European Union Roundtable Seminar Series Programme

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1 European Union Roundtable Seminar Series Programme Regular weekly meetings are held throughout the academic year on Fridays at 2pm. Occasional seminars are also held to coincide with European and academic visitors to the University (times may vary). The regular seminars will allow faculty and students to present their work on Europe and facilitate cross-disciplinary linkages. A major goal of the series is to demonstrate the breadth and depth of European-related research being conducted at the University of Canterbury, while past seminar series programmes are archived and can be accessed below. Note: Speakers may be subject to change. To receive notifications of weekly speakers and any changes, please ncre@canterbury.ac.nz with "Please add me to the Roundtable Seminars List" in the subject line. Please be aware that normally no seminars are scheduled to take place during study breaks Seminars SEMESTER 1 13 March 2015 Title: Political Tensions in Europe: A New Cold War? Speaker: Professor Hans Illy The Post-WW II era ( ) was characterized by what is called the "Cold War", i.e. a permanent "non-peace" state of East-West confrontation. This seemed to be overcome by the break-down of the Soviet Union and its communist ideology which finally also prepared the ground

2 for the reunification of Germany. The following period of European history brought about the (re-) emergence of new sovereign states, the territorial expansion of the European Union and the creation of a European currency. Relations with Russia were since then much more based on economic than political grounds. In this context, the recent political developments in Ukraine dramatically shattered the existing order. Direct Russian involvement in the civil war and the non-peaceful occupation of the Crimea completely changed the political situation in Europe. Which care the underlying psychological determinants of this new type of East-West conflict? No doubt, a new "Cold War" is emerging, how long may it last? Prof. Illy is a political scientist (ret.), Arnold Bergstraesser Institute for Socio-Cultural Research, Albert Ludwigs University, Freiburg i.br., Germany 20 March 2015 Title: EU Development Strategy on Disaster Risk Reduction: Towards an Acculturation of Risk? Speaker: Dr Simon Hollis Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) has recently become an important feature of EU development strategies. While reducing risk in developing states appears in earlier development programmes, it has only been in the last decade that one can observe a sizable reshuffling on budget prioritization toward DRR. By 2012 over half of all ECHO-funded projects included DRR. This has resulted in an EU strategy for supporting DRR in developing countries that aims to integrate DRR principles in EU development and humanitarian aid policies. The EU seems set to make an important contribution to the resilience of developing countries. Yet, the extent to which local societies have internalized knowledge on DRR is weak at best. Global and regional intensions to strengthen at-risk societies are not translating into long-term change. This presentation argues that a major reason for the lack of success is due to a

3 limited focus on cultural perceptions of risk. Using the Caribbean as a case study, this study highlights the importance of cultural management and suggests a sociopsychological approach for long-term holistic development strategies. Simon Hollis is a postdoctoral researcher at the Swedish National Defence College. He has written numerous international peer-reviewed journals and recently published, The Role of Regional Organizations in Disaster Risk Management: A Strategy for Global Resilience with Palgrave Macmillan. For correspondence please contact Simon at: simon.hollis@fhs.se 27 March 2015 Title: EU and Chinese Engagement in Africa: Strategic Narratives, Public Diplomacy and Perceptions Speaker: Floor Keuleers Floor s PhD research looks at the European Union s and China s engagement with Africa, within the broader debate about so-called traditional versus emerging donors on the continent. It focuses on how African publics perceive the development discourses, activities and contribution to development of these two players, a dimension that has so far remained neglected in the literature. Her presentation will give an overview of the conceptual frameworks and methodological choices underpinning her research, discuss some preliminary findings, and outline the research steps to be taken next. It will also briefly go into the linkages between this particular research project and the work she has been doing with her Leuven colleagues on conceptualizing outside-in approaches to the study of EU foreign policy. Floor Keuleers is a PhD Fellow at the Leuven International and European Studies (LINES) Institute of the University of Leuven (Belgium). Her PhD research, which is supported by a fellowship from the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), started in October 2013 and will continue until

