Studying Europe after the fall: four thoughts on post-EU studies

ABSTRACT

What would European Union (EU) scholars study if the EU were to fall? This contribution does not predict the demise of the Union, but rather engages EU scholars in a thought-experiment. It considers what would happen to EU studies and the scholarly community if the EU were to disintegrate. Moreover, the possible contours of post-EU studies are outlined. That discussion is based around the four ideas of destruction, diagnosis, diversion and renewal. If the EU were to fall, the argument goes, the questions that drive EU scholars would endure and evolve rather than evaporate. The challenges that triggered the collapse of the EU would be likely to haunt former member states and other organizational structures for regional and international co-operation.

KEYWORDS:

• Crisis
• EU studies
• European Union
• disintegration
• integration theory

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Michael Blauberger, Berthold Rittberger and two anonymous referees for helpful comments. Any errors that remain are ours alone.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dermot Hodson is reader in political economy in the Department of Politics, Birkbeck College, University of London.

Uwe Puetter is professor of European public policy and governance at the School of Public Policy and Director of the Center for European Union Research, Central European University, Budapest.

Notes

1 Article 97, Treaty Establishing the European Coal and Steel Community.

2 Article 54(b), Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1969). On whether EU member states could terminate the EU treaties under the Convention, see Hartley (2002: 21).

3 Hooton and Stone (2016).