Partnership: George Bush School of Government and Public Service and the European Union Center for Excellence

The seminar focuses on European Union (EU) foreign and security policy, transatlantic relations, German foreign policy, and German-American relations, and the EU and Germany more generally. This seminar will provide students with an excellent opportunity to participate in academic events held by European experts at leading institutes in Europe, and in various academically oriented site visits to major institutions and organizations in two of the most important cities in Europe. Brussels is the political capital of the European Union, the institution under which collective European foreign and security policies are developed. Berlin is the capital and largest city of the Federal Republic of Germany, one of the most influential countries and the largest economy in Europe.

The seminar course to both cities provides a unique combination and professional experience for students that they could not benefit from without such an overseas element. In both Brussels and Berlin, students will have an exceptional opportunity to come closer to "the real world" through lectures and seminars (with focus on argumentation and debate) with leading academic experts, site visits with briefings by and discussions with public officials, and cultural and social activities and tours in the cities. This combined trip will also help to raise further awareness among students about different academic and policy perspectives on European and European-US relations that they may not be exposed to without this trip. Moreover, the whole overseas element of this seminar course will take place in a multi-lingual and multi-cultural setting that will further enrich the horizons of students and their sensitivity to working in an international environment, experiences that will both help to prepare them to become leaders in the future and that can support efforts to further internationalize the campus community. This trip will also offer students possibilities of networking with scholars and public officials and gather research material that may not be available through libraries or through the internet.

Course/Syllabus

Description

Professor(s)

BUSH 689

Special Topics in European, Foreign and Security Policy in a Transatlantic Context (3 hrs)

Gabriela Marin Thornton