Forged or fragmented? Europe in times of crisis
Jean Monnet envisioned that the joint pursuit of practical solutions to common challenges can reinforce European integration. In recent years, the EU has confronted a poly-crisis, as overlapping threats and challenges have increasingly compounded one another. The EU and its member states have shown remarkable resilience in their response to both the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Nonetheless, as many of these challenges persist and increasingly strain Europe’s cohesion and resources, their ultimate ramifications remain uncertain.
The event explores how today’s strategic landscape, including Russia’s war against Ukraine, hybrid campaigns, a volatile transatlantic relationship and intensifying geo-economic competition, is affecting Europe’s priorities, European politics and European integration. Will the existing threats and challenges forge a more united Europe or splinter it?
Meet our speakers
Mikaela Gavas is the Managing Director of The Center for Global Development (CDG) Europe and a senior policy fellow. She has served as a member of the Standing Advisory Group on Technical Assistance and Cooperation for the UN International Atomic Energy Agency. She was a specialist adviser to the House of Commons International Development Committee from 2018 to 2020. With over two decades of experience in research, policy, advisory, and public affairs roles in political and parliamentary environments, she is an authority on international development strategy and finance, and a leading specialist in European development cooperation. She holds a Master’s of Science in International Relations from LSE.
Caroline de Gruyter is a member of the board of Bruegel and a Europe correspondent and columnist for the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad. She also writes regular columns for Foreign Policy, EUobserver and De Standaard, and is a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations. She has written five books - all dealing, in one way or another, with globalisation, democracy and the political quick sands of sovereignty. Her voice and expertise about Europe are well-known in The Netherlands and beyond; and she has won multiple prizes for her political reporting.
Anand Menon is Professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs at King's College London and Director of the UK in a Changing Europe. He also directs the UK in a Changing Europe project. His areas of research interest include the policies and institutions of the European Union, European security, and British politics. He contributes regularly to both print and broadcast media. He is co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of the European Union (OUP, 2012), and co-author of Brexit and British Politics (Polity 2018). He is a trustee of Full Fact, a member of the Strategic Council of the European Policy Centre, a Council member of the European Council on Foreign Relations and an associate fellow of Chatham House.
Chair
Teona Giuashvili is the DINAM Fellow in the Department of International Relations at LSE.
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