- The European Union

Catalog description

The course explores the peculiarities of the EU and what makes it a unique organization, sharing characteristics of a state and characteristics of a traditional international organization. First, we will place the study of European integration in a historical context. Then we will make sense of the various decision-making processes and institutional actors of the EU. We will also examine theories of European integration to understand competing explanations for the integration process. Fourth, various policy areas will be studied to show how the power of the EU is distributed unevenly across areas. During the final two weeks of the course we will simulate a gathering of the European Council. This course has a substantial oral component and oral skills work and so satisfies the University's oral general education requirement.