North Africa, or Russia and neighbouring states, a number are in India owing to a partnership with the country’s government. Their documentation in North Africa and the Middle East has recently challenged assumptions, going against the commonly-held belief in Europe that the Arab Spring would bring waves of migrants to the EU’s shores. “In North Africa, the only country you had refugees from is Libya because there was a civil war there. More than 90 per cent or more of the refugees from Libya went to bordering countries in Africa, not to Europe. There was no increase in immigration from Tunisia [to Europe] apart from a very short period after the revolution,” says Fargues. He says that although there is a link between revolt and migration, as discontent people may either protest or leave, the impact of the Arab Spring on international migration is yet to be seen. Success revolutions will likely bring return migration while instability more emigration, but this process will take many months or years. “We try to anticipate these movements by doing surveys of people’s views; of the stakeholders of migration such as governments and potential migrants,” says Fargues, listing numerous countries the MPC has already surveyed in the region, from Morocco to Jordan. He has also been asked by the Commission to report on the situation in Egypt, familiar territory to Fargues who spent six years at the Social and Economic Research Centre (CEDEJ) and a further two as professor and director of the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies at the American University in Cairo. In October he returned to the Egyptian capital to meet with senior officials and political parties to gain their perspectives, aiming in the near future to establish a partnership on the mobility of migration and begin a survey of the country’s youth. A more urgent cry comes from Syria, from where close to 350,000 people have fled in recent months according to UN registration data. While the bordering countries – Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, but

In addition to the challenges posed by revolutions, a long-term economic crisis still looms over Europe which has left over 10 per cent of Europeans unemployed and others migrating in search of work. “The proportion of the population leaving the labour force is very high today,” says the MPC director, “The dependency ratio is rapidly increasing which impacts many things including production and the welfare system”. Started earlier this year, the centre is researching these new pressures and how innovation can help the EU out of the crisis.“When you don’t have the required skills, you must develop them among your own citizens through ad hoc education and training, but because it takes time you may find it necessary to temporarily import the skills,” says Fargues. In addition to the MPC’s core programmes, there are six other projects underway. Two take a regional approach, in one instance examining migration through and to the Mediterranean countries and sub-Saharan Africa and another observing the eastern neighbourhood of the EU. The centre also acts as the leader to a project in cooperation with the Indian government which maps the dynamics of migration from the subcontinent. Lastly, the centre turns its attention to labour mobility in the ECOWAS area and displacement after the Haiti earthquake in 2010, linking to the ACP Observatory on Migration in Brussels. Through all of these projects the MPC aims to adPHILIPPE vise on migration policy at the national and regional FARGUES level, by producing reports which are freely available online and creating a space for ongoing dialogue. Fargues and his team show no signs of slowing down; after a December workshop addressing EU policy they will welcome professionals from Russia and surnot Israel – are currently receiving most refugees, the rounding countries to address the societal problems will increase as Syrian asylum seekers have already of migrations in their region. been admitted in Europe and will likely migrate to Europe through Turkey. This complements one of the centre’s other projects, which compares the 27 member states’ legislation and practice on resettlement. “Europe is close to regions from where big waves of refugees depart, but Europe is not a big place for resettling refugees and we’re trying to find out why,” says Fargues.

The proportion of the “ population leaving the labour force is very high today

”

EUI TIMES | Winter 2012

P rofiles

Alumnus THE PATH TO THE PRESIDENT

he chief diplomatic advisor to the president of the European Parliament, Alexandre Stutzmann, talks to EUI Times about how four years at the Institute prepared him for his frantic schedule working with Martin Schulz. “I have a feeling I’ve never really left the EUI, as what I’ve been doing for the past 11 years has been some sort of cultural and intellectual continuity to what I was doing back in Florence,” says Stutzmann from his Strasbourg office. “It’s because of the topics and the culture; what the EUI gives you is this capacity of interacting in as many European languages as you can speak with people from as many European backgrounds as you can get.” Stutzmann was a researcher in the Institute’s Department of Political and Social Sciences from 1997 until 2001, focusing on transatlantic relations and on cases as diverse as trade disputes and conflict in the former Yugoslavia. Intellectual curiousity took him to law seminars, which he remembers as “absolutely an enrichment”, while in his final two years he taught international relations and political

