Please distribute to others who may be interested...
You are hereby invited to the twenty-eight seminar organized in
2005 by the "Evolution, Complexity and
Cognition (ECCO)" research group:
The Transformed Foreign
Policy Analysis meets Complexity Theory:
Modeling the complex adaptive
system of governance in EU Foreign Policy
by
Prof. Dr. Gustaaf Geeraerts
& Mehmet Tezcan
(POLI & ECCO,
VUB)
Place: room 3C204 (building C, 3rd floor), VUB campus
Etterbeek
Time: Friday, Dec. 2, at 17:00 h.
Abstract
Since its emergence in Cold War decades, EU foreign policy
(EU-FP) (and the more general European foreign policy (EFP)) has
evolved into an unpredicted complexity, which is today conceptualized
as more than intergovernmentalism, less than supranationalism.
Consequently, the transformed Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA), since
its reemergence in the post-Cold War era, has much contemplated the
very nature of EFP in general, EU-FP in particular. Although having
acknowledged EFP in general, EU-FP in particular as complex, adaptive,
and systemic here and there, FPA has not yet developed a conceptual
framework that recognizes and studies these issues as complex adaptive
systems. Such a framework necessitates the meeting of FPA with
complexity theory. Hence, our presentation introduces and applies the
insights from complexity theory to the study of European (Union)
foreign policy, proposing a first dynamics model of the interactions
between the different actors.
About the speakers
Gustaaf Geeraerts is Professor of International Relations at the
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), and has been Director of the Centre
for Peace and Security Studies at VUB since 1993. He is Honorary
Professor at the University of Kent at Canterbury, and a Deputy Editor
of Global Society: Journal of Interdisciplinary International
Relations. His research interests centre around international
relations theory and security in Europe and East Asia (particularly
China). He is currently working on modelling of complex phenomena in
international relations.
Mehmet Tezcan works as a research assistant with Prof. Geeraerts,
preparing a PhD on the applications of complexity theory to the
modelling of international relations. He recently presented the first
results of this work at the Complexity, Science and Society conference
in Liverpool.
ECCO
seminar programme coming weeks
- 16 Dec: Mixel Kiemen: A network of bootstraps to ground language for higher-level agent cognition
- 23 Dec: Nathalie Gontier: Symbiogenesis as a Fundamental Evolutionary Principle
ECCO seminars normally take place each Friday at 17h00 in room
3C204 of the VUB Campus Etterbeek. Everyone interested is welcome. The
seminars are very interactive, with small groups (about 8 people). The
intention is to discuss in depth the research being proposed, and to
look for interdisciplinary connections with other themes related to
Evolution, Complexity and Cognition. Seminars last about two hours,
after which the remaining participants go to take a drink or a snack
in the Opinio Café on the campus, to continue the discussion in a
more relaxed setting.
--
Francis Heylighen
"Evolution, Complexity and Cognition" research group
Free University of Brussels
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html
