The International Role of the European Union

Course Information
TitleThe International Role of the European Union / The International Role of the European Union
CodeESC302
FacultySocial and Economic Sciences
SchoolPolitical Sciences
Cycle / Level2nd / Postgraduate
Teaching PeriodWinter/Spring
CoordinatorIoannis Papageorgiou
CommonNo
StatusActive
Course ID600022590

Programme of Study: International Studies: Specialization in European Studies

Registered students: 8
OrientationAttendance TypeSemesterYearECTS
KORMOSCompulsory Course329
Class Information
Academic Year2025 – 2026
Class PeriodWinter
Faculty Instructors
Weekly Hours3
Total Hours12
Class ID
600281732
Course Type 2021
Specific Foundation
Mode of Delivery
  • Face to face
Digital Course Content
Erasmus
The course is also offered to exchange programme students.
Language of Instruction
  • English (Instruction, Examination)
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of the course, students will: - understand the specific characteristics and complexity of the EU as an international actor in the age of globalisation - have a full picture of why EU foreign policy is structurally different from that of states and other international organisations. - be aware of the historical development of the EU's international role in the evolution of the international system. - become familiar with the role of the Union in shaping the international system and in the evolution and management of global governance, on issues such as the promotion of global public goods (peace, security, democracy and human rights, development and environmental protection). - be able, in this context, to explain the EU's competition and cooperation with emerging powers such as China and Russia, as well as its relations with the Middle East and North Africa region, Africa, Latin America and East Asia.
General Competences
  • Apply knowledge in practice
  • Retrieve, analyse and synthesise data and information, with the use of necessary technologies
  • Work autonomously
  • Work in teams
  • Work in an international context
  • Work in an interdisciplinary team
  • Advance free, creative and causative thinking
Course Content (Syllabus)
- Introduction: The concept of "international role" and "foreign policy" applied to the EU in the age of globalization. EU Conventional and structural foreign policy. - The historical process of European integration in the field of foreign, security and defence policy (from the European Defence Community to the Common Foreign and Security Policy, to the Lisbon Treaty) and the history of the EU's role in the world. - How the EU sees the world: The EU Security Strategy (Solana Doctrine) and its comparison with the US strategy, its evolution and its implications for global governance. The European Global Strategy (2016). - The EU's foreign policy system: actors, policy-making and its relations with national foreign policies. - Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP): principles, objectives, framework and dynamics. - The EU role in the transformation of the international system and actors: the EU "structural foreign policy", the civilian dimension of EU Foreign Policy and its contribution to the framing of the EU international identity (enlargement, trade policy, development policy, competition policy, monetary policy, environmental policy). Special focus on the EU policy for human rights and democracy (case studies). - The EU and its neighbourhood, with special attention to the EU foreign policy towards the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa). - The EU and promotion of regionalism. EU interregional relations with Sub-Saharian Africa, Latin America and East Asia. Interregionalism as instrument to promote peace and security, human rights and democracy, and development. - The EU role in international institutions (UN, WTO, FAO, World Bank, IMF) and promoting "effective multilateralism". EU-UN partnership in the management of global governance. - The EU and crisis management: objectives, instruments, and operations (case studies). - Cooperation and competition with major powers: United States, China, India, Brazil and South Africa. - Conclusion: Empirical reality and external perceptions of the EU as a global actor: their implication for the EU international role in a changing world.
Keywords
European Union, global role of the EU, international relations
Educational Material Types
  • Notes
  • Slide presentations
  • Book
Use of Information and Communication Technologies
Use of ICT
  • Use of ICT in Course Teaching
  • Use of ICT in Communication with Students
  • Use of ICT in Student Assessment
Description
TEACHING METHODS Classes are held in part as front lectures and seminars, in part as activities through working groups. - In the front lectures, general topics of the course are taught, in order to enable students to know and understand the historical process of construction of the EU foreign policy, its features, its contextualization in the international system and global governance, and its conduction. - The lecturer will organize sessions with smaller groups of students on a regular basis, in order to discuss with them the main concepts already covered by the lectures, apply them to the current world politics, help students fully understand them and develop a critical attitude towards them. - Students will get into groups according to their preferences, each analyzing a case study which is currently on the international agenda of the EU. Each student will study and represent the position of a relevant actor (e.g. a member state, the European Commission, the EU High Representative, a third state, an international organization). Through this working method, the EU approach to specific issues and its interaction with third parties will be studied, presented and debated in class. Students can make use of ppt presentations or similar, which will be uploaded on the webpage of the course after the class. - Periodically and on a rotational basis, students will present in class the latest news concerning the EU role in world politics and comment them with mates and the lecturer (speaker's corner). - Talks on the EU in world politics of Italian and overseas colleagues are organized by the lecturer. These includes a six-seminar series titled "Europe from Outside Seminars", focused on the external perceptions of the EU as a global actor, involving six experts from Europe, Africa, Asia, Americas and international organizations. SUPPORT ACTIVITIES The course includes the visit to the European Parliament (EP), European External Action Service (EEAS) and NATO in Brussels (for 40-50 attending students only), where students will attend seminars and meetings with officials and Members of the EP, focused on specific aspects of EU Foreign Policy and its role in the world. The visit will take place during the course or in the following weeks. All details will be provided during the first lessons. Lecturer's ppt presentations will be made gradually available on the Moodle page of the course.
Course Organization
ActivitiesWorkloadECTSIndividualTeamworkErasmus
Lectures391.4
Seminars391.4
Reading Assigment883.2
Project501.8
Written assigments291.1
Exams20.1
Total2479.0
Student Assessment
Description
Through the oral presentations, the lecturer evaluates students' ability in team working, analysis and leadership, to express themselves properly and to develop autonomous and critical positions on specific case studies. Students participating in the oral presentations will get 1 additional point in the final exam evaluation. The oral exam aims at gauging the overall level of proficiency, as well as students' ability to express themselves properly and to develop autonomous and critical positions on the topics covered by the course. Questions concern suggested textbooks and, for attending students, notes from the lessons, materials made available by the lecturer on the webpage of the course and the contents of the student's oral presentation. Attending students can take advantage of an intermediate exam on a part of the materials, which is scheduled in November. Further information will be made available at the beginning of the course.
Student Assessment methods
  • Oral Exams (Formative, Summative)
  • Performance / Staging (Formative, Summative)
Bibliography
Additional bibliography for study
- S. Keukeleire and T. Delreux, The Foreign Policy of the European Union, Bloomsbury 2022 Students regularly attending classes will study also on the materials provided during the course. Students who will not regularly attend classes will study also a book among the following: - R. A. Del Sarto, Borderlands. Europe and the Mediterranean Middle East Oxford University Press 2021 - E. Baracani, EU-Turkey Relations. A New Direction for EU Foreign Policy?, Edward Elgar 2021 - A. Michalski, Z. Pan, Unlikely Partners?: China, the European Union and the Forging of a Strategic Partnership, Palgrave MacMillan 2017 - T. Bordachev, Europe, Russia and the Liberal World Order: International Relations after the Cold War, Routledge 2021
Last Update
29-05-2023