In this first 2014 installment of our Pizza and Politics Graduate Lecture Series, GSPIA's EU and the World Organization executive members talk about their experience interviewing policy-makers, EU civil servants, and visiting major institutions in Brussels and Luxembourg as participants in the EU in Brussels Program, co-sponsored by Pitt's EUCE/ESC & Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. Also learn about getting involved in the EU and the World Organization and about other opportunities for EU Studies at Pitt! PIZZA WILL BE SERVED!

The EUCE/ESC will be hosting the 2014 High School Model EU, which allows students the opportunity to participate in a simulation of a recent European Council meeting. For more information, please contact EUCE/ESC Assistant Director for External Affairs, Kate Bowersox, at kal68@pitt.edu.

Dr. Clark’s research focuses on European politics, the European Union, and comparative political behavior. More specifically, his research agenda seeks to empirically assess theoretical claims about the quality of democratic citizenship and governance in multi-level political systems such as the European Union. His lecture will highlight the state of the public’s knowledge about the European Union and how that knowledge influences voting behavior in European elections.

Is Germany the new California? Is Texas the new Denmark? Historically, the political leadership on sustainable development has shifted back and forth between the U.S. and Europe. Nowhere is this as evident as in the promotion of renewable energy. Where do we stand now? Dr. Aklin will explore the sources of renewable energy policies both across continents and vertically within the European Union and the U.S.

The centenary anniversary of the Great War has invited numerous commentators to make comparisons between the events leading up to the outbreak of war in 1914 and the current Ukrainian Crisis. This session of the EUCE’s virtual roundtable series asks experts to comment on these comparisons. Can we learn anything about effective conflict prevention from that earlier period? Or are such comparisons too facile, and deceptive? Public participation is welcome.

Panelists will include:

In 2005 Mark Leonard postulated, "Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century.” Ten years later, the EU has seen the rejection of European Treaty, stalled enlargement, the inability of European soft power to affect the Arab spring, a weak response to Russian dismantling of Georgia and Ukraine, and the Eurozone crisis. The rise of nationalist parties threatens the very integrity of the Union. In contrast, the ECB has responded to the crisis with concerted action, Croatia joined the Union as the 28th member, and the final institutional changes of the Lisbon Treaty are taking effect.

Dr. Avram-Willis is a survivor of the Holocaust in Greece.
A light reception and mini-exhibit will follow the lecture.

The colloquium aims to draw out the multiple meanings of "Afropean" at the intersection of aesthetic and political forms of expression of the African diaspora. Responses will be given by John Walsh, Department of French and Italian.

Join us for a special session of Conversations on Europe to commemorate German Unity Day on October 3rd. Co-sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh, the EUCE has organized a virtual roundtable discussion reflecting on Germany since 1989. The expert panel will include Visiting Professor Georg Menz, Department of Political Science; Ruprecht Polenz, a German politician and former Chairman of the German Bundestag’s Committee on Foreign Affairs; Margaret Littler, University of Manchester; and Jack Janes, American Institute for Contemporary German Studies.

Croatia’s official government policy towards enlargement into the Western Balkans is shaped by a number of different, sometimes complimentary, sometimes conflicting factors. When it joined the EU as the Union’s 28th member in July 1, 2013, this country of 4.3 million inhabitants ranked 21st in terms of both population size and GDP making it one of the smallest countries in the organization.