Center for European Studies (Harvard)

Center for European Studies (Harvard)
Name	Center for European Studies (Harvard)
Established	1969
Type	Research center
Affiliation	Harvard University
Location	Cambridge, Massachusetts
Director	(see Faculty and Leadership)

Contents

Center for European Studies (Harvard) is an interdisciplinary research center at Harvard University dedicated to the study of European Union, France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom and other European countries through historical, political, economic, legal and cultural lenses. Founded in the late 1960s during debates over Cold War strategy and NATO relations, the center has hosted scholars connected to institutions such as the European Commission, Bundestag, Élysée Palace, Oxford University, and École Normale Supérieure. It supports research that intersects with topics like the Treaty of Rome, Treaty of Maastricht, Schengen Agreement, Treaty of Lisbon, and transatlantic relations involving the United States Department of State and NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

History

The center traces roots to initiatives in the 1960s linking Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Law School, and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences to respond to developments including the Prague Spring, Berlin Wall, and debates over the Marshall Plan. Early affiliates and visitors included scholars with ties to Konrad Adenauer, Charles de Gaulle, Adenauer Foundation, Comité d'histoire, and policymakers from the Council of Europe. During the 1970s and 1980s the center expanded programming in response to the European Economic Community enlargement rounds that admitted Greece, Spain, and Portugal, and engaged with scholars from the Institute for Advanced Study, London School of Economics, Sciences Po, and the Max Planck Institute. After the end of the Cold War and the reunification of Germany, the center reoriented to new challenges posed by the Maastricht Treaty, Bosnian War, and EU enlargement to include Poland, Hungary, and the Baltic states.

Research clusters convene scholars working on comparative topics tied to the Treaty of Utrecht, Napoleonic Code, Weimar Republic, Treaty of Versailles, and European intellectual history including connections to figures such as Immanuel Kant, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Hannah Arendt. Projects analyze public policy and public law through case studies involving the European Court of Justice, European Court of Human Rights, and national judiciaries in Spain, Greece, Ireland, and the Netherlands. The center has hosted conferences on subjects from the Eurozone crisis and Brexit to migration flows tied to the Yugoslav Wars and the Syrian civil war, attracting participants from Chatham House, Carnegie Europe, Brookings Institution, Council on Foreign Relations, and the Atlantic Council. Collaborative grants have been awarded in partnership with the National Science Foundation, European Research Council, Humboldt Foundation, and foundations linked to Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Carnegie Corporation.

Leadership has included scholars with appointments across departments including notable academics connected to Harvard Law School and the Department of Government. Faculty affiliates have included specialists who previously worked at the European Commission Directorate-General for Competition, the Bundesbank, the Bank of France, and national ministries of finance in Denmark and Sweden. Visiting scholars and fellows frequently come from Princeton University, Yale University, Columbia University, New York University, and University of Chicago, as well as policy practitioners from the European Investment Bank, European Stability Mechanism, and national diplomatic services such as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (France).

The center receives funding from a mix of endowments, grants, and partnerships with entities including the European Commission, national research councils such as the Swedish Research Council and Leverhulme Trust, philanthropic donors linked to families associated with Rothschild family and Rockefeller family, and corporate support from firms with headquarters in Frankfurt am Main, Paris, Milan, and London. Collaborative research and fellowship exchanges have been arranged with the Hélène Duchêne Foundation, German Academic Exchange Service, Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and consortia involving École Polytechnique, Trinity College Dublin, and University of Edinburgh.

Located in Cambridge near the Charles River and adjacent to Harvard libraries including the Widener Library and Houghton Library, the center maintains seminar rooms and archival resources that host manuscript collections related to figures such as Winston Churchill, Václav Havel, and Simone de Beauvoir. Regular publications include working paper series, policy briefs, and edited volumes published in collaboration with presses such as Harvard University Press, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and Yale University Press. The center organizes lecture series that have featured speakers from the European Council, European Parliament President, and prominent intellectuals from Prague, Berlin, Madrid, and Rome.