EUI TIMES | Winter 2012

ALEXANDRE STUTZMANN

sociology at New York University’s Florence campus. The multicultural experience made him wary of returning to “the franco-centric thinking” of Paris and instead he opted for Brussels, joining the European Parliament’s Directorate-General for Communication as a spokesperson in August 2001. “It coincided with 9/11 and everything then became very focused and interesting,” Stutzmann remembers. A year later he joined the secretariat of the Committee on Foreign Affairs where he spent three years working mostly with the Mediterranean region and the Middle East Peace Process, in particular the financing of the Palestinian Authority. From there he became the advisor to the Director General for External Policies and in 2007 took up his post as an advisor to the then president of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering, before joining his successor President Jerzy Buzek. Over the past six years he has spent his days switching between topics and regions, advising on anything within the sphere of foreign policy. Even after over a decade working

within the EU, the job remains a challenge. “You constantly have to be updated on all key issues and sometimes that is difficult because you have to go beyond the headline; you have to know the intricacies of the case and the margin of your president, with no time for research,” he says. Stutzmann has three junior advisors in his team who “share the world” and keep him up-to-date, enabling him to draw up a strategy on how the president should handle international visitors and his own tours. A further task as chief advisor is to ensure that the actions of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on Development, the Committee on International Trade and inter-parliamentary delegations are in line with those of the president. He also forms close relationships with the Parliament’s members who are particular active in foreign affairs. Topics he has recently worked on include the detention of opposition politicians in Ukraine, unrest in Lebanon and the active role of Schulz as president of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly. In controversial

EUI TIMES | Winter 2012

I have a “ feeling I’ve never really left the EUI...

”

matters Stutzmann is tasked with presenting a given issue in such a way that will not promote an attack on the president. His role is to put differences aside, “working towards a common goal and making sure we’re all on the same road”. “It’s challenging but that makes it fascinating,” he says, “You give your loyalty, energy and time to a person but you are also constantly defending the European spirit and keeping that spirit alive.” Stutzmann is confident that EUI researchers can follow his career path through the EU concours scheme and on to higher office within the institutions. “The experience I had at the EUI prepared me for the job. It’s not easy to get in and it’s become more difficult, but for somebody who is enthusiastic and believes in what’s being done here and why the EU won the Nobel Peace Prize this is definitely a place to contribute.”

P rofiles

Faculty THE INTERNATIONAL APPROACH TO HISTORY

n September Bartolomé YunCasalilla completed his term as head of the EUI’s Department of History and Civilisation. He here reflects on his three years in the post and six more as professor. “What the students can learn here is not only about how history is done in other countries, it is that they live in a context in which they are acquiring habitus of international behaviour as a historian,” he says. Having worked at institutions across Europe and in the US, where he has focused on economic and cultural and social history, Yun-Casalilla is keen to differentiate between the approach of academic institutions with global history departments and that of the EUI. “We shouldn’t forget that much of the history which is done now in Europe is still local and national history,” he says, “We attempt to deal with subjects which are not narrowly included in a national narrative and put together cases in different nation states either by connecting the links between them or by comparing them.” While he does not exclude PhD students who have a local focus, he encourages them to look

EUI TIMES | Winter 2012

BARTOLOMÉ YUNCASALILLA

beyond research opportunities in their own state and make transnational comparisons. “If you are advising an Italian researcher, the first thing you do is put them in contact with other historiographers from other countries; that is the role of our seminars,” YunCasalilla says. Within the first few days of joining the department, where there are currently 144 PhD researchers, newcomers are called upon to present their thesis topic to their peers. This may be a daunting prospect, but Yun-Casalilla sees the EUI as the ideal place for people who “want to internationalise their career, put Europe in a global perspective and are concerned with Europe as a historical entity”. The professor also helped set up the summer school in comparative and transnational history, as well as the Europe in the World Forum; a space for discussion and research on the relations between the different regions and states within Europe and in turn their role in the world. The collaboration continues as faculty members of dissimilar backgrounds are also paired together to run seminars, which Yun-Casalilla

