The Story Smuggler, or how to narrate the happened and the un-happened

On 8 March, the European Studies Centre, together with Southeast European Studies at Oxford (SEESOX), hosted Bulgarian novelist, playwright, and author, Georgi Gospodinov, to discuss three of his works: The Physics of Sorrow (2011), Time Shelter (2020) and The Story Smuggler (2016). The discussion was chaired by Catherine Briddick, Andrew W Mellon Associate Professor of International Human Rights and Refugee Law and fellow of St Antony's College. Paul Betts, Professor of Modern European History and fellow at St Antony’s College, and Marilena Anastasopoulou, ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science, provided commentary on Gospodinov’s works.

Gospodinov started by reading from his two books, The Physics of Sorrow and Time Shelter, and briefly discussed the writing process. The two books deal with markedly different themes. The Physics of Sorrow attempts to capture the nature of the Bulgarian sorrow. Gospodinov describes the Bulgarian sorrow as an experience which combines the sorrow of things that did not happen, or places that Bulgarians could not visit despite the hope or longing for them, and the culture of silence, which he describes as a combination of the culture of fear during Communism and patriarchal culture. According to the author, sorrow is both personal and political, connected with the developments in one’s country.

Time Shelter, through the allegory of an Alzheimer’s clinic with rooms and floors which had encapsulated time in the decade that provided a “safe space” to each patient, explores the nature of trauma, nostalgia for a bygone area, and anxiety for the future in Europe. Gospodinov noted that memory loss inflicts not only the ability to recall events in the past but also the loss of the capacity to think about the future. This comment was made in reference to the Brexit referendum and the election of Donald Trump to the US presidency. The author had started thinking about memory and nostalgia around 2014. Originally an innocent idea about exploring memory and nostalgia, the themes become more serious because of Brexit and the election of President Trump in 2016. The past, memory, and nostalgia had been weaponised. But it was an idealised version of the past combined with the anxiety of the future that had produced those two outcomes, according to Gospodinov.

Where you stand depends on where you sit: The challenge of being an academic turned Head of State

The European Studies Centre hosted St Antony’s College alumnus and President of Iceland Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson on 27 February 2024. President Jóhannesson discussed his experience as a historian who challenged the Icelandic orthodoxy on the so-called “Cod Wars” – a series of maritime disputes between Iceland and the United Kingdom on fishing rights in the north Atlantic – and the challenges and dilemmas between the academic and the politician on the role of history, academia, patriotism, and nationalism. The event was chaired by Othon Anastasakis, Director of the European Studies Centre.

President Jóhannesson started by discussing his experience at St Antony’s. After a few anecdotes about his time at the College and his meetings with his supervisor, Professor Anne Deighton, he focused his discussion on his dissertation topic: Cod Wars. The Cod Wars had been the quintessential heroic tale of Icelandic national unity and had demonstrated that the strong will of a small country was mightier than the military power of the United Kingdom. They have been etched into the collective memory of Icelanders as a triumphant story and had become part of Icelandic collective identity.

The young Icelandic historian with an Oxford degree challenged that version of the history of the Cod Wars and – consequently – Icelandic pride. As a historian, Jóhannesson had been drawn by myths in order to deconstruct them and offer a more critical and objective perspective of history. He had seen the misuse of history through the creation of national myths by Icelandic politicians, and was thus entering into the midst of narrative battles on the role of the academic versus the role of the politician and between the passionate national truth and the impassionate objective truth. The perception of academics by the general public and the politicians in Iceland had been one of the detached and elitist professional pontificating from their ivory tower with verbiage that was alien to the common folk. They were seen with suspicion, and even more so were those “revisionist” historians who dared to challenge that national consensus.

Building European defence through crises

The European Studies Centre, together with Southeast European Studies at Oxford (SEESOX), hosted Marilena Koppa, Professor at Panteion University in Athens, Greece. The seminar was held on 22 February 2023 and was chaired by Othon Anastasakis, Director of the European Studies Centre and of SEESOX.

Koppa’s presentation was based on her book The Evolution of the Common Security and Defence Policy: Critical Junctures and the Quest for EU Strategic Autonomy published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2022. The research for the book had taken place before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Koppa presented her analysis on the needs and challenges to build European defence by taking into account this latest crisis that the European Union has had to face.

Koppa noted that her time as a member of the European Parliament, when she also held the position of Coordinator of the Socialist and Democrat Group at the Subcommittee on Security and Defence, had prompted her to research European defence policy as an academic. In her presentation she discussed the origins of European defence, its evolution through crises, and its needs for the future.

Koppa argued that the EU’s Common and Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) sought to build European military capabilities that in the long-term would make the Union a global actor, but it did not seek to provide collective defence, which has been a NATO mission. The defence focus of the CSDP would be to prevent crises outside EU borders from reaching the Union.

What explains the enduring success of far-right parties in Europe?

Katja Salomo, Dahrendorf Postdoctoral Fellow at the European Studies Centre and postdoctoral researcher at the Social Science Centre Berlin (WZB), presented her preliminary findings on success of far-right parties in the European Studies Centre seminar organised on 20 February 2024. The seminar was chaired by Tim Vlandis, Associate Professor of Comparative Public Policy at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford.

