Dr. Dimitris Bouris (Chairholder) in collaboration with the Amsterdam Centre for European Studies (ACES) 

In November and December 2022 Dr. Dimitris Bouris (he/him) (UvA) Jean Monnet Chairholder of ATHENA will organise the 7th Practitioners Engagement Series in cooperation with the Amsterdam Centre for European Studies (ACES). This year’s series will engage with a number of topical issues and will also involve several high-level officials, policy-makers, academics and practitioners. Topics will include the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy, the EU Global Strategy, Feminist and Queer Perspectives to EU Foreign Policy as well as the EU’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.   

The series opens with an event on the EU’s role as a Global Actor. Mr Samuel Doveri Vesterbye (he/him) (Managing Director, European Neighbourhood Council) will touch upon issues related to the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy, the EU’s Global Strategy and the most recent Strategic Compass. He will also reflect on how these recent policies impact EU-Turkey relations and EU-Central Asia relations.    

The series continues with an event focusing on Feminist and Queer Perspectives to EU Foreign Policy. Speakers include Ms. Annika Ojala (she/her) Rights & Democracy Campaigner for the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament and Dr. Hanna Muehlenhoff (she/her) Assistant Professor, University of Amsterdam.  

In the final event Dr. Olga Burlyuk (she/her) Senior Researcher at ATHENA Jean Monnet Chair and Assistant Professor at the University of Amsterdam, Dr. Elena Lazarou (she/her) Head of the External Policies Unit of the European Parliamentary Research Service, Ms. Katarína Mathernová (she/her) Deputy Director General of the Directorate General for Neighbourhood & Enlargement Negotiations at the European Commission and Head of Support Group for Ukraine and Ms. Anita Sęk-Pajić (she/her) Policy Advisor on Russia and Eastern Partnership – Policy Planning and Strategic Foresight Division (European External Action Service), will analyze and reflect on the EU’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  

The EU as a Global Actor? Reflecting on the Common Security and Defence Policy, the EU Global Strategy and the Strategic Compass  

Date and Time: Thursday 10 November 2022 12:00-14:00  

Please register at https://aces.uva.nl/forms/subsites/aces/en/2022/11/the-eu-as-a-global-actor.html 

Speaker 

Samuel Doveri Vesterbye (he/him) Managing Director European Neighbourhood Council 

Speaker Bio 

Samuel Doveri Vesterbye is Managing Director at the European Neighbourhood Council (ENC) and specializes in Turkey, Central Asia and the Middle East. He oversees ENC research projects across the neighbourhood and Central Asia, including Academic Council Members and regional strategy. His research is focused on EU-MENA and EU-Turkey relations in trade, accession, energy, migration, and regional neighbourhood policy. He is the author of numerous research studies, including Palgrave Macmillan’s Managing Security Threats along the EU’s Eastern Flanks. 

Feminist and Queer Perspectives to EU Foreign Policy  

Date and Time: Thursday 17 November 2022 12:00-14:00  

Please Register at https://aces.uva.nl/forms/subsites/aces/en/2022/11/feminist-and-queer-perspectives-to-eu-foreign-policy.html 

Speakers  

Ms. Annika Ojala (she/her) Greens/EFA Group European Parliament 

Dr. Hanna Muehlenhoff (she/her) Assistant Professor, University of Amsterdam) 

Speakers Bios 

Annika Ojala (she/her) is an international human rights advocate, public speaker and expert on gender equality, LGBTIQ+ rights and inclusive leadership in the digital world. Annika works as a Rights & Democracy Campaigner for the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament. Prior to working at the European Parliament, Annika worked for the Green Party in Finland, where she co-created three highly successful electoral campaigns, which contributed to the historical rise of women to leadership positions in Finnish government. Annika has contributed to numerous projects to support women’s* leadership and inclusion globally. She has consulted with the OSCE, European Women’s Lobby, Google, and others to co-create transformative solutions to build inclusive and equal communities. Annika contributes to national and international political strategies and campaigns, facilitates training sessions, and supports various grassroots activities for social change. Her theory of change is rooted in green sustainable action, interlinking the protection of human rights to the creation of ecologically sustainable communities. Born in Helsinki, Annika now lives in Brussels after years living in Johannesburg and Paris. 

