Alarums & Excursions: Perspectives on the European Union

Crisis after crisis has beset the European Union in recent years––Greek sovereign debt, Russian annexation of Crimea, unprecedented levels of migration, and the turmoil created by Brexit. From Paris to Berlin, London to Athens, European leaders have had to improvise on issues––problems of identity, sovereignty and solidarity––that the Union was never set up to handle and which threaten to engulf this unique political entity. And they have had to do so in full view of an increasingly disenchanted and dissonant public audience.

In this candid and revealing portrayal of a Europe improvising its way through a politics of events and not rules, Luuk van Middelaar makes sense of the EU’s political metamorphosis over its past ten years of crisis management. Forced into action by a tidal wave of emergencies, Van Middelaar shows how Europe has had to reinvent itself by casting off its legal straitjacket and confronting hard issues of power, territorial borders and public authority.

Join Sheri Berman, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Christoph Heusgen, and Luuk Van Middelaar as they discuss Luke Middelaar’s latest book, Alarums & Excursions: Improvising Politics on the European Stage.

In English. Free and open to the public. No RSVP necessary.