Salomo started her presentation by mentioning the broad social conditions that has given rise to extremism and anti-democratic politics, and then focused her discussion on the conditions that make far-right parties more successful.

Salomo had conducted a sensitivity analysis to examine the success of far-right parties in Europe by looking at 30 countries in the last two decades. She defines far-right parties as ultra-conservative and anti-migration political organisations. She traces their antecedents in the late 1970s / early 1980s. Furthermore, Salomo contends that far-right parties gained a bit more ground in the early 1990s, plateaued in the mid-1990s, slightly decreased during 2000-2005, and have been increasing in popularity ever since.

Concerning the reasons that explain the rise trend of far-right parties, Salomo argued that immigration has been a contributing factor after the 1980s. She also discussed briefly the role of mistrust at the individual and societal level, as well as social grievances and social status. These factors influence voting behaviour that is more favourable to far-right parties, according to Salomo.

Energy transition, financial markets and new EU interventionism

On 13 February 2024, the European Studies Centre (ESC) hosted Federica Genovese, Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford and Thomas Hale, Professor in Public Policy (Global Public Policy) at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. Genovese presented a recent paper she has co-authored that examines the effect of EU policy intervention through sanctions and green industrial policy on investor decision and the revenues of green and brown energy companies. Hale discussed the paper and its findings, while Tim Vlandis, Associate Professor of Comparative Public Policy at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford, chaired the seminar.

The paper focuses on the implications of EU interventionism on energy companies in Europe, but flows from broader questions on the challenges to mobilise capital for energy transition and decarbonisation and to get private investors to finance the energy transition. Starting from these broader concerns, the paper seeks to assess how markets and investors react to EU signals and interventions.

Since the Barroso Commission the EU outlined its vision to be a global champion to tackle greenhouse gases and implement climate neutral policy. EU climate policy in the early 2000s relied heavily on market mechanisms (e.g. the 2005 emission trading scheme and the 20-20-20 package). Genovese argued that while these measures entailed approving market-oriented regulatory packages, the climate policy approach taken by the Von der Leyen Commission, with the Green Deal at the centre, has been different. The Commission has been testing out across a broad range of policy areas the previously discredited ‘interventionist’ (state-led) approach, which started with the Covid-19 pandemic response and, more prominently, after the Ukrainian crisis through, for example, REPoweEU, CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism).

Paella pans and petrol cans: Noise-making and Charivari in contemporary Spain

On 6 February 2024, the European Studies Centre (ESC) invited Matthew Kerry, Associate Professor of History at Jesus College, University of Oxford, to discuss his article on pot-banging as a feature of political protest in Spain and, more broadly, his research on Spanish sociocultural history. Tom Buchanan, Professor of History at Kebble College, University of Oxford, joined the panel to discuss Kerry’s article. Paul Betts, Professor of Modern European History at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, chaired the seminar.

The article, “The death of ‘traditional’ charivari and the invention of pot-banging in Spain, C.1960–2020,” published in January 2024 by Past & Present, had been a pandemic-writing project for Kerry. In his presentation, he indicated that he had wanted to probe into underlying assumptions that consider the use of noise-making as a form of political protests during the 2010s to a centuries-long tradition of charivari (or rough music culture), examine how we understand collective action, and explore the differences between two forms of rough music – cencerrada and cacerolada – in Spain.

Cencerrada comes from cencerro (or cowbell); cacerolada/cacerolazo comes from cacerola (or saucepan). Political pot-banging is called cacerolada/cacerolazo, whereas a traditional form of rough music – or charivari – is called cencerrada. The article traces the history of rough music in the twentieth century and the history of pot-banging.

Covid-19 pandemic: Lessons learned, challenges and opportunities for health policy and regulatory changes in the European Union

On 30 January 2024, the European Studies Centre (ESC) discussed the lessons learned from the European Union’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The discussion focused on the challenges faced by the EU to coordinate policy, provide EU-wide tools to mitigate the pandemic impact, and establish robust processes to effectively address future challenges arising from pandemics. The main speaker for the seminar was Dr. Andrzej Rys, EU Visiting Fellow at St. Antony’s College. Professor Dipak Kalra, President of The European Institute for Innovation through Health Data, spoke as a discussant. The seminar was chaired by Dr. Eli Gateva, Departmental Lecturer at the Department of Politics and International Relations.

Rys had spent 18 years working in the EU Commission’s Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE). The Commission’s response to the Covid-19 crisis was the most interesting development for him due to the collective commitment and cooperation to react to the crisis and establish rather quickly new policies in place. Rys outlined the Commission’s legal and operational approaches to respond to the crisis.

He noted that despite the tension between the Member States regarding EU’s role on health policy, it is becoming a policy area where the EU is having an increasingly greater role. The EU can adopt health legislation under Article 168 (protection of public health) and the Article 114 (single market) and Article 16 (social policy) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Similarly, Articles 16 (data protection) and 179 (strengthen scientific and technological bases) have been relevant. In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, Articles 122 and 222 (solidarity) and 196 (civil protection) have also been relevant because they allowed the Council to act.