Building European defence through crises

The European Studies Centre, together with South East European Studies at Oxford (SEESOX), hosted Marilena Koppa, Professor at Panteion University in Athens, Greece. The seminar was held on 22 February 2024 and was chaired by Othon Anastasakis, Director of the European Studies Centre and of SEESOX.

Koppa’s presentation was based on her book The Evolution of the Common Security and Defence Policy: Critical Junctures and the Quest for EU Strategic Autonomy published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2022. The research for the book had taken place before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Koppa presented her analysis on the needs and challenges to build European defence by taking into account this latest crisis that the European Union has had to face.

Koppa noted that her time as a member of the European Parliament, when she also held the position of Coordinator of the Socialist and Democrat Group at the Subcommittee on Security and Defence, had prompted her to research European defence policy as an academic. In her presentation she discussed the origins of European defence, its evolution through crises, and its needs for the future.

Koppa argued that the EU’s Common and Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) sought to build European military capabilities that in the long-term would make the Union a global actor, but it did not seek to provide collective defence, which has been a NATO mission. The defence focus of the CSDP would be to prevent crises outside EU borders from reaching the Union.

Rethinking the Eastern Mediterranean in a volatile world

On 21 November, the European Studies Centre (ESC), in collaboration with the Southeast European Studies Centre at Oxford (SEESOX), held a seminar on the opportunities and challenges of cooperation in the Eastern Mediterranean region.

The region has gained increasing importance as the European Union (EU) seeks to meet its energy demands following the near-total ban on the import of Russian gas after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Simultaneously, the region's instability, coupled with a multitude of global crises—including climate change, trade wars, US-China competition, and inflation—makes the Eastern Mediterranean an integral part of the geopolitical landscape, influencing both regional and global power dynamics.

The seminar, held on 21 November, is part of a broader effort by ESC/SEESOX to address these issues through a special project, which is expected to launch in March 2024. The speakers included Alexander Clarkson (King’s College London), Costandinos Filis (American College of Greece), Manal Shahabi (St. Antony’s College, Oxford), and Galip Dalay (St. Antony’s College, Oxford). ESC Director Othon Anastasakis chaired the seminar.

Heirs of the Greek catastrophe: The social life of Asia Minor refugees in Piraeus

The European Studies Centre (ESC) in collaboration with South East European Studies at Oxford (SEESOX) held a book discussion on the experiences of the Greek population of Asia Minor who settled in Greece after the population exchange agreement through the 1923 Lausanne Convention. Heirs of the Greek Catastrophe: The Social life of Asia Minor Refugees in Piraeus, written by Professor Renée Hirschon, was first published in 1989, whilst its third edition was published to commemorate the centenary of the Lausanne Convention.

The discussion was held on 25 October 2023, and it was chaired by Michael Llewellyn Smith, Fellow at St. Antony’s College. Renée Hirschon – Senior Research Fellow at St. Peter’s College, Oxford – presented the third edition of the book, while Robin Cohen – Emeritus Professor at Kellogg College, Oxford – and Başak Kale – Associate Professor at the Middle East Technical Institute – discussed the contributions of the book to the research on the topic and more broadly concerning questions of identity, belonging, nationalism, migration, and memory.

During the presentation of the book, Professor Hirschon provided some historical context to her research approach, discussed the key objective of the research, and presented some of the key themes. She first underlined some changes in the names of the locations where the field work had been conducted due to confidentiality concerns. The reader of the third edition should be aware that in the third edition “Nea Ephsus” is used instead of “Kokkinia” and/or “Nikaia”, while “Yerania” has replaced “Germanika”. The author then underscored that the research she was conducting in the 1970s was not part of what we may call today “refugee studies” or “migration studies”. The field did not exist at the time and in 1972, when Hirschon was conducting the research, the worldwide population of forcibly displaced persons was approximately 3.2 million. The purpose of the research conducted in the 1970s was to understand the interaction between the use of space and cultural values. But given the exponential growth of the worldwide number of forcibly displaced persons, she revisits her work and seeks to determine whether “we can learn something from the experience of people who were forcibly displaced in the early 1920s and whether that experience is relevant for us today”.

The unmixing of peoples

On 10 October, Lea Ypi visited SEESOX to discuss her forthcoming book, Indignity, and share a full chapter from it. The event provided a fascinating glimpse into Ypi’s latest work, which investigates historical injustice, the nature of dignity, and the interplay between truth and imagination.

Ypi began by recounting the inspiration for the book, sparked by the discovery of a 1941 photograph of her grandmother, Leman, honeymooning in the Italian Alps—an image posted by a stranger on social media. The photograph, which contradicted the family narrative that all records of her grandmother’s youth had been destroyed during the early days of communism in Albania, raised unsettling questions for Ypi.

In her talk, Ypi described how Indignity explores these questions through a reimagining of the past. The book takes readers into the vanished world of Ottoman aristocracy in Salonica, the making of modern Greece and Albania, the horrors of World War II, and the rise of communism in the Balkans. She explained how her investigation drew on secret police archives, court depositions, and family anecdotes, blending fact and fiction to grapple with uncertainty and the fragility of truth.

