The EU as a Global Actor: Perspectives on Power

Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center · Conference Room Eight · September 19th · 8:30am-4:30pm

This inaugural academic conference is intended to kick-off our Center’s work in promoting research on the European Union and to clearly establish the Center’s scholarly profile and identity. All of the registered participants for the academic conference will also be invited to attend the reception.

Since first introduced by Ian Manners in 2002, the concept of 'normative power Europe' has been widely debated by scholars in the field of European Studies. According to Manners the emerging identity of the EU as an international actor is that of a normative power. Manners’ article sparked a lively debate, the contributions to which have elaborated the theoretical concept of normative power, contested the approach and sought to utilize normative power Europe as a framework of analysis. At the EUSA 2007 conference, Manners’s work earned the distinction of having been selected by European Commission President Barroso as one of the most important works in the past decade of scholarship on the EU. The proposed conference intends to examine the debate on normative power Europe seeking papers that employ the concept both theoretically and empirically, but those critical of this line of research or those contrasting different notions of power that have been invoked to characterize the EU’s status as a global actor ranging from “ethical power Europe and “civilian power Europe” to the broader concept of “soft power.” We hope this theme will elicit research of breadth and depth as well as theoretical and empirical range and scope. The conference will advance the debate over European power, inform a wider audience of one of the most fascinating scholarly debates in the field of EU Studies and invigorate the research agendas of local graduate students and scholars.

Suggested Background Readings
David Dessler and John Owen · Constructivism and the Problem of Explanation: A Review Article
Ian Manners · The Normative Ethics of the European Union
Ian Manners · Normative Power Europe: A Contradiction in Terms?
Richard Whitman · Road Map for a Route March? (De-)civilianizing through the EU's Security Strategy

Symposium Program

8:00am-8:30am · Registration & Breakfast

8:30am-9:30am · Opening Panel

Welcome: Dr. Vicki Birchfield, Director, EUCE, Georgia Institute of Technology
Introductory Address: Mr. Anthony Smallwood, European Commission Delegation to the United States

9:30am-9:45am · Break

9:45am-11:45am · Panel 1

Chair and Discussant: Dr. Ian Manners, Danish Institute for International Studies
Discussant: Dr. William Downs, Georgia State University

Presenters:
Dr. Edward Keene, Georgia Institute of Technology
Europe’s Status in International Society, the Standard of Civilization and the Idea of a “Normative Power”

Dr. Craig Greathouse, North Georgia College and State University
Challenges of Power and the EU: Conflicting Strategic Cultures and Traditional Power Politics

Ms. Sarah J. Cormack Patton, Georgia Institute of Technology
The EU as a Normative Power: The Cases of the European Neighborhood Policy and the European Energy Policy

Mr. Andrew Kirkpatrick, Emory University
Examining the Impact of Institutions on Common Pool Resource Problems: The EU and its Inability to Stop Overfishing

11:45am-1:00pm · Lunch

1:00pm-3:00pm · Panel 2

Chair and Discussant: Dr. Richard Whitman, University of Bath
Discussant: Dr. David Dessler, The College of William and Mary

Presenters:
Dr. Vicki L. Birchfield, Georgia Institute of Technology
The EU's Development Policy: Empirical Evidence of Normative Power Europe?

Dr. Henry Carey, Georgia State University
EU Effects on Democracy and Human Rights in New Candidate Countries

Dr. Jelena Subotic, Georgia State University
European Union, the Hague, and Challenges of Europeanization in Serbia

Dr. Charles Hankla, Georgia State University
Judicial Behavior under Political Constraints: Evidence from the European Court of Justice

Ms. Andrea Aldrich, Georgia State University
Promoting Reform Through EU Accession Agreements

3:00pm-3:30pm · Break

3:30pm-4:30pm · Concluding Panel

Dr. Ian Manners, Danish Institute for International Studies
Dr. Richard Whitman, University of Bath
Dr. Mikulas Fabry, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Maurits van der Veen, University of Georgia
Dr. Michelle Zebich-Knos, Kennesaw State University