European Union in a New Global Order

European integration process, since the Treaty of Maastricht (1992) undergoing under the umbrella of the European Union (EU) is an unique, incomparable unification attempt on a global scale. Unfortunately, recently, due to many factors (e.g. Brexit, Trump administration, pandemic of COVID-19 or Russian aggression on the Ukraine) this process has been disrupted in many ways, or even undermined by many political forces exploiting existing tensions and challenges to forcefully impose their own, usually narrow, political agenda. Simultaneously, especially the war on Ukraine has speeded up a Power Politics and put into motion all the Great Powers on the globe. We have Hard Power again on the scene, while the EU is self-defined as a Soft Power. How to find its proper position in those demanding times is the crux of the matter of this presentation.

The lectures are dividing of Three Parts, each of Five Topics, in following way:

Part One

Theory and practise of the EU

1. The EU as a new entity/subject on global arena

2. The essence of the EU – Enlargement/Widening vs. Deepening of the integration

3. The EU in the era of globalization (network and fluent societies, technological/digital revolution

4. Economic role of the EU

5. Political, social, technological and military Role of the EU

Part Two

Main Dimensions of external activities the EU

6. EU – US/Transatlantic Relations

7. EU – China/East Asia Relations

8. Eastern Partnership of the EU (including Russia, Ukraine)

9. EU in Africa and Latin America

10. The Global role of the EU

Part Three

Challenges and Answers of the EU on current global arena

11. Domestic/Internal challenges of the EU (since 2008, till 2023, including, among others, global economic crisis, migration pressure, Brexit, the pandemics, Russian aggression on the Ukraine)

12. EU in the new institutional framework on the global arena (G7, G-20, BRICS+, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Emerging Markets - Global South)

13. Is the Global Triangle (with US, China and the EU) possible?

14. New Global Order on the Horizon – bipolar or multipolar?

15. The Future of the EU on global scene

Literature (main positions, other given during the lecture)

- Ash Timothy Garton, Krstev Ivan, Leonard Mark, United West divided from the rest: Global public opinion one year into Russia’s war on Ukraine, ECFR, 22 February 2023: https://ecfr.eu/publication/united-west-divided-from-the-rest-global-public-opinion-one-year-into-russias-war-on-ukraine/

- Castells Manuel et all (Eds.), Europe’s Crises, Polity. Cambridge – Medford MA 2018

- Drozdiak William, Fractured Continent. Europe’s Crises and the Fate of the West, W.W. Norton and Company, New York – London 2017

- Kissinger Henry, Global Order, Penguin – different editions

- Krastev Ivan, After Europe, Combined Academic Publ. 2020

- Krastev Ivan, Holmes Stephen, The Light that Failed. A Reckoning, Penguin 2020

- Lo Bobo, The Ukraine effect: demise or rebirth of the global order? 11 May 2023, Lowy Institute – Analyses: https://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/ukraine-effect-demise-or-rebirth-global-order

- Menon Shivshankar, India and Asian Geopolitics. The Past, Present, Penguin – Random House, New Delhi 2021

- Point of No Return? The Transformation of the Global Order After The Russian Invasion on Ukraine, PISM, Warsaw, May 2023: https://www.pism.pl/publikacje/point-of-no-return-the-transformation-of-the-global-order-after-the-russian-invasion-of-ukraine

- Tharoor Shashi, Saran Samir, The New World Disorder and the Indian Imperative, Aleph, New Delhi 2020

- World Order after Cobid-19: https://www.csis.org/analysis/world-order-after-covid-19

- Yang Jiemian, Major Power Relations in a Post-Pandemic World Order, „China Quarterly of International Strategic Studies”, World Scientific, vol. 06., No. 01 (2020): https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/10.1142/S2377740020500074

After the course the student should:

Knowledge

- Define the role of the EU on contemporary global stage

- Describe the EU as seen from outside

- Show the EU as a real subject of global affairs

- Define current position in evaluating new global order

Qualities

- Have and independent voice on ongoing debate of the role of the EU

- Define what role the EU should play on the global arena

- Independently judge on the weak and strong points of the EU integration process

- Have his/her own opinion on current, almost volatile global order

Approach

- Have independent impact on current international affairs, within the EU and outside of it

- Be aware how difficult moments on the European integration process we have now due to the recent challenges (Covid, Russia, Big Power games, etc.)

- Have positive influence on his/her immediate surroundings in current, very lively debates on international affairs and the role of the EU in it

Written – from material delivered during the lecture