Course's objective:

Course is designed to provide students with facts about creation and conduct of European foreign policy with emphasis on neighbouring countries/regions - in the East and in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean. Relations are being developed through various initiatives and projects whose analyses should serve for better understanding of the EU´s external dimension. Moreover, the course will analyze current events on the European Union´s eastern and southern borders.

Acquired knowledge:

Students should obtain general understanding of external relations of the European Union and an ability to analyze the EU neighbourhood policies in a complex way.

Classes:

Students will receive complementary reading (concrete EU documents, materials etc.) before every class during which a given topic will be discussed.

Exam requirements:

The final exam will be written, in a form of several short essays on different topics discussed in the classes.

Course's structure:

1. Definition of the external relations of the European Union and theoretical framework of EU's foreign policy according to different theoretical approaches

2. From European Political Cooperation to creation of Common Foreign and Security Policy

3. Development of the EU foreign policy through institutional reforms - from the Maastricht Treaty to the Lisbon Treaty

4. Lisbon Treaty - creation of new institutions for more effective foreign policy

5. Southern dimension of the EU foreign policy - relations with the Mediterranean (from the 1960s until the year 1995, Barcelona Process, European Neighbourhood Policy).

6. Union for the Mediterranean - creation, aims and its development

7. Eastern dimension of the EU foreign policy - EU relation with central and eastern Europe, the enlargement, European Neighbourhood Policy, Eastern Partnership

8. Special case of Turkey

9. Member states' role for definition of the EU foreign policy - France, Spain, Germany, Poland and other countries, the role of EU Presidency, concept of Europeanization

10. Impact of EU economic crisis on a new definition of foreign policy

11. Cases of neighbourhood challenges: "Arab Spring" and its consequences (Egypt, Tunisia, Libya), crises in Belarus and Georgia, Moldavia and special status of Azerbaijan

12. Current crises - Ukraine, North Africa and the Middle East (ISIS)