How long have you been at LSE and how did you come to join the European Institute?
I had been giving occasional lectures at the LSE for many years, particularly as a guest of the late Maurice Fraser in his public lecture series on Europe. In 2012 he and a good friend and fellow Visiting Professor in Practice, Anthony Teasdale, set up the ‘The European Union in Practice’ seminar series in the European Institute. I was a guest speaker at the series twice in 2014. When Maurice’s illness sadly took hold in late 2015, Anthony asked me to help him co-organise and co-chair the series, and we have been going strong ever since.
How has the European Institute changed during your time here?
The move to the Centre Building was a radical change in terms of the atmosphere of the European Institute (all those creaky corridors in Cowdray House) and perhaps not a particularly well thought-out one as far as Visiting Fellows and Professors were concerned. (Visiting academic staff had previously shared a large office in Cowdray House. In Centre Building there was no specific provision and visitors ‘hot desk’ in the open plan section.)
What has been the most memorable moment during your time at the EI?
There have been many memorable guest speakers in our ‘European Union in Practice’ seminar series (forgive me for sounding our own trumpet) but two stand out as being particularly special. In February 2016 we welcomed Baroness Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s first High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy (2009-2014), speaking frankly about her challenging time in office. The Canada Blanch seminar room in the old Cowdray House was full to overflowing – indeed we never had more participants there. In January this year we welcomed Federica Mogherini, now Rector of the College of Europe, but previously the European Union’s second High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy (2014-2019), also speaking frankly about her challenging time in office. We had 120 participants in our virtual (online) seminar room – another record! In both cases we were happy to have brought into the fairly intimate and privileged circumstances of our seminar two high achievers who could serve as role models for the young potential leaders among the student body. We are, indeed, quietly proud of the many such inspirational figures we have welcomed to the European Institute over the past ten years.
What is your favourite thing about working at the European Institute?
The circumstances are very special at the moment. We are obliged to run our seminar online for the time being and so our physical contact with the European Institute is limited. However, we have had the advantage (and privilege and pleasure) of having been Visiting Professors for some time before the Covid pandemic changed all our lives and so we already felt well-integrated into the Institute. Undoubtedly, my favourite thing is, in normal times, working closely with the professional service staff (without whom we’d be lost) and bumping into the academic and teaching staff, though we’ll have to wait until the pandemic is well and truly over before we can once again nip over the road to the George for a post-seminar drink and a chat! (Special mentions should go to Simon and Kevin, who have always been extraordinarily supportive and helpful and to whom we are very grateful.)
What makes the EI a special place?
The particular mix of the academic and teaching staff and their various interests with the great professional service staff and the wonderful students. Despite the Institute’s many rich avenues of inquiry and multidisciplinarity, there is a sense of underlying intellectual coherence, bringing truth and substance to the motto, ‘Study Europe. Understand the world.’
What excites you about the future of the EI?
The way Europe, including the European Union, evolves will continue to be of great importance to the world. The European Institute gives the LSE the capacity to study that evolution from a multidisciplinary point of view – ‘to understand the causes of things’, of course, but bringing together various disciplines in that search for understanding. I have no doubt the European Institute will continue to punch above its weight and I find that prospect exciting; hopefully, through my research and publications – as well as the European Union in Practice seminar, of course, I might be able to make a modest contribution.
What’s your favourite place on LSE campus?
My favourite place was undoubtedly Cowdray House and the Canada Blanch meeting room, though I of course understand that the School badly needed to update its facilities. I am not against those new facilities – far from it! – but my favourite place now is probably the upper floors of the Old Building, where I feel the ghosts of the Webbs and Shaw still stalk (though it may also have something to do with the fact that my then girlfriend studied at the LSE back in the 1970s and I spent a lot of time in the Old Building then!). I also adore the library, with its multicultural atmosphere and steady thrum of intellectual industry. But, then, the whole campus, with its eclectic mix of the old and the new, makes it both distinctive and attractive.
What is your favourite place to visit in Europe and why?
It’s a tough question, particularly because my former job took me to an awful lot of wonderful places. I am going to cheat and say, ‘its sites of antiquity’. Perhaps I have a particularly keen sense of history (I’ll never forget the thrill of first seeing the ancient sites of Knossos and Troy!). On the other hand, Europe has so much history and there is so much still to come!