supports as a way of diversifying the discourse. The professor is multilingual, a notable achievement although by no means unique within the department. “All of the professors have published in two or three languages before coming here,” he remarks casually. Polyglots are the norm; Western European languages dominate while Hebrew, Russian and Slovak are among the less commonly-spoken languages within the faculty. Linguistic ability has been key to Yun-Casalilla’s work and that of his colleagues: “We have to deal with sources which are very much local, in local languages. A colleague in the history department needs more languages to also understand whether our students

are reading the languages of the sources well.” The professor has one more year within the department before he is set to return to the Pablo de Olavide University in Seville. Before being seconded to the EUI he established a doctorate in ‘Europe, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic expansion’ in Siville which attracts students from Europe and Latin America, ensuring that he will continue to work within an international framework. Yun-Casalilla has passed the role of head of department on to Federico Romero, who is currently researching transatlantic relations in the Cold War, Europe’s post-imperial identity and European integration.

What the students can learn “ here is not only about how

history is done in other countries, it is that they live in a context in which they are acquiring habitus of international behaviour as a historian

EUI TIMES | Winter 2012

”

P rofiles

Researcher THE DARKER SIDE OF EUROPEAN IDENTITY

hree years into his history PhD at the EUI, Bart Luttikhuis has uncovered a definition of European that is far from the beacon of integration celebrated today. “This project fascinates me because a lot of this talk about European identity is something that is from the start something very positive, but in this context it’s used as a way of excluding people and justifying privilege,” he says of his work investigating the ‘Construction of Europeanness in the Dutch East Indies’ between 1910 and 1940. “At least for the case of the Dutch East Indies and possibly for other colonial societies, too much emphasis has been put on race as the defining factor of social hierarchy,” Luttikhuis says. “It’s always claimed that in the colonial imagination there was this clear separation on the one hand of natives and Europeans. What I’m arguing is that in the Dutch East Indies European is not equal to white; it’s often an identity and there’s more of a class denominator.” In the legal system during this period, he says, there was a distinction made between ‘natives’ and

BART LUTTIKHUIS

‘Europeans’. The latter term was not however restricted to those born in Europe but based on education and development, with Japanese people being classed as ‘European’ and Indonesians able to gain the same status under certain conditions. In addition to numerous trips to the Netherlands to visit archives, Luttikhuis has spent the past two summers in Indonesia researching and improving his language skills. The trips were funded by the Department of History and Civilisation and seen as vital to Luttikhuis. “The material you find in the Netherlands is the work that civil servants found important enough

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to bring back; every-day running of the government. You can get much more of a feel of ordinary people [by visiting Indonesia].” Although Luttikhuis is researching a policy in place a century ago, he says that its legacy is still present in Dutch society today. “There are discussions going on about immigration, especially from Islamic countries. You see a lot of the ways of constructing what it means to be Western and non-Western are very similar to what happened in the Dutch East Indies; all the talk about Western civilisation has very strong routes in this colonial rhetoric,” he says. The connection between what Luttikhuis terms “one of the blackest pages of European history” and the inclusive, non-discriminatory term of ‘European’ as it is used today is an unsettling realisation, but the researcher argues it is one which must be examined. “It’s important for Europe to look at its black pages. A lot of use of history in political rhetoric or public discussion likes to think Europe is always a positive thing, [but] what it stands for also has different backgrounds. That’s important to keep in mind.”

pinions

ndrea Calderaro, research associate at the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom: Between freedom of expression and security, to protect the first is usually the best way of ensuring the latter

ANDREA CALDERARO

Freedom of expression is an unquestionable human right and a key characteristic of democracy. The development of digital media has been welcomed as a great opportunity to strengthen freedom of expression as it facilitates the way people access information and communicate to broader audiences. However, the debate is more complex and recent political events