Hanna L. Mühlenhof (she/her) is Assistant Professor of European Studies with a focus on ‘Europe in the World’ at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). Her research is on security, militarism and civil society funding. She focuses on the European Union, Turkey and the Netherlands and engages with feminist, queer, postcolonial and Foucauldian perspectives. She is elected co-chair of the Council of European Studies Gender and Sexuality Research Network. She is also one of the coordinators of the UACES Research Network “Gendering EU Studies” , which aims to advance feminist research on the EU. She has coordinated the ‘ Gender and Sexuality in European (Geo)Politics ‘ online lecture series with the Amsterdam Center for European Studies ( ACES ). Finally, she is principal investigator in the interdisciplinary research project “Emotions in European Politics: Affective Dynamics and Complex Societal Challenges”  (since 2021) funded by the Amsterdam Center for European Studies (ACES). The project analyzes the role of affective dynamics in debates in the European Parliament in different policy fields. 

The EU’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine 

Date and Time: Thursday 24 November 2022 12:00-14:00 

Please Register at https://aces.uva.nl/forms/subsites/aces/en/2022/11/the-eus-response-to-russias-invasion-of-ukraine.html 

Speakers 

Dr. Olga Burlyuk (she/her) Senior Researcher at ATHENA Jean Monnet Chair and Assistant Professor at the University of Amsterdam 

Dr. Elena Lazarou (she/her) Head of the External Policies Unit of the European Parliamentary Research Service 

Katarína Mathernová (she/her) Deputy Director General of the Directorate General for Neighbourhood & Enlargement Negotiations at the European Commission and Head of Support Group for Ukraine 

Ms. Anita Sęk-Pajić (she/her) Policy Advisor on Russia and Eastern Partnership – Policy Planning and Strategic Foresight Division SG.STRAT.3, European External Action Service  

Speakers Bios 

Dr. Olga Burlyuk (she/her) is Assistant Professor of Europe’s external relations at the Department of Political Science (PETGOV research programme) and an affiliate of the Amsterdam Center for European Studies (ACES). She teaches courses in BSc and MSc minors “European Politics and External Relations” (EPER).  Prior to joining the University of Amsterdam, Olga was a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) at Ghent University (BE) and worked as a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Kent (UK) and the College of Europe (campus Bruges). In 2019, she spent a semester at Harvard University (USA) as a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard’s Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI). In 2017, she taught in the University Immersion Programme at the Sichuan University (China). Olga holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of Kent (UK), an MA in European Studies from the University of Maastricht (NL), and Master and Bachelor in Law degrees from the National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” (UA). 

Dr. Elena Lazarou (she/her) is the (acting) Head of the External Policies Unit of the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) since 2020. Her research focuses on security and defence, global governance, transatlantic relations and EU foreign policy. Prior to joining EPRS, she headed the Center for International Relations of the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV), Brazil (2012-2014) and the Euro-Mediterranean Observatory of the Hellenic Center for European Studies (2009-2010). She received a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Cambridge in 2008 and subsequently held research positions at the University of Cambridge, the University of Sheffield and the London School of Economics (LSE), as well as various visiting positions in think tanks and universities in Europe and the United States. She has published edited volumes, articles and policy briefs in English, Portuguese and Greek and is the editor of the EPRS annual EU Peace and Security Outlook. Dr. Lazarou is an Associate Fellow on the “US and Americas” programme at Chatham House (London) and a Fellow on the European Institutions and Policies programme at ELIAMEP (Athens). 

