The BENELUX, Regional Groupings and the Dynamics of European Integration: Contemporary and Historical Perspectives
The BENELUX, Regional Groupings and the Dynamics of European Integration:
Contemporary and Historical Perspectives
International Conference April 2019
Call for Papers
The Institute of Political Science and the Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C2DH) of the University of Luxembourg are pleased to launch a call for papers for an international conference to be held in Luxembourg in April 2019 (precise dates to be confirmed).
Conference Theme
Regional (sub-)groupings have played a significant, but comparatively neglected role in the processes of European integration. The BENELUX and the Nordic Council both offer longstanding models of regional cooperation which have, in various ways, often been cited as examples for the wider European integration project. More recently, both the Visegrád and Baltic states have seen the (re-) emergence of forms of regional cooperation in connection with their accession to and later membership of the European Union. Yet, though often cited, these experiences of (sub-)regional cooperation within the wider European project have been the object of relatively little systematic or comparative study. The aim of the present conference is to address this gap by bringing together specialists on these regional groupings with a view to providing a fuller understanding of both their historical significance and their possible future role relative to a potentially fragmenting European political landscape.
The centerpiece of the conference will be a one-day workshop, with sessions dealing with both the historical and contemporary dimensions of such regional groupings. It is intended that panels will deal both with the specific experiences of the BENELUX and with the experiences of other comparable groupings such as (but not limited to) the Nordic Council, the Baltic states and the Visegrád group. Papers are welcome that deal with such topics as: the manner in which such groups have allowed for the develop of specific forms of (deeper/different) cooperation amongst their member countries; the use of such groups as a means to coordinate policy with a view to enhancing the collective influence of their members within wider fora; the role of such (sub-)groupings as potentially both accelerators and brakes in relation to wider processes of European integration; and the place assumed by such groupings within overall national foreign policies.
Practical Details
Interested colleagues are invited to send their proposals to the conference organisers at the e-mail addresses below by 15 January 2019. Proposals should include an abstract of approximately 250 words together with the name(s), institutional affiliation(s) and contact details of the author or authors. Paper proposers will be notified of the organizing committee’s decisions by early February 2019. Accommodation costs in Luxembourg will be covered for accepted paper-givers together with a contribution towards travel costs. It is intended to publish a collection of contributions arising from the conference in the Brill European Studies series (https://brill.com/view/serial/).
Organising committee: Spero Paravantis, spero.paravantis@uni.lu, Anna-Lena Högenauer anna-lena.hoegenauer@uni.lu, and Robert Harmsen robert.harmsen@uni.lu