4 September She is currently a visiting PhD student at the National Centre for Research on Europe (NCRE) of the University of Canterbury. She holds an MPhil in Development Studies (University of Cambridge, 2012), an Ma in Comparative and International Politics (University of Leuven, 2011) and a Ba in Political Science (University of Antwerp, 2010). 10 April 2015 Title: The New Geopolitics of Europe: Crises in Eastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean Speaker: Vassilis Kappis The presentation will offer an overview of contemporary security challenges affecting Europe. From the Ukrainian conflict to the rise of asymmetrical threats such as terrorism, the E.U. appears unable to muster effective, long-term responses to some of the most pressing security concerns of EU member states. It will be supported that the failure to address these crises stems from an ongoing competition of geopolitical visions in Europe which leads to contradictory, self-defeating policy outcomes. The presentation will finally explore a number of potential flashpoints that could adversely impact Europe's security outlook in the coming years. Vassilis Kappis is an international security analyst, an awarded academic instructor in international relations and an advanced PhD Candidate at the University of Sydney, with his research focusing on the psychology of decisionmaking during tense militarized crises. Formerly based in Greece, Cyprus and the UK, he is an expert in EU and Eastern Mediterranean geopolitics and maintains affiliations with think tanks in Europe and the United States. 1 May 2015 Title: Warring identities: An investigation of the reciprocity between the European Union s expanding role as a security provider and ever-evolving notions of identity what part does CSDP training play? Speaker: Katharina Stirland

5 Katharina s PhD is concerned with the relationship between the EU s efforts to develop a common strategic culture amongst Common Security and Defence Policy practitioners and notions of European identity amongst these individuals. In particular, it focuses on the impact of attempts at centralising CSDP training, through initiatives such as the European Security and Defence College s Military Erasmus and the extent to which they serve as platforms of EU identity projection and facilitate the Europeanisation of the military, a group of professionals previously closely linked to constructing and reinforcing a sense of national identity. Katharina is a PhD student at the NCRE and this presentation marks the end of her first year. She previously studied at the University of Birmingham in the UK where she completed a BA (Hons) in Culture, Society and Communication followed by an MPhil in Modern European Cultures. Her previous research focused on notions of national identity amongst military communities and the use of nationalism in military recruitment campaigns. Europe Day Celebrations 8 May 2015 Undercroft May 2015 Title: Austria vs France? The global Nuclear Weapons Debate - The humanitarian focus, the NPT, and the Marshall Islands lawsuits Speaker: Dr Peter Low Three conferences on nuclear weapons in reframed the debate by focusing on humanitarian issues, and have built a new momentum for outlawing, stigmatizing and abolishing the nastiest of all human inventions. Austria has been one of the team leaders, and France has been one of

6 the blockers, notably at the NPT Review Conference which recently concluded in New York. Dr Peter Low teaches French here at UC, where he formerly coordinated the Peace Studies course. In December 2014 he attended the third Intergovernmental Conference on Nuclear Weapons, hosted in Vienna by the Austrian Government. He went as a delegate of a French NGO, working partly as a translator. 22 May 2015 Title: Europe in a Turbulent World: the perspective of the Netherlands Speaker: Rob Zaagman Dutch Ambassador to New Zealand As a state with a strong adherence to multilateralism, the Netherlands has been among the founding members of international organisations like the United Nations, NATO and the European Union. It will hold the rotating Presidency of the European Union in the first half of This is a time in which Europe is under pressure from difficult challenges of both an internal and external nature. Which are those challenges and what is the Dutch perspective on dealing with them? Ambassador Zaagman took up office in Wellington in mid- August Prior to this, he was the Consul-General of the Netherlands in Bavaria and Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany ( ). From 2008 to 2010, he was the Ambassador for International Organizations in the Netherlands, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Hague, the Netherlands. He has been with the Dutch MFA since 1988, serving before as assistant professor of international law at Utrecht University and with the Dutch army. tbc 29 May 2015