Realism and the Return of Geopolitics in Europe

Venue: Meeting room, 3rd floor, Department of Sociology and Social Research, via Verdi 26, Trento

11-12 November 2016, 9.00-18.00

Ukraine, Syria, Libya, Mali, the migrant crisis, terrorism and the euro crisis: these are just a few of the political and policy challenges that have dominated European politics going nearly on a decade. One of the elements that they share is that they have raised the question of the extent to which states in Europe and the European Union act strategically rather than being guided by normative principles and objectives. The aim of this conference is to ask whether realism remains a useful instrument to understand the contemporary international order and to explore whether it is a useful tool to understand recent behaviour by European actors.

Participants:

• Paul Viotti (University of Denver)
• Jack Donnelly (University of Denver)
• Benedikt Erforth (Sciences Po, Paris)
• Anette Freyberg-Inan (University of Amsterdam) and Paul van Hooft (European University Institute)
• Catherine Gegout (University of Nottingham)
• Natalia Morozova (National Research University Higher School of Economics)
• Balkan Devlen (Ismir University of Economics) and Ozgur Ozdamar (Bilkent University)
• Fabrizio Coticchia (University of Genova)
• Roberto Belloni and Vincent Della Sala (University of Trento)