Workshop on Public Opinion, Institutions and Representation in the European Union
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It is often said that there is a disconnect between EU voters and political
elites, whether it be with respect to the idea of European integration in
general, the specific objectives of European integration, the steps to be taken
to achieve those objectives, the institutions that are to take those steps, or
merely the understanding of these various aspects of European
integration.
The purpose of this one-day workshop is to study public opinion in the EU and the way it is represented in the principal EU institutions. The workshop will focus on such issues as the representation of the poor, referendums, voting in the European Parliament, the Commission appointment process, the European Court of Justice’s political constraints, and the implementation of EU laws and legislative politics at the member state level.
The purpose of this one-day workshop is to study public opinion in the EU and the way it is represented in the principal EU institutions. The workshop will focus on such issues as the representation of the poor, referendums, voting in the European Parliament, the Commission appointment process, the European Court of Justice’s political constraints, and the implementation of EU laws and legislative politics at the member state level.
Reuben W. Hills Conference Room
Christophe Crombez
Encina Hall
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305
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christophe.crombez@stanford.edu
Senior Research Scholar at The Europe Center
Christophe Crombez is a political economist who specializes in European Union (EU) politics and business-government relations in Europe. His research focuses on EU institutions and their impact on policies, EU institutional reform, lobbying, party politics, and parliamentary government.
Crombez is Senior Research Scholar at The Europe Center at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University (since 1999). He teaches Introduction to European Studies and The Future of the EU in Stanford’s International Relations Program, and is responsible for the Minor in European Studies and the Undergraduate Internship Program in Europe.
Furthermore, Crombez is Professor of Political Economy at the Faculty of Economics and Business at KU Leuven in Belgium (since 1994). His teaching responsibilities in Leuven include Political Business Strategy and Applied Game Theory. He is Vice-Chair for Research at the Department for Managerial Economics, Strategy and Innovation.
Crombez has also held visiting positions at the following universities and research institutes: the Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane, in Florence, Italy, in Spring 2008; the Department of Political Science at the University of Florence, Italy, in Spring 2004; the Department of Political Science at the University of Michigan, in Winter 2003; the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, Illinois, in Spring 1998; the Department of Political Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Summer 1998; the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, in Spring 1997; the University of Antwerp, Belgium, in Spring 1996; and Leti University in St. Petersburg, Russia, in Fall 1995.
Crombez obtained a B.A. in Applied Economics, Finance, from KU Leuven in 1989, and a Ph.D. in Business, Political Economics, from Stanford University in 1994.
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Karen Long Jusko
Stanford University
Speaker
Joseph Jupille
University of Colorado
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Simon Hug
University of Geneva
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Fabio Franchino
University of Milan
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Cliff Carrubba
Emory University
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Thomas König
University of Mannheim
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Jonathan Rodden
Stanford University
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Workshops
"That Extra Something": A Reading by Aris Fioretos
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Please join the Forum on Contemporary Europe, the Taube Center for Jewish Studies, and the Department of German Studies for a reading and discussion of The Truth About Sascha Knisch by author Aris Fioretos.
A "biological thriller" set in the
underworlds of Weimar Berlin, Aris Fioretos's The Truth about Sascha
Knisch (Jonathan Cape,
2006; Overlook 2008) deals with the so-called "sexual question," its lures and
seductiveness, dangers and temptations, but also with the shrewd love between
two young people in a Germany at the brink of disaster.
Aris Fioretos studied at Stockholm, Paris, and Yale universities. Since 1991, he
has published over a dozen books - novels, prose poetry, and essays. He has also
edited several academic volumes and translated the works of Paul Auster,
Friedrich Hölderlin, and Vladimir Nabokov into Swedish. A past counsellor of
culture at the Swedish Embassy in Berlin, he is the recipient of several prizes
and awards, most recently from the Swedish Academy, the American Academy in
Berlin, and All Souls College, Oxford. His most recent publication is the essay
collection Das Maß eines Fußes (Hanser Verlag, 2008). In the fall, a new
novel will appear.
Jointly sponsored by the Forum on Contemporay Europe, Taube Center for Jewish Studies, and Department of German Studies.
Building 260, Room 252 (German Studies Library)
Stanford University
Aris Fioretos
Author
Speaker
Conferences
The Religion Gap: Why Europe Dechristianizes and the U.S. Remains True to the Faith
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Tocqueville's insight still holds: America and Europe are both children of the Enlightenment, but modernity has not pushed aside
religion on this side of the Atlantic as it has in the "Old World." Why the
gap, and why does it persist almost 200 years later?.
Josef Joffe is publisher-editor of the German weekly Die Zeit. Previously he was columnist/editorial page editor of Süddeutsche Zeitung (1985-2000).
Josef Joffe is publisher-editor of the German weekly Die Zeit. Previously he was columnist/editorial page editor of Süddeutsche Zeitung (1985-2000).
Abroad, his essays and reviews have appeared in: New York Review of Books, New York Times Book Review, Times Literary Supplement, Commentary, New York Times Magazine, New Republic, Weekly Standard, Prospect (London), Commentaire (Paris). Regular contributor to the op-ed pages of Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post; Time and Newsweek.
