WHAT STORIES DOES EUROPE TELL? A VIEW FROM TURKEY. CES Open Forum Series 2018-2019 CES Open Forum Series 2018-2019

Turkey’s omnipresence at the margins of Europe throughout history has given shape to both Turkish and European identities. This paper sheds light onto this relationship by endeavoring to go beyond the much studied institutional relationship between Turkey and the European Union (EU). It focuses on three critical historical moments, namely the interwar years, the years of labor migration after 1960, and the period after 2004 which began with the failure of the United Nations proposal to settle the Cyprus dispute. While the image of the Turk was long viewed as the nemesis of Europe, there was a change in mutual perceptions during the inter-war years thanks to the efforts of political leaders who were keen on initiating societal reforms and change their minds after listening to one another. The years of labor migration after 1960 had set the stage for mutual encounters and interwoven lives. This period diversified the stories of Europe in a dramatic way. The third critical moment involved the concomitant crises of Turkey and the EU after 2004 when Turkey’s membership in the EU finally seemed probable

Representing Childhood and Forced Migration: Narratives of Borders and Belonging in European Screen Content for Children

This article explores representations of childhood and forced migration within a selection of European screen content for and about children. Based on the findings of a research project that examined the intersections of children’s media, diversity, and forced migration in Europe (www.euroarabchildrensmedia.org), funded by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council, the article highlights different ways in which ideas of borders and belonging are constructed and deconstructed in a selection of films and television programmes that feature children with an immigration background. Drawing on ideas around the “politics of pity” (Arendt), the analysis explores conditions under which narratives of otherness arise when it comes to representing forcibly displaced children within European-produced children’s screen media. It also examines screen media that destabilize borders of “us” and “the other” by emphasizing the agency of children from migration backgrounds, and revealing both the similarities and the differences between European children with immigration backgrounds and White European-born children. It is argued here that, operating according to the notions of living “together-in-difference” (Ang), “narratability” (Chouliaraki and Stolic), and “the struggle for belonging” (Kebede), these representations destabilize narratives of borders and otherness, suggesting that children with a family history of immigration “belong” to European societies in the same ways as White European-born children

Honors Senior Capstone Portfolio

This Honors Senior Capstone Thesis seeks to present an analyze the current war between Ukraine and Russia by comparing an contrasting three countries\u27 responses to this international crisis--Poland, France, and Germany

China - Japan - South Korea: a tense ménage à trois

China, Japan and South Korea are the largest economies in East Asia and, as such, play a decisive role in the region's prosperity and security. Their relations with each other, however, are increasingly marked by tensions in the absence of a regional organisation or institution playing a stabilising role. This study considers a constellation that has so far received little attention, namely the cooperation between these three states, which began in the late 1990s and has since established itself as an independent format. The study's central question is whether this trilateral cooperation can bring forth a new model of interaction in Northeast Asia, or whether it only confirms and reproduces existing (and predominantly negative) trends. The research has two focal points: it analyses developments within the three sets of bilateral relations, and provides a systematic overview of the extent of this trilateral cooperation to date. It shows that tensions within the Northeast-Asian triangle are caused not only by historic, territorial and maritime conflict, but also by the increasing competition between the US and China for primacy in the Asia-Pacific. To date trilateral cooperation between Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul therefore has a mixed but overall modest balance sheet, especially in security policy. The format is nevertheless significant in that it provides an institutional framework for exchanging views and keeps open channels of communication below "high politics", even in times of heightened bilateral tensions. (author's abstract

Do Regional Organizations Travel? - European Integration, Diffusion and the Case of ASEAN

Why do regional organizations share a number of key institutions and policies? Why do regional organizations like the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) or the Carribean Community (CARICOM) look like the European Union? And why do we find the norms of the Helsinki Final Act in treaties of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)? The simple answer is that policy solutions developed in the context of regional integration diffuse. The paper contends that regional integration efforts in Europe have had a decisive but often unacknowledged influence on regional cooperation outside of Europe. The influence of European integration on regional organizations beyond Europe will be illustrated with a case that is unsuspicious of having emulated the European integration experience: The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Since 1957, Southeast Asian states have selectively taken over policies and institutions from the European context. The most recent adoption, it will be argued, is the ASEAN Charter, in effect since November 2008. In accounting for this adoption, the paper argues that ASEAN members’ decision is only partially driven by genuine regional or functional demands. Members borrowed from abroad expecting the Charter to provide a policy solution to the cooperation problems members faced. Thus, the paper makes an original general contribution to the existing literature on regional integration: It argues that a full account of regional integration processes needs to take diffusion processes into consideration.Europeanization; Europeanization

