Update: As a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, the conference has been cancelled and it has been replaced with a series of online talks on a closely related topic.
In the context of a destabilization of the West, which includes disputes of trade and policy between Europe and the US, as well as Brexit, and in the wider circumstances of the expanding influence of iliberal countries like China and Russia, we believe that it is important to explore how Europe and more specifically the European Union can forge its own path on the global stage. Building on the success of past conferences, the Global Order Project will be hosting a conference in Freiburg, Germany to explore this topic, on the 15th and 16th of May 2020, under the title The EU as a Global Player - An Interdisciplinary Approach.
The conference is geared toward undergraduates. It will be centered around workshops and panels led by student facilitators and experts in the field. For the conference we want to emphasize the active engagement of the students with the problems at hand. Students will be able to sign up for one of four tracks prior to the conference and work closely on the solving of problems in their field of choice. The four conference tracks will be:
environmental policy (Is Europe capable to drive change or cooperation in energy sustainability and climate policy in other areas of the world?),
technology ethics (Can Europe lead the way in technology ethics and legal standards in areas of disruption such as artificial intelligence?),
spreading political values (Can the EU promote its values such as democracy and human rights in third countries without harming their stability? What effect do humanitarian efforts have on the spread of European values and vice versa?) and
the European identity (Can/should the idea of a European identity become stronger than that of national identities?).
The working language of the conference is English, to ensure accessibility for German as well as international students and experts. This year's conference is also supported by the EPICUR initiative for a European university.
We are thrilled to welcome students and experts from all over the continent, and in particular from the EPICUR partner universities in Germany, the Netherlands, France, Austria, Poland and Greece, as well as from our sister institution University College Maastricht! We expect to have 80 spots for students, once sign-up opens.
Supplementing these workshops will be other academic forums, as well as ample opportunity to socialise and explore Freiburg.
Stay tuned for more announcements soon about our speakers and the sign-up guidelines for participants!
To see the prospective schedule for the event, you can download this year's concept paper here.