ONLINE EXPRESSION VERSUS INTERNATIONAL SECURITY

provide contrasting elements to this debate. For example, the case of the anti-Islamic video ‘Innocence of Muslims’ published on YouTube recently generated violent protest in several countries, increasing the already existing concerns about how the freedom of expression facilitated by new media may actually be a threat to international security. We are aware that the opinions and materials circulating online cross political systems, regulations, religions and cultures, with the risk that information that is totally legitimate in one context might be rather controversial elsewhere. However, it will be a serious risk for freedom of expression if the call for regulating online information is confused with issues closer to conventional debates on cyber security. Cyber security instruments are traditionally developed to prevent the risk of cyber warfare. Too often in the name of cyber security, countries apply restrictions aimed at censoring information on the internet, track activities of journalist and actors of civil society and limit the freedom to circulate information. As stressed by UNESCO’s 2011 report, ‘Freedom of expression: Freedom of connection’, many instruments used in the name of cyber security are abused in order to restrict freedom of expression instead of protecting it. The UNESCO report highlights that measures intended to enhance cyber security may impose controversial restrictions, and therefore pose a threat to human rights. The equilibrium between freedom of expression and respect for diversity is challenging and certainly not determined by new media. However, the idea of implementing cyber security regulations in order to protect freedom of expression is not convincing and calls for careful monitoring. Overall, we welcome the internet for its great potential to facilitate the production of grassroots information, allow people to spread their opinions and to generate debate among a broader international audience across borders and regions. Reducing this opportunity in the name of security would mean to make the concept freedom of expression relative and expose it to risky and uncertain approaches.

EUI TIMES | Winter 2012

pinions

vi Pappa, professor of macroeconomics: The financial crisis of 2008 is now threatening to become a jobs crisis

EVI PAPPA

A prolonged labour market recession is in the making as longterm unemployment is on the rise and many workers are becoming excluded from the labour market. The Eurozone unemployment rate reached 11.4 per cent in August, representing approximately 18 million jobseekers. Youth unemployment is increasing dangerously, exceeding 30 per cent in Italy and Portugal and 50 per cent in Greece and Spain.

LABOUR CRISIS MUST BE MET WITH IMMEDIATE ACTION

The shift to austerity measures has further deteriorated the labour market conditions in the countries hit by the debt crisis. Employment rates in Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland and Italy are below 65 per cent, while they are well above 75 per cent in Germany, Finland, or the Netherlands. The depressed employment situation has been accompanied by growing job precariousness for those who have a job. Part-time work has risen significantly and the incidence of temporary employment has increased as well. Given the significant slowdown in economic growth job loss can increase severely as businesses tend to decrease expenditure, leading to higher unemployment. At the same time, the crisis has resulted in the contraction of bank credit for small and medium-sized businesses and in turn reduced the growth in self-employment. Together with austerity measures, labour market reforms in the form of either a decentralisation of collective bargaining, or a loosening of employment regulation (for example, easing of legal protection against individual dismissals; modification of procedures for collective dismissal) have been undertaken. However, their curative effects on a depressed labour market have not yet materialised. All of the above points to a prolonged labour market recession in 2013 for European countries facing debt problems. Measures that will increase employment and speed up economic growth should be taken promptly. Given the impossibility of financing expenditures with deficits, one can realistically suggest budget-neutral increases in training programmes and subsidies to businesses. This must be coupled with government programmes to facilitate credit to small and mediumsized businesses, financed with increases in taxes in other areas such as environmental or a tourist taxes that will not distort the economy adversely. Additionally, labour market reforms should go together with removal of inflexibilities in the wage setting process so as to increase the competitiveness of those economies and attract foreign direct investment.

EUI TIMES | Winter 2012

vents

of the city. Speakers include professors from Brazil, the Netherlands, Portugal and the UK. Over the two days participants will discuss the historical development of cities such as Manila, Nagasaki and Rio de Janeiro. More information can be found on the EUI events webpage.

COMING UP

 6-7 DEC 2012

THE BIRTH OF THE MODERN GLOBAL CITY



On 6 and 7 December the EUI’s Europe and the World Forum, in collaboration with the University of Warwick, is hosting a workshop to discuss the rise

19 DEC 2012

LESSIG ON POLICYMAKERS

On 19 December Professor Lawrence Lessig will deliver a lecture on ‘The integrity and independence of policymakers’. Lessig will be visiting from Harvard, where he is currently the Roy L Furman Professor of Law and director of the Edmond J Safra Center for Ethics. The lecture is organised by the Max Weber Programme; for more information and to register, please visit the EUI events webpage.

