Conceptualized and organized by doctoral and post-doctoral researchers, the annual HEIRS conferences are characterized by their professional yet informal environment, which is the basis for a truly open debate among participants. Following four successful conferences at the University of Cambridge (2004), the University of Portsmouth (2005), the Graduate Institute of International Studies (GIIS) (2006), the Université Libre de Bruxelles (2008) and the EUropean University Institute of Florence (EUI) (2009), HEIRS invites postgraduate researchers, professors and any scholar to participate in its sixth colloquium.

We recommend the following other events relevant to the history of European integration.

A GARNET Conference Brussels, Belgium 22-24 April 2010
The Conference is organised in the framework of the EU-funded FP6 Network of Excellence on ‘Global Governance, Regionalisation and Regulation: the Role of the EU (GARNET)’. Through the conference, GARNET aims to further develop a world-class multi-disciplinary network of scientific excellence of researchers, analysts and practitioners with expertise in key areas of global and regional governance with a particular focus on Europe’s role. The conference is expressly open to participation from non-GARNET members. The multidisciplinary Conference will provide a forum for discussion and exchange of ideas among the growing number of scholars that take an interest in understanding the interface of EU and international politics and law. In order to stimulate encompassing and fully informed debate, it will be open to all relevant disciplines and sub- disciplines, including international and European law, international political economy, economics, political science and history. The Conference will also continue to foster exchange between the scientific and the policy communities, especially through keynote addresses by senior policy makers and a number of policy-link events featuring academics as well as policy makers. The Conference broadly covers all aspects relevant to understanding the EU in international affairs, including implications for and effects of the structure of the global order (e.g. multilateralism, multipolarity), in order to allow for active participation by as many scholars as possible working on relevant subjects. To this end, we in particular invite papers that cover one or several of the following four conference themes: 1. The EU and International Institutions: Theories, Processes, Actors As a global actor, the EU is embedded in, and acts through, an international institutional framework that includes multilateral treaty-systems, international organizations, partnerships and other fora. An increasing number of scholars address the role, ‘actorness’ and performance of the EU in such international institutions and the repercussions of the policies of international institutions on the EU. Contributions may address conceptual as well as empirical issues arising from the mutual influence of the EU and international institutions. How can we best understand the EU and its performance as an actor in international institutions? What is the role of the EU within a multilateral world and what should it be? What has been and can be the role of the EU in different formal and informal international institutions, be they overarching like the UN or related to particular policy areas (including environment, development, trade, human rights, security and others)? What is the overall picture of interactions between the EU and international institutions, and is there systematic variation? Addressing these and related questions, contributions may in general explore the processes and actors that shape the relations between the EU and international institutions as well as their influence on each other. 2. The EU in a Globalizing World: Policy Dimensions Globalization is a process that has become a feature and reality in most, if not all policy fields. Developing a comprehensive understanding of the EU in international affairs thus requires us to explore the way in which the EU shapes, and is shaped by, functional and normative political dynamics in various issue areas. This policy dimension theme aims to harvest the results of ongoing research related to the role of the EU in various policy fields. Complementing the first conference theme, contributions do not need to relate to international institutional frameworks. While they may cover the traditional focus area of security policy, we in particular encourage contributions on other policy fields that are now entering the mainstream of the scientific foreign policy community, including the environment, development, economics, human rights, financial markets, health, agriculture and others. 3. The Interplay between EU Member States, the EU and International Affairs This conference theme will address the multi-level characteristics of the EU’s involvement in international affairs. Some questions that may be asked include: In which way do EU Member States play a role in creating (or preventing) a single voice for the EU? What role do various foreign policy strategies of EU member states play (e.g. isolationist, atlanticist, protectionist, multilateral/ internationalist)? How do individual member states, and the dynamics between them, affect the role of the EU in international affairs? To what extent do individual member states become “Europeanized” thus enhancing EU unity as a result of EU-level and/or international processes and developments? How and to what extent do the activities of individual member states shape or contravene a common EU approach in international affairs? What is, can or should be the role of EU Presidencies in this multilevel setting? The last question acquires particular prominence because the Conference will take place on the eve of the Belgian EU Presidency in the second half of 2010. It may also provide a link between the academic programme and the planned policy link activities of the Conference. 4. Interregionalism and Bilateral Relations of the EU The EU interacts with other world regions and major players. As such, it promotes cooperation within and between different regions as well as with other countries, including under the new EU Neighbourhood Policy. What is the prospect of inter-regional cooperation fostered by the EU both with relevant formal organisations (e.g. APEC/ASEAN, NAFTA, the AU, UNECE, OSCE, MERCOSUR) and more informal groupings (e.g. Barcelona Process). What are the EU's strategies for dealing with other regions and actors and how efficient and effective are they? What are the prospects for transatlantic relations, more than one year after the inauguration of President Obama (and nearly one year after the European elections and the appointment of a new European Commission)? What is the status of bilateral relations of the EU with other major world players (including the BRIC countries) and how can we understand the related dynamics? What are the strategic choices the EU faces in the design of its bilateral and interregional relations taking into account the general role it plays and wants to play in international affairs? What lessons can we learn from the study of the EU’s bilateral and interregional relations for the analyses of EU foreign policy and European integration?
Event Type: Conference
Contact: IES-VUB, Egmont, UNU-CRIS, IEE-ULB Visit the Website