Ypi also reflected on her grandmother’s enigmatic life. Why did Leman speak French if her family had lived in the Ottoman Empire? What drove her to Tirana, where she met a socialist sympathizer whose father led a collaborationist government? And, perhaps most intriguingly, why was she smiling in that 1941 photograph while the world was at war?

Schengen enlargement: Are Bulgaria and Romania second-class EU Member States?

SEESOX hosted its first seminar of the Michaelmas Term on 11 October, on the theme of Schengen Enlargement and whether Bulgaria and Romania are in fact second-class EU Member States. It brought together Dragos Tudorache (Member of European Parliament), Sophie in’t Veld (Member of the European Parliament – online) and Eli Gateva (Department of Politics and International Relations, Oxford), and was chaired by Jonathan Scheele (SEESOX).

Tudorache began by pointing out that the current impasse was a symptom of the problems of the Brussels decision making process. He recalled the timeline of the issue, noting that the two countries had completed all the technical work necessary to join Schengen in 2011, as originally foreseen. The first delays were provoked by Romanian backsliding on 2009/10 on judicial reforms, leading the Commission to make a link between these and Schengen enlargement, thus providing a useful alibi for certain Member States. A new President and government in 2014/15 tried hard, in discussion with the Member States concerned (France, Germany, Netherlands) to resolve the issue and at the end of 2015 the first two were ready, but the Netherlands held out, principally for domestic political reasons. This situation continued until 2022, when everything seemed to be lined up for agreement in the autumn; however, Austria then raised concerns for the first time and Netherlands was then no longer ready to move, while other Member States preferred not to push the matter.

The consequences for Romania are significant; in economic terms, a two day wait for trucks on the border costs billions and threatens any just-in-time manufacturing processes. It also creates a two-tier system at Schengen borders for citizens of another Member State. Furthermore, it strengthens support for the (new) extreme right in Romania who exploit this as “a humiliation” of the country; this could have implications in the various elections in 2024. Hopes of isolation of Austria remained, but efforts at discussion had been rebuffed.

After Turkey's elections: A change of direction or more of the same?

On 28 June 2023, the Global Strategy Forum hosted, together with SEESOX, a seminar in London on the theme After Turkey’s Elections: a change of direction or more of the same? Speakers were Mehmet Karli (SEESOX), Bașak Kale (Middle East Technical University, Ankara) and Othon Anastasakis (SEESOX). The seminar was chaired by Lord Lothian (GSF Chairman) and David Madden (SEESOX).

Mehmet Karli highlighted the favourable circumstances in which the opposition had entered the campaign. Rampant inflation, creating a cost-of-living crisis, alongside a failed government response to the earthquake, and popular fatigue at the long rule of the AKP made the election look impossible to lose. But Erdogan had succeeded in consolidating his longstanding 52/48 majority: how?

Principally, the elections were simply not fair, with state control of the media, foreign aid allowing voter friendly offers despite the economic crisis, and the progressive elimination of opposition figures. The opposition had also selected a poor candidate, losing it support from the centre right nationalists. The immediate impact of the economic crisis had been overestimated, and the opposition only really campaigned during the election period.

For now, there were no signs of democratic reform, but rather entrenchment of strongman politics in Turkey. The opposition alliance had fractured, with the Kurds split, all creating a risk of loss of opposition control of the cities at the local elections in 2024.

Turkey’s general elections 2023: What next?”

On the 14th of June 2023, the European Studies Centre hosted its final event of the academic year, entitled “Turkey’s general elections 2023: What next?” The panellists were Mehmet Karli (SEESOX), Karabekir Akkoyunlu (SOAS University of London), and Dimitar Bechev (Oxford School of Global and Area Studies). Othon Anastasakis (St Antony’s College, Oxford) chaired the event.

In his presentation, Karli reviewed voting trends in Turkey and outlined six reasons for the failure of the united opposition to Erdogan. He pointed out that Erdogan’s vote share has stayed more or less the same since 2014, and that the only difference in this election was that the opposition had consolidated. Despite this achievement and other factors, such as the recent earthquake and the floundering economy, the opposition has lost yet another election. On the parliamentary level, the AKP scored one of its worst results in recent history, but this was made up for by other parties in the ruling alliance. Meanwhile, the CHP received a historically low share of MPs despite staying on a similar level.

The first reason for the opposition’s failure was Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. Rather than choosing a consensus candidate, the CHP insisted on fielding Kılıçdaroğlu and alienated a number of voters from the allied IYIP. Secondly, entering the parliamentary elections as a unitary alliance proved to be a failing strategy. Most of the traditional conservative Islamists who could have voted for one of the smaller parties decided not to vote for opposition candidates because they were running under the CHP banner. Furthermore, As the Kurdish party left the alliance and did not put forward a candidate, its voting share went down significantly.