Although overlaps are inevitable, we will divide our preliminary
conference into four themes. Within each, we suggest certain areas that
we may examine, although these are not exclusive suggestions:
- The EC/EU and the great powers from the 1950s
- What role did the EC/EU play in the ending of the cold war?
- In what ways, and why, were relations between the EC/EU and the US
unequal?
- The EC/EU and the communist world from the 1950s and the 1990s
- EC/EU relations with China and India
- Have successive enlargement created an EC/EU that can be considered
as a great power?
- The economic and social dimensions of EC/EU external
relations
- The EC/EU in GATT and the WTO
- How has the EC/EU dealt with the question of free trade areas and of
association with its neighbours?
- What contribution has the EC/EU made towards the economic growth and
human development of the ACP and other developing countries?
- Do developing EC/EU migration and immigration policies undermine the
influence of its external relations
- Has the EC/EU contributed to the development of human rights in the
world, and amongst its neighbours?
- Is there an EC/EU social and economic model that has underpinned
external economic and social relations?
- The birth of an international actor: principles and
interests
- What role does the Western European Union have in postwar
international security policy?
- Is the EDC a genuine antecedent of the ESPD?
- How have multilateral relations -- with UNO, NATO, Council of
Europe, the European Economic Commission, the CSCE/OSCE -- increased the
influence of the EC/EU in the world?
- How effective was European Political Cooperation in the 70s and
80s
- What role have EC/EU external diplomatic representations had in
extending its influence
- Does the EC/EU have a special responsibility towards Africa? If so,
how has this been demonstrated?
- Has an effective environmental dimension to external policies been
developed by the EC/EU?
- Has multilevel governance within the EC/EU acted as a break upon the
emergence of the EC/EU as an effective international actor
- Conflict resolution, peace enforcement and
peacekeeping
- Is the EC/EU an effective "humanitarian actor" in the world? Does
the European Security Strategy reflect this?
- Has ESPD had a positive effect upon the role of the EU in the
world?
- How has ESPD affected EU-US relations in the NATO context?
- What lessons have been learned for the EC/EU in Bosnia, Kosovo and
Macedonia?
- How well have EU policies on non-proliferation, anti-mines actions,
border controls etc been conceptualised and developed?
- Is there a EU conflict resolution model? Can it be applied
elsewhere?