 24-25 JAN 2013

PLURALISM CONFERENCE IN FRANCE

The Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies is co-organising a conference on tolerance, pluralism and social cohesion to be held in Lyon on 24 and 25 January. The event will bring together the 17 partner institutions of the Accept Pluralism project to discuss diversity in European schools and local exclusion policies. The draft programme is now available online.

EUI TIMES | Winter 2012

RECENT HIGHLIGHTS

 10-12 OCT 2012

THE COMMON SECURITY RESPONSE TO GOVERNMENT CUTS

The euro zone crisis is the opportune time to transform European defence policy, according to a former defence minister of Portugal visiting the EUI. Nuno Severiano Teixeira, defence minister from 2006 to 2009 and now professor at the New University of Lisbon, was speaking at the Academy of Global Governance’s executive training on ‘The anatomy of EU foreign policy’ last week. “The problem is that we are always looking at the negative impact [of the crisis] which is the cuts in military spending. We need at the European level to optimise our resources, to coordinate our budgetary cycles and defence policies – this could be an opportunity,” he said. Although cooperation between states does exist, Severiano Teixeira argued that joint spending capabilities are “practically non-existent” and said a more

EUI TIMES | Winter 2012

permanent structure of resource-pooling is needed under the European Defence Agency. The agency was launched in 2005 and its mission enshrined in the 2009 Lisbon Treaty, with all member states’ defence ministries represented. Last year the EDA set out its priorities, including increasing the availability of helicopters for member states and medical support. In March the Council of the European Union met to discuss greater sharing of military means and concluded that a more sustainable policy was needed which “will require a change of mindset and continuous political momentum and commitment”. For Severiano Teixeira the current approach is not only too disjointed from member states’ strategies, but equally from EU development plans: “We have to have on-the-ground coordination between both instruments, which is fundamental in new types of missions where military security, soft security, economic development and institution-building all exist. If we don’t have cross-pillar coordination between development aid and military missions, between Council and Commission, then the consistence of the external action of the EU will be very weak.” While further deepening of cooperation will have a tangible impact on the ground, Severiano Teixeira said



that it is also vital for the EU’s diplomatic clout: “In terms of the international presence of the European Union this could be an extraordinary asset. Economic power with a unified external diplomatic instrument – but without military credibility – is not able to affirm the values and norms [of the EU]; it’s fundamental for its credibility as an international player.” The member states seem unsure of how to present a unified voice on the international stage in military terms, leading to inaction evident in the response to civil war in Syria. While the Council has actively imposed economic sanctions on the Syrian regime, most recently on Monday 15 October, the EDA has been quiet. Severiano Teixeira attributes this, and the broader want of momentum in military cooperation, to a lack of political will: “The problem is not a technical or a military one; the problem is a political one – for consensus among the member states to have a common position. From the moment this common position exists the military instrument would work.” The former defence minister’s seminar was one of seven which brought together practitioners and academics to explore EU foreign policy over three days, including regional sessions focusing on Asia and the Pacific, Brazil and India.

EUI TIMES | Winter 2012

24 SEPT 2012

EUI DEBATES SOLUTIONS TO EURO ZONE CRISIS

EUI professors predicted dark days ahead for euro zone countries at September’s Debating Europe event, while the Financial Times’ Martin Wolf spoke of the probable default and exit from the single currency by some member states. “It’s quite likely that some part of adjustment will include the default by a major state – not Greece,” said Wolf. While much of the discourse over the euro zone crisis has focused on the risk posed by the southern member states, the Financial Times’ chief economics commentator took a different approach: “The probability it will be a German exit has increased and the probability it will be a Greek exit has diminished.” Wolf was speaking on ‘Euro crisis: Symptoms, sources and solutions’ and was joined by a panel of four professors: political scientist Pepper Culpepper, economists David K Levine and Massimiliano Marcellino, and Richard Rose, director of the Centre for the Study of Public Policy. The commentator went on to say that within a decade he expected there to be ex-members of the euro zone, a proposition put

