90909 - Workshop 2 (WS3)

Learning outcomes

The course aims at introducing students to the utilization of one of the main statistical packages for data analysis and presenting to them the basic elements of micro-data management and analysis. By the end of the course students will be familiar with the statistical package interface and be able to: load different types of data and different file formats into the statistical package, perform basic data management operations and conduct monovariate and multivariate statistical analyses using the software introduced during the course.

Course contents

This workshop is designed for students taking the course Europe in World Politics/The EU as a Global Actor.

The first and second weeks introduce students to the empirical analysis of EU foreign policy and the actor constructivist approach.

During the third and fourth weeks, students will present in groups on Allison's models and the role of ideas in foreign policy.

In the remaining weeks, students will apply the actor constructivist approach to specific case studies of EU foreign policy (the EU response to the war in Ukraine, the EU response to the protests in Iran, and the EU relations with China) and specific EU foreign policy actors (the European Commission President, the European Council President, the European Parliament President).

At the end of the workshop, each student's group will have to record a podcast summarising the main findings of the empirical analysis conducted during the previous weeks.

Detailed instructions on the students' activities are available on virtuale.unibo.it

Readings/Bibliography

Recommended readings

On foreign policy analysis:

Allison, G. (1971) Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1ed. Little Brown, chapters 1, 3 and 5

Baracani, E. (2017) 'Graham Allison: Conceptual Frameworks of Foreign Policy Decision Making', in F. Andreatta (ed.) Classic Works in International Relations, Bologna, Il Mulino, 127-154

On EU foreign policy (analysis):

Baracani, E. (2021) EU-Turkey Relations. A New Direction for EU Foreign Policy, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar

Baracani, E. and V. Sarotto (2022) 'The European Commission's role in EU-Turkey migration: political leadership through strategic framing', West European Politics

Del Reux, T. (2015) 'Bureaucratic Politics, New Institutionalism and Principal-Agent Models', in Jørgensen K., Aarstad A., Drieskens E., Laatikainen K., Tonra B., The SAGE Handbook on European Foreign Policy, 152-165

Keukeleire, S. and Delreux, T. (2022), The Foreign Policy of the EU, Bloomsbury Academic

White, B. (1999) 'The European Challenge to Foreign Policy Analysis', European Journal of International Relations, 5(1): 37-66

Young, R. (2021), The European Union and Global Politics, Red Globe Press

On ideas and (foreign) policy:

George, A.L. (1969) The ‘operational code’: A neglected approach to the study of political leaders and decision-making, International Studies Quarterly, 13(2), 190–222

Goldstein, J. and Keohane, R.O. (eds) (1993) Ideas and Foreign Policy: Beliefs, Institutions, and Political Change, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, chapter 1

Mehta, J. (2011) ‘The Varied Role of Ideas in Politics: From “Whether” to “How.”’, in D. Beland & R. H. Cox (Eds.), Ideas and Politics in Social Science Research, New York, NY: Oxford University Press, pp. 23-46

Schmidt, V.A. (2008) ‘Discursive institutionalism: the explanatory power of ideas and discourse’, Annual Review of Political Science, 11, 303–326

Surel, Y. (2000) ‘The role of cognitive and normative frames in policy-making’, Journal of European Public Policy, 7(4): 495–512

van Esch F. and J. Snellens (2022) 'How to 'measure' ideas. Introducing the method of cognitive mapping to the domain of ideational policy studies', Journal of European Public Policy

Teaching methods

- Lectures (30%)

- Students' presentations (in groups) and class debates (70%)

Assessment methods

Attending students:

Attendance: 90% (in presence)

Attending students will be divided into three groups according to their preferences

Each group will have to do weekly presentations (starting from the third week) and record a podcast with the main findings

Non-attending students:

They will have to write a paper of 4000 words (all included) on a topic that will be published on eol.unibo.it one month before the official exam session

Teaching tools

- Power point presentations as well as additional material will be available on Virtuale

Office hours

See the website of Elena Baracani