July 5 - July 15 2008, Prague, Czech Republic
Courses
For the first information on all the courses please see Academics.
Workshop 1: Internal security and issues pertinent to the fight against terrorism
The internal security of the EU has both a dimension of coordination of the member states´ activities within the EU and coordinated EU external action. However, the EU framework is not fully harmonized and the member states retain a sphere of autonomy. Thus every member state must balance its loyalty to the common EU objective and the pursuit of its national interests. Central European countries have a reputation (which does not necessarily corresponds with the reality in the area if internal security) of behaving independently of Brussels. The workshop will be interactive, simulating a negotiation of a Central European country with the US on a visa policy. The workshop participants will be divided into teams, representing a Central European country, the US government and EU institution, and will search for a solution of a problem acceptable for all parties involved, duly balancing the interest of internal security (including terrorism prevention) and free movement or the citizens of the Central European countries.
Workshop 2: Transatlantic market and WTO issues, including trade in agricultural products and agricultural policies
In this workshop participants will analyse effects of transatlantic community's on global markets, role of WTO and specific aspect of global development - agriculture policies in member countries. Transatlantic market is one of the crucial parts of global economic system - some US$ 300 billion in two-way trade in 1996, $810 billion in investment, against a combined transatlantic output of over $16.5 trillion (source: WTO). In such an intense economic relationship disputes and differences are inevitable and the role of the WTO is to create common rules and dispute settlement mechanisms where most of these conflicts can be resolved expeditiously on the basis of mutually agreed rules and disciplines. The following issues will be discussed: What does agriculture liberalization mean? Agriculture under the Doha Development Agenda (DDA); Disparities between global players in the perception of objectives in agriculture sector. What are these objectives? Is different European view honest? What development can we expect?
Workshop 3: Democracy assistance and promotion worldwide
Democracy assistance at the beginning of the 21st century faces a number of challenges, both in justifying the motivations behind democracy promotion policies in the face of a "backlash" against democracy promotion from some quarters, and in assessing the most effective and appropriate models of democracy assistance for different conditions and different historical experience. While the European Union has provided more financial assistance than the United States towards institution-building in central and eastern Europe's emerging democracies, the US has a track record of providing more direct support for democracy activists. This course will look at current trends and practices in democracy assistance, in particular comparing US and EU approaches, and will examine differences between support to civil society and technical assistance to emerging democratic institutions. The course will examine the increasing contribution of the new member-states of the European Union as new donors and the extent to which they can draw on the comparative advantage of their own recent experience of the transition to democracy. Looking at cases such as democracy assistance activities in Cuba, Belarus and elsewhere, the course will look at different mechanisms of support to civil society activists and campaigners for human rights and democracy in closed societies and in societies where the transition to democracy has either slowed or been halted, drawing on fresh research conducted in the course of 2007-8.
Workshop 4: EU - US co-operation in the European Neighbourhood
The volatile neighbourhood of the European Union is a source of concern for both the EU and the US. In the EU, we can often hear concerns about overall political instability, rising nationalism, organized crime flourishing beyond EU borders as well as fears of illegal immigration. The US is determined to contribute to the stabilisation of regions such as the Black Sea or Western Balkans and anchor them firmly in the West, so that they do not become bastions of extremism. But do the US and the EU possess necessary incentives to do so? How viable is the perspective of Western Balkans to join the European Union? Will be the accession talks with Turkey be further hampered by the Cyprus issue? And what about countries like Ukraine, Moldova or the Caucasus republics, which so far do not enjoy any perspective of EU membership? The workshop will strive at discussing these issues, particularly in context of Central European politics, which place the Western Balkans and the Eastern neighbours of the EU high on their foreign policy agenda.
Workshop 5: External security and defence policy
In this Workshop, the participants will study the security situation in Europe after the end of the Cold War and the way in which the perception of threats and risks has changed. With the experience of the war in Yugoslavia and the crisis in Kosovo, European Union has entered sphere of defence policy very dramatically in the new century. The newly formed European Security and Defence Policy attempts to show that the EU is not a political dwarf as everybody declared. In the framework of the ESDP, European military, police and judiciary has been active in many regions, including the Balkans, Africa or even Afghanistan. European Security Strategy has been the first attempt to define a unique European view of the international relations. But is there any European view? To what extent has the ESDP helped to solve problems and to what extent it causes new ones? Does the ESDP evolution mean that there is no role for NATO to play anymore? Do all European states welcome the European defence policy? What about the US? And what is the position of Central European countries? Even if the participants will not be able to solve all transatlantic security dilemmas after the Workshop, they will understand why it is so difficult to find the answers.
Workshop 6: Energy security and climate change
This workshop will address political, economic and environmental implications of soaring energy prices. How to meet our future energy demands, which would be affordable, technologically safe and environmentally sustainable(future scenarios)? What are the security implications of the fact that most of oil and gas supply comes from unstable regions (Middle East, Russia)? How to manage serious environmental challenges posed by increasing energy demands in developing world? How to achieve a politically feasible mix of boosting supply and managing demand? Policy solutions (package of EU regulations and directives) will be discussed against the backdrop of "bottom up" approach to security and environmental challenges at local level and "top-down" (supply-side) approach to management of centralized systems of energy infrastructure.