Facets of the North Korea conflict: actors, problems and Europe's interests

Even after the summit meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Head of State Kim Jong Un in Singapore on 12 June 2018, the crisis surrounding North Korea’s nuclear programme and weapons of mass destruction programme remains one of the most dangerous and complex in the world. The conflict is centred on the unresolved tense relationship between North Korea and the USA, and in particular the issue of nuclear weapons possession. Grouped around this are other conflicts characterised by clashes of interests between China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea and the USA. In addition, within these conflicts, security policy, human rights policy and economic policy have great impact on each other. For Germany and Europe, finding a peaceful solution to the conflict - or at least preventing military escalation - is key. Europe can and should work to ensure that North Korea is treated as a challenge to global gov­ernance. Addressing the set of problems subsumed under the term “North Korea conflict” in such a way as to avoid war, consolidate global order structures, and improve the situation of the people in North Korea requires staying power and can only lead to success one step at a time. (author's abstract

‘A Europe without walls, without fences, without borders’: a desecuritisation of migration doomed to fail

It has been commonly argued that amid the so-called ‘migration crisis’ in 2015, Greece ignored its Dublin Regulation obligations due to unprecedentedly high migration flows, structural weaknesses, fears and uncertainty. However, this narrative deprives the Greek government of agency. In contrast, this article puts forward an alternative analysis of Greece’s attitude. It argues that the Greek government’s policy choices in the realms of border controls, migration and asylum in 2015, prior to the ‘EU–Turkey deal’, manifested a well-calculated desecuritisation strategy with a twofold aim. In this respect, this article provides an analysis of why and how the newly elected SYRIZA-led coalition government embarked on a desecuritising move and assesses the success/effectiveness of this move and the desecuritisation strategy. It argues that although the government’s desecuritising move was successful, overall, its desecuritisation strategy failed to produce the anticipated results vis-à-vis the government’s twofold aim and intended outcomes

understanding the discrepancies

Public attitudes related to social Europe are important for legitimating the aspirations of the European Union and European politicians to deepen European integration. This paper investigates public opinion about social Europe by analyzing attitudes related to the basic principles for European social security measures and attitudes about implementing a uniform European social security system. Based on a survey conducted in 13 European countries, it explores the discrepancies between the two interrelated phenomena and investigates in detail the factors responsible for the strong support for general principles, but fizzling support for the implementation of a European social system. The main findings demonstrate that the value-based mechanisms are primarily responsible for carrying over the positive attitudes towards the general principles to positive attitudes towards a uniform European social security system. In contrast, self-interest does not play a prominent role. Left-leaning individuals, emphasizing the justice principle of need and who identify and trust the European Union are the primary proponents of general principles related to social Europe, as well as for the potential realization of a uniform European welfare system

European Union foreign policy towards Egypt during the Arab spring of 2011

With the onset of the Arab Spring, external actors found themselves caught off guard by the democratic uprisings and the implications they hold to their respective national interests in the region. For the EU, the instability in the region presents challenges to the long relationship the European nations culminated with the Middle East, especially with Egypt. The uprising created a situation where the EU had to develop new policies to capitalize on the opportunity for democratic change while maintaining the decades long EU’s interest in Egypt. Accordingly, the main question this study tries to answer is whether and the extent to which the EU was able to adopt the proper policies, particularly whether the EU was able to use the resources at its disposal to facilitate democratic change in Egypt. The following secondary questions would also be answered throughout the study: 1. What is the nature of the EU’s foreign policy in terms of its mechanism, limitations, major premises and factors influencing its effectiveness? 2. What is the history of EU-Egyptian partnership prior to the Arab Spring? 3. Where there any changes to EU-Egyptian relations after the Arab Spring to the present? 4. How does the situation of Tunisia and the EU’s actions in the country differ from the EU’s actions in the Egyptian case