This talk examines the history of the European Union and the political and administrative infrastructure it has established to shape Europe’s economic and political order over the past decades.
The presentation will highlight a shift in focus from liberalization to security since the late 2000s. It then discusses the challenges facing the EU in today’s world. Despite the recent shift the EU is rather ill-prepared for the global dynamics of the 2020s. It resembles a football star finding themselves on a rugby field.
Bio
Kiran Klaus Patel holds a chair for modern history at Ludwig Maximilian University Munich where he is also the director of Project House Europe, LMU’s center for interdisciplinary research on the history of contemporary Europe. Before joining LMU, he held chairs at Maastricht University (2011–2019) and the European University Institute in Florence, Italy (2007–2011), and an assistant professorship at Humboldt University in Berlin (2002–2007). His latest publications include: A Concise History of the European Union (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2026, forthcoming); Project Europe: A History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020) (German version: Beck, 2018); The New Deal: A Global History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016).
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