Ms Katarína Mathernová (she/her) is since 2015 the Deputy Director General of the Directorate General for Neighbourhood & Enlargement Negotiations at the European Commission. As Deputy DG and Head of Support Grou7p for Ukraine, she leads on the engagement with Eastern countries and in particular Ukraine. She was previously Deputy DG in DG Regional Policy – in charge of Cohesion Policy Coordination. She has held senior management and advisory posts at the World Bank, and for the government in Slovakia. She holds a Juris Doctor degree from Comenius University in Bratislava, a Masters of Law degree from the University of Michigan, is a member of the New York Bar.  

Ms Anita Sęk-Pajić is a Policy Advisor on Russia and Eastern Partnership in Policy Planning and Strategic Foresight Division of the European External Action Service. Alumna of College of Europe in Bruges and Jagiellonian University in Kraków (MA in international relations and diplomacy). Prior to her secondment to the EEAS, she served as a second secretary – Counsellor on Foreign Relations in the Permanent Representation of Poland to the EU, responsible for i.a. sanctions and other Common Foreign and Security Policy legal acts. After joining the Polish diplomatic service in 2014,  she worked in the CFSP Office and was a member of a core group preparing the NATO Summit in Warsaw in 2016. Prior to that, she was a Marie Curie researcher on EU-Russia relations in Trans European Policy Studies Association in Brussels and a blue book stagiaire in the Cabinet of Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy. Next to her native Polish, she tries her best with English, French, Serbian, German and Russian. Mother and captain of a football team.

This course takes a thematic and inside-out approach to the study of the EU’s relations with, policies towards, and relevance for the countries of the so-called “post-Soviet space”. The latter is conceived broadly to include the six EU neighbourhood countries in Eastern Europe and South Caucasus, the five countries in Central Asia, Russia and, rather cursorily considering their membership of the EU, the Baltic states. Once all republics of the Soviet Union, these countries have followed distinct trajectories over the past 30 years and constitute an extremely diverse cohort.

The thematic and inside-out approach of the course rests in its departure from the usual EU-centric take and “EU framework policy” logic to viewing and analyzing EU interactions with the countries in the region in key spheres of cooperation or areas of policy, as embedded in broader domestic, regional and indeed geopolitical dynamics. After problematizing the very title of the course (namely, the “post-Soviet” and “space” markers in it) and identifying key steps in EU’s relations with the countries since their independence, we will address the following themes: political and economic regimes (incl. transition, change and the role of civil society); trade (incl. in the context of global supply chains and China’s Belt and Road Initiative); development (incl. aid and the role of civil society); energy; security and conflict (incl. regional and global security arrangements, internal conflicts, frozen conflicts and Russia’s war against Ukraine).

The classes in this course are very interactive and, besides the usual lectures-readings-final paper, include guest speakers, in-class assignments, weekly discussions of the news, and students preparing and delivering creative foreign policy speeches (in which students may embody any real or fictional character at any point in time – as long as it remains linked to the subject of the course).

The objective of this module is to provide students with insights into the dominant international approach to peacebuilding as well as different criticisms and dilemmas. The module also aims to analyze the different tools, policies and mechanisms that the EU has at its disposal in order to be an active peace-builder in its neighbourhood. As such, the module seeks to ‘unpack’ the main elements of peace, security and conflict resolution and also the changing nature of the EU’s external relations by looking at (a) the different tools, policies and instruments employed by the EU in this field; (b) the main actors and policy-making procedures that shape the EU’s role as a Global Actor; and (c) drawing empirical insights by focusing on specific case studies in the EU’s so-called near abroad.

The module will offers the opportunity to the students to become ‘decision makers’ and ‘agenda setters’, by conducting a simulation game focusing on a conflict in the EU’s neighbourhood. Guest speakers, high-level diplomats, distinguished academics, experienced practitioners and policy-makers will also be invited in the framework of the module as part of the ATHENA Jean Monnet Chair Practitioners Engagement Series.