Multiple Connections in Post-war European Cooperation: International Organizations, Policy Ideas, Practices and Transfers

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Historical research on European integration (narrowly conceived) since 1945 has largely concentrated on the trajectory of the present-day European Union. Its ‘progress’ has frequently been interpreted in a teleological manner. But multiple existing and new transnational voluntary and international organizations have shaped cross-border cooperation since 1945: from those focused on one sector and regulating technical standards to global organizations with broader scope such as the UNECE, the OEEC and the Council of Europe. They had different spatial scope including pan-European organizations like the UNECE. Some focused more on policy deliberation and agenda-setting while others set norms and standards or developed common policies with redistributive implications. Multiple connections developed among such organizations, which were sometimes formalized and more often informal, managed by individual policy entrepreneurs and networks of government officials and industry experts, for example. These organizations’ relations, including the ECSC and the EEC, were characterized by sometimes intense competition as well as collaboration involving policy learning and the transfer of ideas and practices.

This workshop is part of the activities of the KFG ‘The Transformative Power of Europe’, directed by professors Thomas Risse and Tanja Börzel. The KFG examines the role of the EU and of European international organizations more broadly as promoters and recipients of ideas, analyzing the mechanisms and effects of multiple connections and exchange processes.

Following upon another conference focused on hidden continuities in European cooperation across the Second World War, this workshop aims to rethink the KFG’s agenda by de-centering the role of the EU in European cooperation since 1945 and by considering it as a site for receiving, transforming as well as promoting ideas and practices from and to other international organizations, states and international NGOs. It is organized by Professor Wolfram Kaiser (KFG/University of Portsmouth) in cooperation with Professor Kiran Klaus Patel (KFG/Maastricht University).

Download program here.

Contact:

Professor Wolfram Kaiser

University of Portsmouth/FU Berlin

Wolfram.Kaiser@port.ac.uk