On the 3rd of December, EuroClio was present at Theater Diligentia in The Hague, to attend the annual Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) Lecture. On this occasion, Columbia University professor and EuroClio Honorary Board member Mark Mazower shared his thoughts on the topic “Europe in Crisis: Looking Ahead from a Historical Perspective.” Professor Beatrice de Graaf (Utrecht University) also delivered a talk, titled “Europe’s Bulwark. The Kingdom of the Netherlands and world politics, 1815/2015.”
\Mazower explored the current European crisis from a historical perspective with a view to the future. A crisis often lays bare long-term issues that have remained unresolved, but crisis management rarely goes beyond the short term. A historical perspective, therefore, may help policymakers to go further forward into the future, he argued. Questions that he explored, are: How have ideas about security developed over the past few decades? What could and should nation-states do and how do new meanings of borders and territory affect their scope for action? What are the consequences for changing transatlantic relationships? Regarding the last question, Mazower also considered current developments in international economic governance and the power of financial institutions. What does all this mean for the capacity of national and European governments to deliver public goods to their citizens and what are the obstacles facing them?
After a debate featuring the two speakers, Prof. Dr Ernst Hirsch Ballin, former minister of Justice of the Netherlands, gave a concluding talk.
Watch the lectures below, or visit the WRR YouTube channel. For more information about this event, please visit the WRR website.
