The Centre for Small State Studies starts a new project. “Small States in Europe: Towards a Cross-Disciplinary Approach”.
The Centre for Small State Studies at the University of Iceland was recently awarded a grant from the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme. The project focuses on a strategic partnership between higher education institutions and will last for two years. The University of Iceland is the lead partner, with nine other universities participating in the project: The University of Copenhagen, Vilnius University, Tallinn University of Technology, University of St. Andrews, the University of Malta, Queen Mary University of London, University of Ljubljana, Lund University and Comenius University in Bratislava. The Centre for Small State Studies is run under the auspices of the Institute of International Affairs at the University of Iceland.
The primary objective of this partnership is to create a pan-European consortium of experts in small state studies that will train young teachers and researchers from International Relations and Political Science as well as other disciplines, such as Economics, Business, Public Administration and Law, in applying insights from small state studies to their research and teaching.
The kick-off meeting for the project was held at the Queen Mary University of London on February 7. As part of this project the partners will organize two summer academies in Reykjavík, and intensive study programs in Ljubljana and Vilnius. At the end of the project the consortium will have developed four new and innovative inter-disciplinary curricula in small state studies based on four teaching and research themes (TRT’s). TRT 1: Small states: Foreign policy and economic security; TRT 2: Small states addressing the migration crisis; TRT 3: Small states in international law; TRT 4: Small states and the challenges of good governance.
Pia Hansson, Director of the Centre for Small State Studies, Tómas Joensen, Project Manager at the Centre for Small State Studies and Baldur Þórhallsson, Professor of Political Science at the University of Iceland developed the project and are in charge of its implementation on behalf of the University of Iceland in cooperation with academics from the other nine universities.