The European Commission has awarded Alasdair Young a Jean Monnet Chair supported by €45,000 (approximately $55,000) for teaching, research, and dissemination activities associated with a project on “The European Union in Global Technology Governance.”

An associate professor in The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs (INTA), Young received the only Jean Monnet Chair given in the U.S. among the 75 awarded worldwide in 2012. 

Beginning this semester and running for three years, the project supports the courses in "International Political Economy,"  "Transatlantic Relations,” and "The Global Politics of Technology Regulation." Also funded are a series of public lectures this fall by practitioners from government and business who are involved in international regulatory cooperation and an academic workshop in spring 2013.   

The project will also foster research on the EU’s pivotal influence in the global governance of technology. Young desribed the project: "Governments regulate technology both to encourage innovation and to address risks. Because of the size and sophistication of the single European market, the European Union (along with the United States) is one of the world’s regulators.  Differences in national regulations can hamper innovation, impede trade and foster trade disputes.  Consequently, the EU has prioritized addressing regulatory barriers in bilateral trade negotiations and advocated regulatory convergence at the multilateral level.  The political dynamics of global regulation, however, are only just beginning to be analyzed, and the EU’s pivotal role in this process remains poorly understood."

The project is hosted by The Nunn School’s Center for European and Transatlantic Studies.