HHIK07992U CEMES. The History of International Organisations and Europe, 1814-2017

The History of International Organisations and Europe, 1814-2017
‘Americans are from Mars, Europeans from Venus’ was the title of a recent popular treatment of the transatlantic relationship by Robert Kagan, in which the author implied that where the United States still had the will and ability to wage war, the European Union focused on normative power instead. Given the tumultuous history of Europe since 1814, including two world wars, Europeans have certainly not always come from Venus. This course will help understand just how Europe was transformed from Mars to Venus. It is the hypothesis of the course that the establishment and development of international institutions in Europe (and the world) have played a key role. Nowhere in the world have international organisations, including the European regional organisations after 1945, had the density and impact they had in Europe. Over time international organisations helped transform European politics, but also deeply impacted European states and societies. The result is a European continent organised in numerous, overlapping, international organisations, including an increasingly powerful European Union, which deeply regulate interstate politics and set norms and standards for both states and societies. The course will go through the development and impact of international organisations on European politics, states and societies from 1814 to 2017. It will trace the individual history of a number of representative international organisations over time and attempt a comparison. It will explore the historical dynamics behind the phenomenon, but also attempt to measure the consequences and impact of the increasing activities and number of international organisations. Students will be given the task to work in depth with single organisations and single aspects of the history of international organisations on basis of archival and oral history sources.

Course objectives (clarification of some of the objectives stipulated in the curriculum):
After the course students will be able to:
• have a fundamental and basic understanding of the history of international organisations and their impact on Europe from 1814 to 2017
• critically analyse and discuss different methodologies, historical interpretations and social science theories dealing with the history of international organisations
• work with archival and oral history sources and discuss critically central problems of course criticism
• prepare and carry out a source based analysis of the history of international organisations