The European Commission has awarded Georgia Tech a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence. The three-year, €100,000 ($125,000) award was one of only 14 awarded world-wide in 2014. The Centre will pool expertise from across the Ivan Allen College, as well as from the Scheller College of Business, to analyze Europe's place in a changing world with an American reference point, but a broader focus. Named after one of the founding fathers of European integration, the Jean Monnet program aims to promote excellence in teaching and research in the field of European Union studies and to foster the dialogue between the academic world and policy-makers. The Centre will be housed in the Nunn School’s Center for European and Transatlantic Studies and directed by Dr. Alasdair Young.

"The Award of the Jean Monnet Center of Excellence is a clear recognition by the European Commission of the expertise of our faculty in the Sam Nunn School and at Georgia Tech more broadly to address the key issues confronting the European Union. It provides a platform for us to explore the important policy issues of transatlantic trade, and European integration and security. This recognition and the resources it will provide further Georgia Tech's strategic objective to understand and assist in global policy issues." – Joe Bankoff, Chair, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs

The activities of the Centre will include public talks, academic workshops, an international symposium and a working paper series. The main research activities will be structured around three work packages focusing on:

• Triangular Diplomacy: Strategic Implications of a Resurgent Russia for the European Union and the United States As the unfolding crisis in Ukraine demonstrates, the states of the Euro-Atlantic region have not developed an effective approach to security. This work package will analyze the interaction of the EU, the U.S. and Russia in the area overlapped by the EU’s ‘neighborhood’ and Russia’s “near abroad.” A particular focus will be on the different ways security issues in the region are understood in the EU, the U.S. and Russia. This will be the focus of the Centre during 2014-15.
• 21st Century Trade Politics: The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations aspire to create the most ambitious intercontinental trade agreement binding the world’s two largest and most interconnected economies. This work package will analyze the distinctive patterns of trade politics that these negotiations have prompted.
•  Protecting Privacy: Transatlantic Perspectives and Challenges The protection of personal data became highly politicized in 2013 as the result of the EU’s efforts to up-date its data privacy legislation for the internet age and Edward Snowden’s revelations about the extent of National Security Agency surveillance. As a result the flow of data across the Atlantic is in serious jeopardy. This work package will explore the issues and identify ways forward.

In addition, coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II and in conjunction with the Peace Laureates World Summit in Atlanta in November 2015, the Centre will host an international symposium on the EU as Peacemaker and Peacekeeper. The Centre will also support the re-launch of the Certificate in European Affairs.

Other participating faculty include: Vicki Birchfield (Nunn School); Mikulas Fabry (NunnSchool); Jarrod Hayes (Nunn School); Dina Khapaeva (Modern Languages); Nikolay Koposov (History, Technology and Society); John Krige (History, Technology and Society); John McIntyre (Scheller); Peter Swire (Scheller); and Katja Weber (Nunn School).
For more information, contact Alasdair Young (Alasdair.young@gatech.edu) or visit the Centre’s website.