CISAC Conference Room
Josef Joffe
Speaker
Seminars
Peaceful Coexistence or Iron Curtain? Austria, Neutrality, and Eastern Europe in the Cold War and Détente, 1955-1989
Paragraphs
In the history of the Cold War and détente, reference is seldom made to the international relations of the small states. This volume undertakes the task of reassessing comparatively, on the basis of newly declassified sources from Western and formerly Eastern archives, the preconditions and various developments of bilateral relations across the Iron Curtain, between the USSR, Eastern Europe, and neutral but capitalist Austria. While the Soviet attitude saw neutrality as a valuable model for Western Europe and Austria as a showcase for the “peaceful coexistence” between East and West, this small country and its communist neighbors developed their own kind of Ostpolitik long before the bigger political actors had ushered in European détente.
With chapters by: Peter Bachmaier, Klaus Bachmann, Friedrich Bauer, Thomas Fischer, Michael Gehler, Andreas Gémes, David Holloway, Mikolaj Kunicki, Victor McFarland, Wolfgang Mueller, Norman M. Naimark, Hanspeter Neuhold, Anton Pelinka, Michael Portmann, Oliver Rathkolb, Erwin A. Schmidl, David Schriffl, Dieter Stiefel, Günther Stocker, Arnold Suppan, and Paul Ullmann.
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Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery
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Synopsis
Employing his comprehensive research throughout his talk, Siddarth Kara begins by explaining that sex trafficking is the most profitable form of slavery. Therefore, to Mr. Kara, it is crucial to take a business approach to the issue. Using powerful stories as key examples to ensure focus also remains on the human cost of sex slavery, Mr. Kara divides the operation of sex slavery into three steps. The first is acquisition which most commonly occurs by deceit, seduction, or sometimes even sale by family. The second step is movement which involves all forms of transportation, the use of false documentation, and bribery. The third step is exploitation of the victims which takes place in many forms such as rape, torture, and violent coercion. The sale of women and girls often takes place in brothels, hotels, and streets. Mr. Kara reveals that their fate often involves HIV infection, drug addictions, exclusion from families, and most terrifyingly, retrafficking.
Mr. Kara goes on to argue that current abolition attempts are deficient in four key areas. These include a poor understanding of the trade, lack of funding for and lack of coordination between international organizations, inappropriate laws and insufficient enforce of them, and an improper business analysis of the situation.
However, Mr. Kara stresses repeatedly that this “war on slavery” as he puts it is a war we can win. He boils the industry down to slave trading which is the supply aspect and slavery itself which is the demand aspect. Mr. Kara argues that, like all industries, the slave trade is governed by these two forces as well. Therefore, Mr. Kara’s main argument is that sex slavery must be destroyed by reducing the aggregate demand for sex slaves by attacking the industry’s profitability. In terms of profit making, his research shows it is the demand side which must be focused on the most. Mr. Kara argues the demand for sex slaves is very vulnerable. He personally saw this in a particular brothel when prices rose. In addition, he emphasizes that the fact that business must be conducted between consumer and trader in relative daylight means these criminals can be caught.
Consequently, Mr. Kara proposes a multi-faceted approach of seven tactical interventions to hurt profitability and crucially increase risk for traders. Firstly, Mr. Kara believes in the need to create an international inspection force which works closely with paid locals of the community who are trained to spot such activities in everyday life. Mr. Kara stresses the importance of targeted, proactive raids on centers of such criminal activity. In addition, to avoid bribery and other forms of undermining law enforcement, he feels it is vital to improve the pay of trafficking authorities including judges and prosecutors. This is linked to Mr. Kara’s idea of specialized, fast-track courts for trafficking to quickly close cases. Cases often fall apart because victims or their families are intimidated, Mr. Kara therefore argues for at least 12 months of paid witness protection for victims and their families to avoid intimidation or outright murder. Finally, Mr. Kara stresses the need to increase financial penalties for those found guilty of trafficking to increase the risk in the business.
What Mr. Kara really emphasizes is that more resources are needed in tackling this criminal activity by attacking profitability, increasing risk, and reducing aggregate demand. Mr. Kara concludes by stating that sex trafficking is a “stain on humankind that must be buried.”
In engaging with the audience, Mr. Kara discusses several key issues of his presentation. One central area that is emphasized is his methods in gathering research and formulating statistics. Mr. Kara also explains where the money would come from to fund the global abolitionist movement he presents. In addition, Mr. Kara reveals what ordinary citizens can do in their everyday lives to help the cause.
About the speaker
Siddharth Kara is a former investment banker and business executive with
an MBA from Columbia University. He set aside his corporate career to pursue
anti-slavery research, advocacy, and writing, and, more recently, a law degree.
He currently serves on the board of directors of Free the Slaves, an
organization dedicated to abolishing slavery worldwide. In 2005, he testified on
contemporary slavery to the United States Congressional Human Rights Committee.
Jointly sponsored by the Forum on Contemporary Europe and the Public Management Program of the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Jointly sponsored by the Forum on Contemporary Europe and the Public Management Program of the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
CISAC Conference Room
Siddharth Kara
Author
Speaker
Seminars
Koba, the Young Stalin: The Making of a Bolshevik
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Co-sponsored by the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, the Department of History, and the Forum on Contemporary Europe.
Building 200, Room 205
Ronald Suny
Charles Tilly Collegiate Professor of Social and Political History, University of Michigan; Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Chicago
Speaker
Seminars