Is the European Union on the point of collapse? Britain’s vote to leave the EU has encouraged citizens in other EU countries to demand a referendum on membership. The countries of Central Europe are resisting the drive for ever closer political union, and are adamant in their refusal to allow the EU to impose a quota system for immigrants. Meanwhile, it is evident that the economic problems caused by the creation of the euro are far from over, with Otmar Issing, the ECB’s first chief economist warning that the Euro project is unworkable in its present form, and will one day collapse “like a pack of cards.”

More than at any time since its inception the future of the European Union looks uncertain. These matters will be the subject of a conversation between scholars with international reputations, which will take place under the auspices of the Danube Institute and the Economics and Law Faculties of the University of Szeged.

The conversation will be between Martin Jones, Visiting Professor at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, and John O’Sullivan, President of the Danube Institute. The event is introduced and chaired by Béla Tomka, Professor of European Political and Social History at the University of Szeged.

Observing the 19^th century Scottish poet and journalist Charles Mackay's comment that states, like individuals, can go made in the pursuit of an illusion, Professor Jones wrote recently: “We might update Mackay’s memoir by noting that at a later age in the annals of Europe, its population lost their wits, fiscal credibility and economic sense over the delusions of an ever-closer European Union.”

David Martin Jones is Honorary Reader in the School of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Queensland, and Visiting Professor and Teaching Fellow in War Studies at King’s College, University of London. He received his PhD from the London School of Economics, and has taught at the Open University, National University of Singapore, and the University of Tasmania. His works include with Daniel A Bell, David Brown and Kanishka Jayasuriya Towards Illiberal Democracy in Pacific Asia (1995), Political Development in Pacific Asia (1997), Conscience and Allegiance in Seventeenth Century English Political Thought (1999), The Image of China in Western Social and Political Thought (2001) and ASEAN and East Asian International Order (2007) with N. Khoo and M.L.R. Smith The Rise of China and Asia Pacific Security (Edward Elgar 2013) and with M.L.R. Smith Sacred Violence Political Religion in a Secular Age (Macmillan 2014) and The Political Impossibility of Modern Counter-Insurgency (Columbia 2015).

John O'Sullivan is a British conservative political commentator and journalist. During the 1980s, he was a senior policywriter and speechwriter in 10 Downing Street for Margaret Thatcher when she was British prime minister and remained close to her up to her death. O'Sullivan served from 2008-2012 as vice president and executive editor of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. He is currently president of the Danube Institute and editor of the Australian monthly magazine Quadrant. He is also a member of the board of advisors for the Global Panel Foundation, a respected NGO that works behind the scenes in crisis areas around the world.

Béla Tomka is Professor at the Department of History, University of Szeged. His major research area is the social and economic history of Hungary and Europe in the 20th century with a special emphasis on international comparisons. He is the author of 14 books and editor of several other volumes. He received a number of awards including the Outstanding Academic Title 2013 Award by Choice, American Library Association (for A Social History of Twentieth-Century Europe, London and New York: Routledge, 2013).

Visit the conversation of David Martin Jones, Visiting Professor at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, John O’Sullivan, President of the Danube Institute. The event is introduced and chaired by Béla Tomka, Professor of European Political and Social History at the University of Szeged.

Venue:

Faculty of Economics “Aula”

Szeged, Kálvária sugárút 1.

Date:

November 10, 2016 at 17:00