Dr Christopher Browning
Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick
Whereas in the 1990s American policy towards Europe aimed to build 'a Europe whole and free', since the turn of the millennium American approaches towards Europe have been more divisive and are increasingly seen as representing attempts to define what Europe is or should be about. Whilst the change in American discourse is not uniform the project argues that the different, more aggressive and divisive readings of America, raise significant challenges for the transatlantic alliance, for the concept of the West, for the EU and for individual European states, including Russia. Primarily these challenges are related to questions of identity, since pending the way America is thematised, then Europe comes out differently with consequences for the transatlantic relationship and European politics in general. With the traditional frameworks of European politics ignored in the new American discourses, European states face the question of how to locate themselves in the new environment and how they should think about the future of the European project as a whole.
The project aims to analyse questions related to: the changing heritage of 'Europe' and the 'West'; the challenges and opportunities that face Europe's smaller states; the extent to which the US is beginning to replace Russia as Europe's central constitutive other; the ability and capacity of the US to disrupt traditional power structures in Europe; as well as debates regarding what Europe is about and what global role the EU should play.
The organised Seminars:
Towards a Post-Western West? The Changing Heritage of 'Europe' and the 'West'
2-3 February 2006, Tampere, Finland
Organised by Tampere Peace Research Institute (TAPRI) the inaugural event of the NORFACE seminar series on the 'Transatlantic Relationship and the Struggle for Europe' brought together scholars from Europe, Russia, Australia and the United States to discuss conceptual questions related to changing and developing conceptions of the West and Europe. The seminar (programme) explored both the genealogy of the West as well as its discursive utilisation in contemporary politics. Central debates focused on how the West has shifted from a unifying signifier to becoming a battleground over contested meanings and projects, especially in transatlantic relations. However, the seminar also explored the West in relation to its constitutive others and raised methodological debates as to how best to understand and study the current rift in transatlantic relations. For more information please see the links to the seminar papers below:
- The Old World and the New: a History of Projection and Counter Projection, Noel Parker, University of Copenhagen
- Occidentalism: The Uses of the West, Alastair Bonnett, University of Newcastle
- Beyond the West: Europe and the Rise of Asia, Gerard Delanty, University of Liverpool
- Economists, Sociologists, and the Transatlantic Community, Patrick Thaddeus Jackson, American University, Washington DC
- Divided We Stand: Plural Geopolitical Visions of the West, Virginie Mamadouh, University of Amsterdam
- Changing Concepts of the West in the 21st Century, Jacinta O'Hagan, Australian National University
- Asia and the West, Pekka Korhonen, University of Jyv'skyl'
Europe's Small States in a Changing Environment
2-3 June 2006, Copenhagen, Denmark
Organised by the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) this seminar explored how changes in concepts of 'Europe' and 'West' are understood and how disputes in transatlantic relations have begun to impact on how Europe's small states position themselves in European politics and constitute their identities. Key debates focused on how Europe's small states locate themselves in a context of multiple debates on what constitutes the West. On the one hand, this involves these states finding a position for themselves in the context of the rift in transatlantic relations over who has the right to define the nature of the true West. On the other hand, it involves issues of how to position themselves in the context of global debates concerning processes of Occidentalism and Orientalism. However, the seminar also explored the constitutive role that Europe's small states can actually play in impacting on just how transatlantic relations will unfold and how notiong of 'Europe' and the 'West' are understood.
For more information please see the links to the seminar papers below:
Outline of the theme and seminar programme
Irish Westernisation: A Resurgent Anglo-American Narrative in Irish Foreign Policy
By Ben Tonra, UCD School of Politics and International Relations, University College Dublin
'Deconstructing Smallness' - Critical Theoretical Considerations for the Study of 'Small European States'
By Akriv' Andreou, European Research Institute, University of Birminghem
Beyond East-West - Marginality and National Dignity in Finnish Identity Construction
By Christopher Browning, School of Politics, International Relations and Philosophy (SPIRE) & Marko Lehti, Tampere Peace Research Institute, University of Tampere
Back in the USSR, or New Initiatives in Lithuania's Foreign Policy after the Dual Enlargement
By Dovile Budryte, Brenau University, Gainesville, GA, USA
The West under Strain - Europe's Small States in a Changing Environment
By Katalin S'rv'ry, International Centre for Democratic Transition, Budapest
Rethinking Russia - Challenges and Opportunities
18th -19th January 2007, Oslo, Norway
The third seminar focussed on Russia's position in the current international context and the likely scenarios for relations within the EU-Russia-US triangle. The aim was to discuss how recent international developments have been interpreted in Russia, and what opportunities Russia sees in these developments.
For more information please see the links to the seminar papers below:
Western Readings of Russia
By Jakub M. Godzimirski, NUPI
The West on Russian Foreign Policy Agenda
By Mette Skak, University of Aarhus
Russian Public Opinion on Russia and the West
By Leonid Sedov, Levada Centre
Russia and Europe
By Andrey Makarychev, LUNN, Nizhniy Novgorod
Energy security and energy dependence in Russia's relations with the West
By Indra Overland, NUPI
Russia and the Islamic Other
By Emil Pain
Russia and the Muslim World: Specifics of Integration of Islamic Population in Russia Society
By Emil Pain
Russia's Alternative Futures and Russia's relations with the West?
By Sergei Medvedev, Higher School of Economics, Moscow
Scenarios for Russia
By Bjorn Brunstad, ECON
Redefining America in the World
17th May 2007, Keele, UK
The project stems from the tensions that have arisen in the transatlantic relationship since the terrorist attacks of September 2001. Since then American discourses on international politics have changed significantly, with considerations of realpolitik prioritised over the concerns of allies or more normative approaches to world affairs. The project argues that changes in how the US thinks about its identity and global role are also impacting on its attitude towards Europe and in turn presenting Europe with considerable challenges. Similarly, faced with the same security challenges - and in the context of EU efforts to further develop its own security and defence capacity - European thinking about its identity and role is frequently juxtaposed against that of the United States.
The seminar explored how American identity, and particular conceptions of its role in the world, are being reconstituted in the context of rifts in transatlantic relations, the war on terror, and not least in terms of a decline in reference to the idea of the West in American political debate
The New Transatlantic Agenda: Identity, Discourse and Partnership 30th - 31st August 2007, Dublin, Ireland
Papers presented at the seminar:
Secur(itiz)ing the West
By Hellman, Gunther
Russian Identities and Relations with Europe and the EU
By Hopf, Ted
Global Democracy, Western Hegemony, and the Russian Challenge
By Morozov, V.
Beyond Red and Blue: Melting Pots, Rainbows, Civic Nationalism, and the Problem of Identity in 21st Century America
By Rhodes, Ed
European and American approaches to security and development
By Sicurelli, Daniela
Europe and a Globalizing USA: Political Ideals Projected and Counter-Projected
By Parker, Noel
Additional paper:
Whose West is it Anyway? The Core, Margins, Outsiders and the Construction of a Geopolitical Subjectivity
By Browning, Christopher