European Borders: Security, Solidarity, Responsibility (RADAR)
The Jean Monnet Chair — named after one of the main architects of European integration, Jean Monnet (1888-1979) — is designed to promote excellence in teaching and research in the field of European Studies. It is awarded through a competitive selection by the European Commission, through its Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), as part of the ERASMUS+ programme.
The RADAR project will run for the next three years from January 2024 to December 2026
Dr. Raffaela Puggioni is Full Professor at the School of International Affairs and Executive Director of the Centre for European Studies. She has some fifteen years of teaching experience in International Studies/Political Science in countries as diverse as Italy, China, Azerbaijan and India. She has recently completed a two-year Marie-Curie Individual Fellowship at LUISS University (Rome), where she investigated the relation between COVID-19 emergency, (im)mobility and the liberal subject. Her work is broadly situated in the disciplines of International Relations Theory, Political Theory, Resistance Studies and Border Studies, with a geographical focus on EUrope. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Refugee Studies, Political Studies, Citizenship Studies, Third World Quarterly, Global Society, Journal of Borderlands Studies, Politics and Thesis Eleven, and a monograph, Rethinking International Protection, has been published by Palgrave.
Prof. Vesselin Popovski is the Founding Executive Director of Centre for UN Studies and the Vice Dean of Jindal Global Law School. In 2004-2014 Senior Academic Officer, Head of ‘Peace and Governance’ Programme at UNU, Tokyo. Prior to that Co-Director of EU project ‘Legal Protection of Individual Rights in Russia’ and Assistant Professor, Exeter University, UK. Ph.D. King’s College London; M.Sc. London School of Economics; B.A./M.A. Moscow Institute of International Affairs. Over twenty books, among them Re-Imagination of International Legal Order (2023); Fulfilling the SDGs (2021); Global Approaches to Peace (2019); Implementation of Paris Agreement on Climate Change (2018); Emotions in International Politics (2016); Security Council as Global Legislator (2014); International Rule of Law and Professional Ethics (2014); Legality and Legitimacy in Global Affairs (2012); World Religions and Norms of War (2009); International Criminal Accountability and Child Rights (2006). Co-writer of ‘Declaration on the Right to International Solidarity’ (2021); ‘Responsibility to Protect’ ICISS Report (2001); ‘Princeton Principles of Universal Jurisdiction’ (2000). Bulgarian Ex-Diplomat.
Dr. Oleksandr Svitych is Associate Professor at the School of International Affairs and a founding member of the JSIA Center for Political Economy and Philosophy. Dr. Svitych is a political economist with interests in political and economic sociology, political philosophy, and critical social theory. His main research orientation is the relationship between markets and social stability in the context of the current international economic order. Additionally, he is interested in martial arts studies. Dr. Svitych is the author of The Rise of the Capital-state and Neo-nationalism: A New Polanyian Moment published by Brill’s Global Populisms series. His research has also appeared in such outlets as Globalizations, Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Review of International Political Economy, and The International Journal of the History of Sport, among others. Dr. Svitych is a proponent of radical and engaged pedagogy.
Dr. Silvia Bottega, a political scientist with a PhD from the University of Turin, is currently serving as an Associate Professor at JSIA. Her research interests encompass regional security architectures in Africa, Asia, and Europe, as well as the impact of wars and asymmetric conflicts on women and the general population, the ethics of refugee protection in the Middle East and in Europe. She has taught a wide range of courses including Foreign Policy Analysis, Military Alliances and Defence Diplomacy, International Relations Theory, and International Public Law. She is also teaching M.A. in International Relations, Security and Strategy programme offered through Coursera. In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Dr. Bottega has also been actively involved in international collaborations, coordinating Summer and Winter Schools and contributing/leading to the establishment of Study Abroad programmes at JSIA.
Prof. Dr. Rajeev Kadambi is Professor at JSIA. After obtaining his Ph.D. from Brown University (U.S.A.), he has been with O.P. Jindal Global University where he teaches political theory/political philosophy from a comparative philosophical and ethical perspective. His research attempts to theorize human experience from its culturality. Rajeev is currently finishing his manuscript on M.K. Gandhi’s ethical thought, which examines Gandhi’s reconstruction of traditions as forms of action and knowledge.
What does it mean to protect EU borders? How does, and should, the EU deal with unauthorised border-crossers? Who are the (post-colonial) ‘border-crossers’ against whom the EU is erecting physical, legal, and social barriers? Does the EU have any political, legal and ethical, responsibility for the border deaths along the Mediterranean maritime borders? These are some of the key questions that the Jean Monnet Chair will focus its attention. This will be done by combining a political and ethical perspective, which will investigate and question not just how borders are managed and made secure but also what role, if any, solidarity, humanitarianism, and responsibility play in border management.
The RADAR project will be implemented through teaching, researching, and outreach activities, which will all stimulate high-profile debates, academic engagement, and cross-cultural exchange inside and outside of academia. European research on borders will be deepened and broadened by looking at border management, EU dialogue on border security as well as the ethical and legal questions that search and rescue operations involve. Border issues — and the connected themes on migration, asylum, citizenship, identity, and inclusion — will be approached from an interdisciplinary perspective, that combines the fields of International Relations Theory, Migration and Border Studies, Anthropology, Political Philosophy and International Law.
The Chair will be teaching a variety of courses including: 1) EU History and Politics; 2) EU Migration: Politics and Practices; 3) Debating Migration in Europe; 4) EUropean Borders: the Legal, the Political and the Ethical; 5) EUropean Borders: Solidarity, Activism, and Citizenship; 6) EU Border Security; and 7) Mobility, Borders, and Citizenship in (a Post-colonial) Europe.
The team members will contribute to the RADAR project by offering some hours of teaching on selected topics, as for instance: social aspect of mobility; populism, nationalism and cosmopolitanism; democracy, nationalism, and ethics; state and citizens; colonialism and its forms of knowledge; cross-border governance, responsibility to protect; the European Convention and at the Law of the Sea.
The Jean Monnet Chair on EUropean Borders: Security, Solidarity, Responsibility will focus its attention at The Mediterranean borders and investigate and question not just how borders are managed and made secure but also what role, if any, solidarity, humanitarianism, and responsibility play in border management. The ethical perspective, that the RADAR project will investigate, is especially important in the light of EU core values and principles, which border practices do not always respect. Special attention will be devoted to dominant EU dialogue on border security and ethical and legal questions that search and rescue operations involve. Finally, European border politics will be approached from an interdisciplinary perspective, that combines the fields of International Relations Theory, Migration and Border Studies, Anthropology, Political Philosophy and International Law. A cross-cultural perspective will be also included as it will help investigate border politics through alternative lenses, including a (post)-postcolonial lens.
A variety of events — including discussions, workshops and outreach activities — will be organised by the team members (individually and as a team) through the following research centres: Centre for European Studies, Centre for Migration and Mobility Studies, the Centre for Political Economy and Philosophy as well as The Centre for UN Studies.
The European Commission’s support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.