The European Neighbourhood Policy Chair at the College of Europe in Natolin organized the 9th ENP PhD Summer School, entitled:
"Between Polycrisis and a Perfect Storm? The EU, its Neighbours and Shifting Partnership Agendas"
The Summer School took place from 28 June to 2 July 2021 and was held entirely online. It was sponsored by the European Neighbourhood Policy Chair of the College of Europe in Natolin, in collaboration with the ECPR and the ECPR-SGEU.
This year’s Summer School focused closely on EU foreign policy, broadly conceived, and the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) in its eastern and southern dimensions. Both dimensions currently undergo transformation and are exposed to revision, renewal, and a re-prioritization of their underlying areas of engagement, not least in the wake of emerging domestic and international challenges. The Eastern Partnership (EaP), one of the two sub-regional dimensions of the ENP, has been under revision since late 2019 and the revised framework is about to be adopted in spring 2021.
Reviving the EU’s approach towards the southern neighbourhood, too, has been shaping the EU’s agenda since late 2020, and a first proposal for a ‘renewed partnership’ with the Mediterranean was officially tabled in February 2021. In both cases, the EU has pledged to work towards a formula where the spirit and practice of partnering are deemed to help turning the manifold crises and common challenges into opportunities. While critically addressing relevant aspects related to EU foreign policy and corresponding ENP dynamics, the Summer School also took issue with these challenges and discussed also political, security, economic and social developments in the EU’s neighbourhood partner countries.
The ENP PhD Summer School aims to provide a unique programme that offers doctoral candidates tailor-made lectures, advice and feedback from leading scholars and experts. It is an integral part of the programme that candidates present their dissertation projects.
The School aims at furnishing PhD candidates with critical and deeper cross-disciplinary knowledge, as well as theoretical and methodological tools relevant to European Foreign Policy Analysis (EUFP) towards the EU’s neighbours and, at the same time, it puts a strong emphasis on specific regional and domestic dynamics in the EU’s neighbourhood. The School is a unique opportunity for doctoral candidates and young academics to expand their personal and professional networks.
Programme
The 2021 edition of the ENP PhD Summer School was held exclusively online and focused on both the eastern (i.e. Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus) and the southern dimension (Maghreb and Mashreq) of the ENP. Each day, invited academics and experts gave lectures on a specific subject embedded in the theme of the Summer School. All accepted doctoral candidates presented their research and received feedback and advice from senior scholars and their peers.
The School brought together a faculty of renowned scholars. More information about past speakers and the programme of previous Summer Schools can be found at: www.enpsummerschool.eu
Topics addressed by past editions of the Summer School included, for example:
- Research design in the study of European integration, EU foreign policy and the ENP
- Conceptual and methodological approaches in the study of the ENP
- The EU and the ENP post-Brexit: In search of a new rationale
- Role concepts and the ENP
- External perceptions of the ENP and the EU as an international actor
- Security dilemmas in the EU’s neighbourhood
- The politics of the ENP: evolution, revisions and future avenues
- The EU, the post-Arab Spring southern neighbourhood and the 2021 ‘New Agenda for the Mediterranean’
- EU multi-level governance and the ENP; institutional accounts of ENP decision-making
- The EU, the ENP and stubborn authoritarianism in the neighbourhood
- The politics of neighbourhood association: The case of Ukraine
- The EU, the ENP and state-building
- The ENP and the Eastern Partnership beyond 2020
- The ENP and the promotion of the rule of law and anti-corruption pre- and post 2019
- EU conflict management in the neighbourhood
- The EU, the ENP and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- EU state and societal resilience-building in the neighbourhood
- Migration and displacement in the neighbourhood
- The changing EU-US relationship and its impacts on the ENP
- ….and many more.
Certification
All students who completed the Summer School received an 'attendance certificate'. Participants seeking credit at their home institution could request a 'detailed certificate' including the detailed Summer School programme accomplished. Certificates could also be sent to students' home institutions upon request.
Eligibility
The school featured PhD candidates working on topics related to EUFP and/or ENP- and EU neighbourhood-related topics/issues. Students with a background in International Relations, European Studies, Area Studies, Comparative Politics, and EU External Relations Law were particularly encouraged to apply.
How to contact us
European Neighbourhood Policy Chair
College of Europe Natolin campus
Ul. Nowoursynowska 84
02-797 Warsaw, Poland
enpsummerschool.pl@coleurope.eu
+48 22 54 59 489