Marcellino highlighted the human cost of such losses, stating the economic problem had “blown into a fully-fledged social crisis…[with] more than 15 million people unemployed”. While lamenting the short-term costs of labour market reforms he saw few alternatives, with fiscal stimulus now low in credibility and an increase in exports marred by weakening international A Struggle for Solutions demand. With incomes falling the possibility for more private consumption was also seen as low, and MarAlthough divergent in their approaches, the panel was cellino saw uncertainty in greater private investment. broadly united in their view that Europe would have to endure many years of economic woe before recovery could be realised. “We are probably going to see Political Problems a long and painful process of adjustment and reform and misery, complaints, anger and frustration,” said For Culpepper the euro zone’s failures could be put Wolf, although put this as preferable to the less likely, down to a lack of solidarity at the outset: “Real solicatastrophic partial or complete break-up of the euro darity in politics comes from shared risk or shared zone. Turning his attention to solutions, Wolf was membership. Membership of the euro zone right clear that the narrative of the current situation as a now has roughly as much attachment for most Eufiscal crisis must change. Comparing countries’ pub- ropeans as my membership to Lufthansa air miles.” lic debt in recent years demonstrates that fiscal crises There must be a political overhaul alongside the ecoare a symptom rather than cause of the current situ- nomic one, he said, as the citizens of Europe at preation, he said, citing Spain and Ireland’s good posi- sent see themselves in national rather than European tions pre-crisis as one of many examples. “The correct terms. “We have to develop a political rationale for view – that this is a financial crisis – puts the blame shared distribution,” he said, “Somehow we have to on both the creditors and the debtors, which is better take what is happening and use it to reenergise the economics and ought to be better politics,” he said. way that political parties behave with their popu“It would be a very good start if a large number of laces but more importantly engage with the crosscountries started writing off quite a large party of border debate.” what they provide to the debtor countries,” he said. Politicians’ actions have been grossly inadequate acAlthough Wolf deemed debt restructuring essential, cording to Wolf, who criticised the “fundamentally he admitted it remains unclear whether creditors’ or foolish and irresponsible legislation which cannot possibly be made justiciable”. debtors’ taxpayers will ultimately pick up the bill. Levine agreed that a lack of clarity remains, stating “Telling governments to slash deficits, cut spending that this stems from a problem inherent to the system: and raise taxes on the proposition that they will fail to “It’s a system where one person writes the cheques meet a notional bargain which cannot be measured and another person actually puts the money in the by anybody at all…Even by standards of the Europebank – Spain gets to spend money and Germany picks an Union, this strikes me as truly insane.” up the tab. Brazil tried this; the provinces got to spend While the panel concluded that a period of reform whatever they wanted and the federal government and adjustment was the most likely course for the was responsible for the debt that they incurred. Need- euro zone, all saw weaknesses inherent in the memless to say the provinces of Brazil had a huge amount ber states’ approach. Wolf left little optimism in the air with his damning summary of the single currenof debt.” “The losses have to be allocated in a particular way so cy: “This is a political project and the political project won’t work.” that everybody knows who lost what,” he added. forward by Rose who said that Wolf ’s analysis needed to distinguish further between the various ‘Europes’. Rose named two of these as the political new member states and the potentially former euro zone members.

EUI TIMES | Winter 2012

9 MAY 2013

Palazzo Vecchio (Florence City Hall)

For the third year running The State of the Union conference will bring together leading academics, policy-makers, civil society representatives and business leaders to discuss the current situation and future prospects of the European Union.

MORNING SESSION: Institutions and Democratic Governance AFTERNOON SESSION: Migration and Citizenship

Confirmed participants include:

 Giuliano Amato  José Manuel Barroso  Emma Bonino  Mario Monti  Rosen Plevneliev  Martin Schulz  Najat Vallaud-Belkacem  Manuel Valls

President of the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies of Pisa and former Prime Minister of Italy President of the European Commission Vice President of the Italian Senate and former European Commissioner Prime Minister of Italy President of the Republic of Bulgaria President of the European Parliament Minister of Women's Rights of France Minister of the Interior of France

