In the 3rd and final episode of this season, Brendan and Charelle have a conversation with Dr. Christine Neuhold to Understand the EU internal dynamics of democracy. Both in terms of EU democratic reforms as well as the role the EU plays in promoting democracy in its Member States. Over the last 5 years it has been the priority of the Von der Leyen Commision to provide “A New Push for European Democracy”, how successful has this push been and what are the underlying currents that place EU democratic legitimacy in jeopardy?

The EU-MENA relations have gone through different phases that presented different challenges and opportunities. Over the past two decades however, these relations have been presented with a new challenge: the legitimacy of the EU as a democracy promoter. In this episode, Charelle and Brendan sit down with Dr. Assem Dandashly to discuss the evolution of the EU-MENA relations focusing on EU democracy promotion in the Southern Neighbourhood.

Secondary Sources:

- EU Neighbourhood Policy Youtube Video

- Burlyuk, O., Dandashly, A., & Noutcheva, G. (2024). External democracy promotion in times of internal rule-of-law crisis: the EU and its neighbourhood. Journal of European Public Policy, 31(3), 900–924.

- Understanding Europe, Season 1, Episode 9, A Decentered Perspective.

- Dandashly, A., & Kourtelis, C. (2024). Political corruption in the Arab Mediterranean countries: an innovative typology. Democratization, 1–22.

In the first episode of season 2 from Understanding Europe, Brendan and Charelle sit with PhD. candidate Wicke van den Broek to understand/discuss democracy promotion in the EU’s Eastern neighborhood. The focus of the discussion is Belarus and builds from there.

Secondary Sources:

1. The Face of the Revolution is Female / Die Revolution hat ein weibliches Gesicht

2. Lodołamaczka. Swiatłana Cichanouska - Rusłan Szoszyn

3. Жыве Беларусь! || Viva Belarus! (2013)

The 10th and last episode of CERiM's Understanding Europe is out now! This time, Charelle and Brendan talk about the different episodes that have been published this year, discussing how they link and what threads are pulled throughout them all. So if you haven't yet had a chance to listen to this year's episodes this is the place to start! A TL;DR if you will.

Secondary sources:

- Understanding Europe: On Memory and Identity

- Understanding Europe: Open Strategic Autonomy?

- Marianne Hirsch on Postmemory

- Faces of Trade

In this episode, Brendan and Charelle sit down with Assem Dandashly and Gergana Noutcheva to discuss the legitimacy of the EU as an external democracy promoter in its southern and eastern neighbourhood while internally it is dealing with a rule of law crisis in member states such as Poland, Hungary, Austria. Has this internal crisis affected the way the EU is perceived? Has it hindered its legitimacy as an international player? Join them as they unpack these questions!

Europe day! Europe day? What does it even mean? In this episode Brendan and Charelle talk about the significance of Europe Day and the difficulties of forming a Common European Identity. In doing so they are joined by Dr. Aline Sierp, an expert in memory studies, who outlines what studying memory entails and the difficulties that are faced when trying to create a common European memory, and in the process a common European Identity. So if this intrigues you, give it a listen!

Secondary Sources:

- Short explanations of key terms by leading memory scholars.

- Memory Studies Association

- The Memory Cloud

- Sierp, Aline (2023). Europeanising Memory: The European Union’s Politics of Memory. In Maria Mälksoo (Ed.) Handbook on the Politics of Memory. Edward Elgar Publishing

- Sierp, Aline (2020). EU Memory Politics and Europe’s Forgotten Colonial Past. Interventions, 22(6), 386-702

Films:

- Schindler’s List, 1993 by Stefen Spielberg

- Shoa, 1985, by Claude Lanzmann

- Waltz with Bashir, 2008, by Ari Folman

- The Act of Killing, 2012, by Joshua Oppenheimer

In today’s episode, Brendan and Charelle wrestle with the concept of strategic autonomy, also referred to as strategic sovereignty and possibly other names. You might have seen the term circulating online in light of Macron’s recent visit to China. But what does it actually mean to be strategically autonomous? Join them as they talk to Dr. Sophie Vanhoonacker, an expert in European external relations, to unpack this concept.

Secondary Sources:

- President Macron's Sorbonne speech, 2017 - in Text and Video Format.

- Trade policy review of the European Commission, 2021

- Understanding Europe: Forged in Crisis

- Understanding Europe: Digital Sovereignty

"Europe will be forged in crisis, and will be the sum of the solutions adopted for those crises", these were the words of Jean Monnet. But what is a crisis, and how does Europe act when it is confronted by one? Join Brendan and Charelle as they have a conversation with two CERiM experts, Dr. Esther Versluis and Johan Adriaensen PhD, who will lead them through crisis management 101.

Secondary Sources:

- Game Over: The Inside Story of the Greek Crisis - by George Papaconstantinou.

- Alarums and Excursions: Improvising Politics on the European Stage - by Luuk van Middelaar.

- Regulating Crisis in the EU Course