The return of borders: Goethe Lecture on 27.4.2017
On Thursday, April 27, 2017, Prof. Dr. Jens Steffek, Principal Investigator and Member of the Board of Directors at the Cluster of Excellence "The Formation of Normative Orders" at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main and Managing Director of the Institute of Political Science at the Technical University of Darmstadt, spoke.
The return of borders: is globalization coming to an end?
Who will win the presidential elections in France? How will the concrete exit negotiations with the UK begin? In the coming weeks and months, important decisions will be made about the future of the European Union. It is possible that a trend will continue, which also includes Trump's "America first": global interdependencies and supranational institutions appear to be on the wane.
Political scientist Jens Steffek, member of the Cluster of Excellence and Professor of Transnational Governance at the Technical University of Darmstadt, gave an analysis of the interrelationships in his lecture as part of the "Goethe Lectures Offenbach" series at the Klingspor Museum on Thursday, April 27, 2017.
In Europe, the past few decades have been characterized by a sense of disappearing borders. Global economic interdependence increased steadily, border controls were abolished in the Schengen area and seemingly limitless freedom of communication prevailed on the Internet. Politically, this meant ever deeper cooperation within the framework of the European Union and other international organizations, often interpreted as a loss of importance of the nation state. This image of a world without borders has begun to crack. New border fences are also being erected in Europe, right-wing populist and anti-European parties are celebrating great successes, states are once again resorting to unvarnished power politics and attempting to seal themselves off. In his lecture, Jens Steffek will explore the question of whether this should be interpreted as the end of an era of globalization and Europeanization or rather as a temporary phenomenon.
More about Prof. Dr. Jens Steffek
Prof. Dr. Jens Steffek studied political science at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich and holds a doctorate in Social and Political Sciences from the European University Institute in Florence.
He is Professor of Transnational Governance and Managing Director of the Institute of Political Science at the Technical University of Darmstadt. His research interests include the politics and history of international organizations, international relations theory, transnational social actors and democratic theory.
Jens Steffek is Principal Investigator and member of the Board of Directors at the Cluster of Excellence "The Formation of Normative Orders" at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. He is also project leader of the research project: Legitimation through International Law and Legitimation of International Law.