Teaching

One of the key objectives of the Chair is to provide cutting-edge teaching and blended learning. We are working towards the establishment of a fully online master programme on European and international governance - the first one in Belgium and one of the first in Europe. Below is an overview of the 'traditional' classroom-taught courses, as well as of the online and blended-learning courses that are being taught in the context of the EXACT Chair.

TRADITIONAL COURSES

European Immigration Policy (6 ECTS)

This course is taught as part of the Advanced Master in European Integration programme. It examines EU policy in the field of migration and asylum. The EU policy field of migration is highly salient and sovereignty sensitive. Admission of non-citizens to the state territory used to lie at the heart of national sovereignty. Over the past 25 years, EU integration has changed this relation significantly. Borders were dismantled and free movement for EU citizens was established. Member States started co-operating on admission conditions for third country nationals, migrants as well as asylum seekers. EU member states also created the general Area of Freedom, Security and Justice with the Schengen area as an integral part of this new concept, as well as establishing the Dublin system at the heart of the Common European Asylum System. However, the recent ‘refugee crisis’ has shown that the implementation of the Schengen and Dublin agreements, the Common European Asylum System, the common immigration policies is far from consolidated. The EU and its Member States still struggle to balance competencies, functions and effectiveness of those policies. The very future of the EU integration project seems to depend on the question whether legitimate and effective cooperation can be established.

Explanations for the why and how of cooperation in this policy area cover essential questions of European studies. The policy field will be approached from a different angles, looking at institutional dynamics of decision making, the legal and policy implications and the impact of EU policies on national policies and politics.

Current Issues in European Politics (6 ECTS)

This course is taught as part of the Political Science Master programme of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. It focuses on the patterns and dynamics of the European integration process in uncertain times. It seeks to enhance the skills of Master students to analyse and understand some of the most important challenges the EU has faced in recent years, from the economic and financial crisis, the threat of terrorism, the Brexit-process to the migratory pressures that Europe has been facing. The course discusses these and other issues from different theoretical perspectives on European integration and governance.

The objectives of the course are as follows:

The students understand the challenges - and the resilience - of today’s European integration process;
The students learn up-to-date theoretical debates on European integration and governance;
The students grasp the dynamics of EU decision-making and the role of EU institutions in core fields of EU public policy.

ONLINE AND BLENDED-LEARNING COURSES

EU Justice and Home Affairs (4 ECTS)

This course is taught as part of the Postgraduate Certificate in EU Policy Making programme. It provides an advanced analysis of the origins, the policy-making process and major policy issues in cooperation in the fields of justice and home affairs at the Union level. Its main aim is to equip participants with the concepts and instruments necessary for the professional analysis of this still rather new area of EU politics. The course will focus on the practice of decision-making in the Union institutions and the identification of the key factors determining the development of EU cooperation in the various policy fields covered by both Title IV TEC and Title VI TEU (“the Third Pillar”), including specific priorities and problems of individual Member States. The course will also provide an analysis of the Schengen system, the relevant provisions of the current Treaties, the state of implementation of the Hague Programme, specific problems of the enlargement process, the growing international dimension of EU justice and home affairs and the prospects offered by the new EU Treaty of Lisbon and the successor programme to the Hague programme from 2010 onwards (Programme of Stockholm).

History and Origins of EU Justice and Home Affairs
European Political Cooperation & Council of Europe Laboratories
Schengen Cooperation

The Treaties
Treaty of Maastricht
Treaty of Amsterdam
Treaty of Nice
The Lisbon Treaty reforms

The Policy fields
Asylum Policy
Migration Policy
Border Policy
Policing Cooperation
Criminal Justice
Civil Justice
Counter-Terrorism

External Dimension of EU JHA
EU Institutional Actors
The European Council
Council of Ministers
European Commission
European Parliament
European Counter-Terrorism Coordinator
European External Action Service

This module will be taught through a combination of lectures and seminars. Lectures will provide an introduction to the key aspects of the module, laying the foundations for tutorial work. In the standard teaching version of seminars, these will foster students’ direct engagement with the topic through critical discussions of the key literature and its application to concrete cases. Regarding distance learning, the foundation for delivery is CANVAS, the Institute’s learning management system (LMS). Using this as a content platform, each module site is organised into weekly packages. These contain ‘bundles’ of files. Although the exact content will vary, they normally include explanatory text, audio podcasts, video lectures, directed readings, additional readings, and a variety of internal and external links. We provide our learners with the opportunity to interact with one another and their tutors through asynchronous discussion boards addressing seminar questions. Experience has shown that this mode provides a more equal opportunity for engagement than synchronous discussions. For some modules student blogs within the LMS are also used.

