Lecture Europe 8217 s Role in the World

-We may play different positions, but we do play the same sport, and we are on the same team-, said the representative of the United States State Department in a speech entitled -Europes role in the world- while visiting Berlin in June 2007. The interested audience may ask: Which kind of sport do they play? Whos on the other team? Which joint strategies do the EU and the U.S. follow? Whos going to win? - In the seminar we are interested in the crucial question of the role of the European Union in the world. This issue has several dimensions we are going to touch upon: First of all we get aquainted with theoretical approaches to analyse European integration and Europeanization as well as with some of the most important institutional features of the EU. In the subsequent sessions we deal with the EU as an economic actor in the world (e.g. Global Europe strategy, EPA) and review other regional bloc building processes such as ASEAN, NAFTA, UNASUR, ALBA, SADC, ECOWAS. ‚Why is it at all attractive for states to form unions? may be one of the guiding questions. By dealing with key policy areas (e.g. social policies, gender policies, migration and border policies, European Monetary Union, military), we further aim at characterising the current policies of the European Union. Towards the end of the seminar we try to anwer the overarching question whether certain economic and political developments happen due to ‚Globalization or ‚Europeanization. Throughout the course of the seminar we collect news clippings from all over the world (wherever you have access to) about the coverage about the EU and key debates taking place. FB 05 Gesellschaftswissenschaften Uni Kassel WS 2008/2009 Politikwissenschaften Philosophie NF Dr. Banse Frauke