On January 16th, IE University hosted a delegation of over 180 students from the Paris Institute of Political Studies, popularly known as Sciences Po, for the opening ceremony, initiating the Winter School 2017 in Spain. This is the second edition of the Winter School hosted by IEU. The event highlights the enduring academic partnership between both institutions, which has led to a mutually beneficial exchange program for undergraduate and graduate students.
During the opening ceremony, Dr. Daniel Kselman delivered the keynote speech, titled “Democracy, Development, and Populism in the 21st century.”
The event continued with Sciences Po students joining IEU International Relations students to attend several workshops given by IEU’s professors, covering a wide range of topics, including international aid and development, social entrepreneurship, globalization, the European Union, the rise of populism, the Syrian refugee crisis, and the past and present of Russia.
Nikitas Konstantinidis is one professor running a workshop on international political economy in the context of globalization, democracy, and the EU. We spoke to Professor Nikitas Konstantinidis after his workshop.
Could you please introduce yourself and tell us about your academic background?
My name is Nikitas Konstantinidis and I’m from Greece. I recently came to IE University as an Assistant Professor in the School of International Relations. My main research interests lie in the areas of comparative and international political economy, applied formal theory, regional integration, international organizations, and EU politics.
My current research projects involve models of electoral accountability and party polarization under external policy constraints, the effects of globalization on national democracies especially in the EU context, and the formal analysis of compliance and enforcement mechanisms in the European Monetary Union.
Tell us more about your workshop, “Globalization, Democracy, and the EU: A Workshop in International Political Economy.
The main aim of the workshop was to get students thinking about the inherent trade-offs and contradictions of globalization, especially in the current policy context of the Eurozone debt crisis, Brexit, and the overall populist backlash, introducing along the way some key concepts in the field of International Political Economy.
The main takeaways from the workshop were that (i) globalization is a broad process of increasing global interconnectedness, far from eliminating national differences and identities, (ii) globalization is not simply an autonomous process but essentially a constrained and limited political project, and (iii) the EU – as a regional-scale project in globalization – is embroiled in an escapable trilemma between national sovereignty, democracy, and economic integration (one cannot achieve all three at the same time; something has to give!).
Why do you think it’s important that universities come together and host events like this one?
The process of intellectual exchange and professional mobility has been one of the cornerstones of the European integration project. Exchange programs such as the Sciences Po – IE University Winter School highlight the common European space of tertiary education and the heightened need for close-knit and well-integrated epistemic communities allowing us to come closer and reach common ground on the plane of culture, norms, and ideas.
Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions with us, and if you would like to know more about the Bachelor of International Relations or any of the dual degrees, BBA-BIR or BIR-LL.B., please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
