This ten-week immersive study abroad program is organized by Dr. Vicki Birchfield, Co-Director of the Center for European and Transatlantic Studies and Professor at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, alongside Dr. Eliza Markley, Lecturer at the Nunn School and seasoned veteran of the Romanian security establishment. The program is supported by the Georgia Institute of Technology and is designed to give students an in-depth and dynamic introduction to the history of European integration, the institutions and decision making processes of the EU, current issues and debates as well as the EU’s developing role as a global actor and its relationship with the United States.
The program begins in Metz, France, which is an ideal location from which to study European integration as the Lorraine region represents the very heart of French-German historical rivalry and reconciliation, cornerstones of the postwar European project.
Spending time in this region will make the week spent in the capital city of Paris all the richer. Later, students will be plunged into the institutional heart of the EU spending nearly a month in Brussels, the ‘capital’ of the EU. Here students reside with host families and engage in interactive learning visiting all of the key EU institutions as well as NATO and SHAPE headquarters, the US Mission to the EU and many other site visits to think tanks such as Bruegel and CEPS and companies like Coca Cola’s International Headquarters and Google Europe.
The program is also interspersed with visits to other European cities and sites of decision-making power such as Strasbourg and The Hague. Throughout the program, students have the unique opportunity to engage in dialogue with elected officials, policy makers, diplomats and other practitioners making the program a veritable case study of world politics in real time!
Students will also have the opportunity to witness the contrast between Western and Eastern Europe by spending two weeks in Bucharest, Romania, where they visit the Romanian Military Headquarters, research firms, and cultural sites in Bucharest and its surroundings.
The last week of the program takes place at the George C Marshall Center in Garmisch, Germany; and then concludes in Munich, Germany.
Learn More About the Program
See the program flyer below for more details.
See the program flyer below for past years’ program details
