About

This ten-week study program 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, Georgia Institute of Technology and Georgia Tech Lorraine 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.

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The program begins at the GTL campus 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 two weeks spent in the capital cities of Paris and Berlin 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, Luxembourg City, 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!

Key issues to be examined this summer include the important elections in France and Germany and their impact on the direction of EU affairs, the official debates on the future of the EU launched by Commission President Junker, the on-going migration and refugee crisis, efforts to confront radicalization and the problem of terrorism, tensions with Russia, growing euroscepticism and the Brexit negotiations.

Click here for more details.

Click here for 2018 program flyer.