For more information please visit stateoftheunion.eui.eu

EUI TIMES | Winter 2012

NEW BOOK SHOWS CHANGING SHAPE OF POLITICAL CONFLICT

UI professor Hanspeter Kriesi has co-authored a book examining the political dimensions of Western Europe and investigating the shift from economic to cultural opposition between left and right. ‘Political Conflict in Western Europe’, published on 17 September, draws on research of national and European electoral campaigns, political debates and protest from the 1970s, 1990s and 2000s. “We start from the observation that national boundaries in cultural, economic and political terms are breaking down and that this leads to new conflicts in western European countries between losers of globalisation and winners of globalisation,” Kriesi explains. Focusing on Austria, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK, the book shows how these ‘losers’ of globalisation are mobilised by rightwing populist movements which appeal to their cultural insecurity. Whereas pre-1970s conflict between the political right and left was largely in economic terms, Kriesi states that the rise of such movements has transformed the political battleground. Conservative parties have, the book argues, either become the functioning equivalents of populist parties or themselves become such parties in order to rally those who have not felt the benefits of globalisation. The UK is one example, the professor says: “What we find is that the Conservatives are very similarly situated in political party space or conflict space to the

EUI TIMES | Winter 2012

ublications

right-wing populist parties in the countries in which they exist.” The research was initially focused on national election campaigns – one per country during the 1970s and all in the 1990s and 2000s – as they represent an intensification of political communication. As Kriesi describes: “In this period the parties try to appeal to the voters and they do so by addressing issues which they think are most promising for their own electoral purposes…It [the party] reveals to the voters its position on the issues which it think are its most important.” This research was complimented by that into three key political debates during the 2000s – immigration, European integration and neoliberal reform. In also examining political protest, ‘Political Conflict’ discovers a very different approach between right and left. “Protests in these countries is mainly the domain of the left, whereas the new populist right is surprisingly only mobilising in electoral terms,” says Kriesi. Even on immigration – a heated issue in recent years – protest by the right was “very weak”. Such comprehensive research demonstrates the considerable change that has occurred over the past 40 years, although Kriesi is mindful that his research stops in 2007 – the year before the global financial crisis struck. He hopes to develop the work and see how the turmoil which has swept across Europe in recent years has impacted the shape of political conflict.

SELECTED EUI BOOKS cadmus.eui.eu

Allen, Franklin; Carletti, Elena; Simonelli, Saverio (eds). Governance for the Eurozone. Integration or disintegration? (FIC Press, 2012)

ublications

Bakker, Christine; Sossai, Mirko (eds). Multilevel Regulation of Military and Security Contractors (Hart, 2012)

Jeffers, Kristen (ed.) Inclusive Democracy in Europe (European University Institute, 2012)

Micklitz, HansWolfgang; De Witte, Bruno. The European Court of Justice and the Autonomy of the Member States (Intersentia, 2012)

Moschel, Mathias; Hermanin, Costanza; Grigolo, Michele (eds). Fighting Discrimination in Europe. The Case for a Race-Conscious Approach (Routledge, 2012)

Mourlon-Druol, Emmanuel. A Europe Made of Money: The Emergence of the European Monetary System (Cornell U Press, 2012)

Petersmann, Ernst-Ulrich. International Economic Law in the 21st Century (Hart, 2012)

Rodríguez-Ruiz, Blanca; Rubio Marin, Ruth (eds). The Struggle for Female Suffrage in Europe: Voting to Become Citizens (Brill, 2012)

Triandafyllidou, Anna; Maroukis, Thanos. Migrant Smuggling: Irregular Migration from Asia and Africa to Europe (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012)

Whelehan, Niall. The Dynamiters: Irish Nationalism and Political Violence in the Wider World, 1867–1900 (Cambridge U Press, 2012)

Yun-Casalilla, Bartolome; O’brien Patrick K.; Comín Comín, Francisco. The Rise of Fiscal States: A Global History, 1500-1914 (Cambridge U Press, 2012)

Kopecký, Petr; Mair, Peter; Spirova, Maria (eds) Party Patronage and Party Government in European Democracies (Oxford U Press, 2012)

EUI TIMES | Winter 2012

QM-AJ-12-001-EN-N

ISSN: 1977-799X