At the start of this academic year, the Politics and IR team sat down and thought about why one should study politics in 2019. In a time of crisis in all its forms and shapes – environmental, constituional, humanitarian, economic – each team member wrote their own response to the question yet their answers are univocal: now is exactly the time to study politics! Here’s Part 3!
The 9th of May is celebrated across the European Union (EU) as “Europe Day” – a day to celebrate European unity, peace and the coming together of former enemies to form what is today the largest Single Market in the world, and a unique political system, with its own directly elected Parliament, a common currency and deep-rooted integration and interconnections between its members.
By Oliver Fawcett (Third Year Politics Student)
In the first of a series of Jean Monnet blogs, Dr Amelia Hadfield reflects on European Foreign Policy, and asks what lies ahead for the new HR/VP Federica Mogherini…
The world has entered a particularly turbulent period. Eastern Europe is riven by the toughest east-west mêlée since the Cold War, with spats and sanctions raging back and forth between the EU, US and Russia. Israel and Palestine spent the summer locked in intifada-like battles. And ISIS has risen as the newest security threat; galvanising both geopolitical and religious dynamics from Iraq to Syria. Closer to home, UK terror levels totter. In an indication of the overall seriousness of key global issues, the UN has taken the ‘unprecedented’ step of declaring Iraq, South Sudan, Syria, and the Central African Republic to each represent a ‘Level 3 humanitarian crisis, the most severe designation.[1] O tempora, o mores, as Cicero famously said. The times, they are a-tough; the customs, they need to keep up. So do EU personnel. This first CCCU Jean Monnet Chair Blog reflects upon the challenges facing European foreign affairs as a result of the changeover of staff in late 2014.[2]