Prof Karen Smith CLM.4.09

This course is available on the MSc in International Affairs (LSE and Peking University), MSc in International Relations, MSc in International Relations (LSE and Sciences Po), MSc in International Relations (Research) and MSc in International Relations Theory. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

All students are required to obtain permission from the Teacher Responsible by completing the Student Statement box on the online application form linked to course selection on LSE4You. Admission is not guaranteed.

This course examines EU enlargement from the point of view of International Relations. The principal aim is to understand the interplay between enlargement, EU (foreign) policy and wider geopolitics. With this in mind enlargement is considered both as an act of European foreign policy and as a phenomenon impacting on the (foreign) policies of other states and actors. The course begins with a discussion of the theoretical issues of the international dimension of EU enlargement, including: size; diversity; pace of change; reach; external reactions; and the widening v. deepening dilemma within the EU. It moves on to a broadly chronological discussion of the various phases of enlargement from 1973 to the present, examining the inputs from key Member States as well as from the EU institutions, and analysing the extent to which strategic policy-making characterised each round. In the last part of the course attention switches to more thematic concerns: the impact of EU enlargement on  the self-excluded states (Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, and the UK); security, NATO and the post-Cold War European order; the geopolitical issue of Europe's final border; and the view from outsiders, such as the United States and Russia. Watch a short introductory video on this course: http://www.lse.ac.uk/internationalRelations/video/IR433-EUE-video.aspx 

10 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the LT. 1 hour of lectures in the ST.

Students on this course will have a reading week in Week 6, in line with departmental policy.

Two 2,000-word essays.

Marise Cremona, ed, The Enlargement of the European Union (Oxford University Press, 2003); Heather Grabbe, The EU's Transformative Power: Europeanization Through Conditionality in Central and Eastern Europe (Palgrave, 2006); IDEAS, Special Report, The Crisis of EU Enlargement, 2014; Neill Nugent, ed., European Union Enlargement (Palgrave, 2004); Frank Schimmelfennig and Ulrich Sedelmeier, eds., The Politics of European Union Enlargement: Theoretical Approaches (Routledge, 2005); Christina J. Schneider, Conflict, Negotiation and European Union Enlargement (Cambridge University Press, 2009); Helene Sjursen, ed., Questioning EU Enlargement: Europe in Search of Identity (Routledge, 2006); Karen E. Smith, The Making of EU Foreign Policy: The Case of Eastern Europe, 2nd edition (Palgrave, 2004)

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours) in the summer exam period.

Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.