ONLINE AND BLENDED-LEARNING COURSES

Terrorism and Counter-terrorism in Europe (4 ECTS)

This course is taught as part of the Postgraduate Certificate in EU Policy Making programme. It represents the first attempt to evaluate the first 15 years of the EU counterterrorism policy from an interdisciplinary perspective. This module connects to broader policy developments in the European Union’s (EU) Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ) - an umbrella term for intelligence, police and judicial cooperation, border management, asylum and migration, and counter-terrorism. This module will provide students with crucial new insights into several important aspects of the EU’s first 15 years of counter-terrorism policy. The rapid development of the AFSJ in recent years has led to an expansion of the scholarly literature on this topic (see Argomaniz, 2011; Balzacq and Carrera, 2005, 2006; Bures, 2006, 2011; Bossong, 2008; Boswell, 2003, 2007; Friedrichs, 2005; Guild, 2002; Geddes, 2000; Guiraudon, 2000; Kaunert, 2007, 2009, 2010; Mitsilegas, Monar and Rees, 2003; Occhipinti, 2003). However, with its focus on policy outputs and the role of the main EU institutions, this literature has tended to largely overlook an analysis of specific policy developments in EU counter-terrorism, with the recent exception of aforementioned literature.

Indicative syllabus:
Definitions, Typology, Prehistory
Radicalisation and causes for terrorism
Religious based terrorism and Al-Qaeda
Terrorism & Democracy Counter-terrorism in the EU’s Area of Freedom, Security and Justice
European Union multilateral terrorism cooperation with the US and the world
Terrorism in European Foreign Policy
The US Experience and EU-US transatlantic cooperation on counter-terrorism
What role for European military forces and NATO in the War on Terror?
The Future of Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism

Case studies of terrorist groups in various countries such as:
Northern Ireland
Red-brigades, Italy
Baader Meinhoff, Germany
ETA, Spain
USA
Russia and Chechnya
Al-Qaeda

The Treaty on European Union stipulates that one of the key objectives of the European Union (EU) is to provide citizens with a high level of safety within an area of freedom, security and justice. Yet, when it comes to the measures taken to combat terrorism following the September 11, 2001 (9/11) attacks in the United States (US), has the EU lived up to this promise thus far? On paper, the post-9/11 EU counterterrorism policy looks impressive. Already in November 2001, the European Council adopted an Action Plan on Combating Terrorism and an EU Counterterrorism Strategy was agreed in December 2005, following the terrorist attacks in Madrid and London. In December 2003, the European Council also adopted a European Security Strategy, where terrorism heads the list of threats facing the Member States (MSs) and which proclaims that concerted European action against terrorism is “indispensable.” Despite the relatively limited competences for fighting terrorism at the supranational EU level, a March 2007 Commission memorandum listed 51 adopted and 33 proposed pieces of legislation as well as 22 Communications and 21 reports under the heading of the fight against terrorism. Thus, although “counterterrorism” is not yet a clearly defined area in its broadest and fullest sense, it already spans across a number of other policy areas across all of the EU’s former three pillars. Moreover, many senior EU officials have publicly expressed their conviction that the EU counterterrorism measures have made a difference in the fight against terrorism. According to Max-Peter Ratzel, the former Director of Europol: ‘The abortive London attacks of August 2006 … showed that the concerted EU actions and counterterrorist policies proved to be effective when put to the test. This is some most recent success of EU counterterrorism efforts but a number of other terrorist cells have been dismantled throughout the EU and terrorist plans foiled as a direct result of the concerted EU actions and counterterrorism policies.’ The first EU Counterterrorism Coordinator Gijs de Vries even argued that the fight against terrorism is changing “the role and functioning of the European Union” insofar as it adopts an increasingly operational role. Despite the aforementioned unprecedented policy relevance and almost a decade-long history, the European Union’s (EU) counterterrorism policy has only relatively recently received due attention in the academic community. This stands out in stark contrast to a sizeable body of literature devoted to national counterterrorism policies of various the EU Member States. The few available volumes the topic of EU-level counterterrorism policy include a handful of post-9/11 volumes focused on specific aspects of EU’s counterterrorism efforts only (e.g. Cyrile Fijnaut, Jan Wouters and Frederick Naert (eds.) Legal Instruments in the Fight Against International Terrorism: a Transatlantic Dialogue Leiden: Nijhoff, 2004). More recently, two edited volumes were devoted to the analysis of several aspects of the EU counterterrorism policy: Dieter Mahncke and Jörg Monar (eds.) International Terrorism: A European Response to a Global Threat? (Brussels: PIE Peter Lang, 2006) and David Spence (ed.) The European Union and Terrorism (London: John Harper Publishing, 2007). In January 2008, the Journal of Common Market Studies devoted a special issue to selected EU counterterrorism issues, primarily from the perspective of European Studies.

This module will be taught through a combination of lectures and seminars. Lectures will provide an introduction to the key aspects of terrorist threats and responses, laying the foundations for tutorial work. In the standard teaching version of seminars, these will foster students’ direct engagement with the topic through critical discussions of the key literature and its application to concrete cases. Regarding distance learning, the foundation for delivery is CANVAS, the Institute’s learning management system (LMS). Using this as a content platform, each module site is organised into weekly packages. These contain ‘bundles’ of files. Although the exact content will vary, they normally include explanatory text, audio podcasts, video lectures, directed readings, additional readings, and a variety of internal and external links. We provide our learners with the opportunity to interact with one another and their tutors through asynchronous discussion boards addressing seminar questions. Experience has shown that this mode provides a more equal opportunity for engagement than synchronous discussions. For some modules student blogs within the LMS are also used.