Welcome back to the 2009 – 2010 academic year.
I would like to highlight some of the new directions of The European Institute. To start our exploration of Europe and its relationship to the rest of the world, we are developing a wide-ranging study, Globalizing Commercial Revolutions, which seeks to typologize and contextualize important moments in commercial-trade shifts and their significance for innovations in consumer habits and standards of living. Hardly a decade ago at the high tide of economic globalization, a neoliberal consensus settled on the notion that the relatively high Western standard of living would spread worldwide. The gap between the most developed (the American model) and the least (say, rural India) would thereby diminish. The rapidly expanding China market of the turn-of-the 21st century seemed to prefigure the future. However, recent trends now suggest other prospects. On this timely subject, this project's primary goal is agenda setting, seeking to bringing together experts in economic and comparative sociology, international history, and political economy to investigate several questions, including the relationship between varieties of capitalism and varieties of consumption, the nature of the innovative character of distribution systems, and new ways of accounting for changes in standards of living on a macro-scale and historically.
In addition to this new project, we are also deepening our involvement in the Great Powers in the Mediterranean project which analyzes this region as the millennial crossroads of major civilizations, highlighting the wide range of forces and resources Great Powers has to deploy to establish and sustain their influence. The project is thus concerned with studying not only major shifts in geopolitical influence and trade patterns, but also the domination pursued through commercial exchange, religious crusades, and the imposition of new developmental and cultural models, as well as the resistance to them. The focus is mainly the 19th and 20th century. But anybody familiar with the Mediterranean area is aware of the longue duree. What makes this collaborative project especially significant is that it signals Russia’s presence among the Great Powers acting in the region and at all levels from the 18th century to the present.
By reading this page, you have also entered the University’s gateway to European Studies. We saw the need at Columbia for a virtual experience that could do justice to the range, variety, and richness of the community of students and scholars interested in all things European—from history, politics, and social policy to food and art. As you may have noticed, we have also returned to the Institute’s original name, bestowed at its founding in 1948 as the first center in the United States dedicated to the study of Europe.
We are also looking forward to offering a number of seminars and lectures, including the Annual Vera and Donald M. Blinken Lecture for European-American relations which will host Nicholas Burns this year. Ambassador Burns served for 27 years in the American Foreign Service including as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (2005-2008), U.S. Ambassador to NATO (2001-2005), U.S. Ambassador to Greece (1997-2001), State Department Spokesman (1995-1997) and for five years (1990-1995) was a member of the National Security Council Staff at the White House on Russian Affairs. He is Director of the Aspen Strategy Group, Senior Counselor at the Cohen Group, a member of the Trilateral Commission and Council on Foreign Relations and of several Boards, including the Richard Lounsbery Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Wishing you a wonderful year, we look forward to your support and involvement in European Studies at Columbia.
Victoria de Grazia
Director
