Dear friends and colleagues of the Kolleg-Forschergruppe,

Welcome to the newest edition of our newsletter!

During the past summer term, KFG was happy to host and organize many conferences, workshops, and a roundtable discussion. In the following, we would like to share our impressions with you. As KFG is slowly moving towards the end of the project, we are very much looking forward to the last few regular Jour Fixe meetings and our Summer Party in July.

The highlights of the past spring season were international events such as the ISA reception in Atlanta and the conference on the new “Oxford Handbook of Comparative Regionalism” in Rio de Janeiro. At the same time, KFG scholars were quite busy with discussing and presenting not only in the US and Brazil, but also in Berlin. KFG senior scholars Wolfram Kaiser and Kiran Klaus Patel organized the workshop “From Empires to Empire? European Integration in Global Context, 1950s to 1990s,” and Kathleen J. Hancock hosted an international workshop on “The Intersection of Comparative Regionalism and Energy Issues.” To honor the tradition, KFG again participated in the Long Night of Sciences with a roundtable on “Europe at a crossroads”. Furthermore, we report about the Political Science Conference “National, European, and International Challenges of Refugee Flows” and the workshop "The EU and Peripheries in Competition" organized by Rachel Epstein and Martin Rhodes.

Also, we launched a new social media channel on LinkedIn in order to stay in touch with our fellows and alumni and published two new working papers by Stephen Clarkson and Frank Schimmelfennig.

As you know, we were shocked to hear about the passing of our dear colleague Stephen Clarkson. Our thoughts are still with his widow Nora, who joined us for a special Jour Fixe meeting in Stephen's honor.

As the KFG is drawing to a close, we wish you a relaxed summer break and say goodbye until the next newsletter is published in November.

All the best,

Tanja A. Börzel, Thomas Risse & the KFG-Team

The 57th ISA Convention was held in Atlanta, Georgia, from March 16-19. Once more, ISA´s annual convention proves to inspire a fruitful exchange among scholars and practitioners crisscrossing disciplines. 5938 participants attended the ISA in Atlanta, which signals an even greater success of the conference compared to the ISA Convention in New Orleans last year. This year´s motto “Exploring Peace” hits the mark of current challenges in world politics, laying the foundation for a reflective yet confident debate.

Historical research on European integration since 1945 has largely focused on Western European actors, domestic motives, and policies. It has only recently begun to explore connections between Empire, decolonization, and European integration, and continuities from national empires into the European Community (EC) as in its development aid policy.

In a recent event, the KFG hosted a first major meeting that brought together the various researchers contributing to this emerging field of research. Organized by KFG Senior Fellows Wolfram Kaiser (Portsmouth) and Kiran Klaus Patel (Maastricht) on April 7 and 8, 2016, this workshop convened a group of some 20 scholars working on these issues.

The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Regionalism is on tour again. After an initial event at the National University of Singapore (NUS) last October, the Kolleg-Forschergruppe “The Transformative Power of Europe” took the Handbook to Pontifical Catholic University Rio de Janeiro (PUC) for a two-day conference co-hosted by Andrea Ribeiro Hoffmann at the Institute for International Relations (IRI). On April 7-8, 2016, selected authors discussed the findings of their chapters with leading scholars from Latin America during four panels and two roundtable discussions.

On April 28-29, KFG Senior Fellow Kathleen J. Hancock, hosted an international workshop in Berlin on the intersection of comparative regionalism and energy issues. The participants are well known experts in environmentalism, energy, and comparative regionalism and in a number of world regions, including Southeast Asia, Europe, North America, Russia and Eurasia, the Middle East and North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa. The group is developing a new research agenda that examines how comparative regionalism studies can inform research on fossil fuels, renewable energy, transportation fuels, and energy infrastructure, inter alia. In turn, the researchers are exploring how these energy issues might change what we know about how regions work.

The Political Science conference on Europe’s challenges arising through the refugee influx took place on May 6 and 7 at the Freie Universität Berlin. The organizers Arthur Benz, Thomas Risse, and Rainer Schmalz-Bruns brought together a wide range of scholars adding up to over 50 participants. During the conference, researchers shared in-depth views on this important and up-to-date topic. Participants originated from all over Germany and Switzerland - especially young researchers were encouraged to take part in this conference.

The annual contribution of KFG to the Long Night of Sciences was a full success. The panel discussion on the up-to-date topic of the future of the EU drew many interested visitors to the Silberlaube at the Freie Universität Berlin, quickly filling up the ranks in the auditorium.

The Workshop on “Peripheries in Competition? The Politics and Political Economy of Convergence and Divergence in the EU” took place on June 13 and 14, 2016 at the Freie Universität Berlin. The organizers Tanja A. Börzel, Rachel Epstein, and Martin Rhodes brought together a dozen scholars specializing in the politics and political economy of Southern, Central, and Eastern Europe from both the EU and the US.

KFG PhD alumni Lusine Badalyan, Kilian Spandler, and Mathis Lohaus tell us about their stay at the KFG.

Last month, two Working Papers were published: WP No. 72 by Stephen Clarkson with the contribution by his students and WP No. 73 by Frank Schimmelfennig.