Jakob Dreyer PhD defence - "Ideals worth sacrificing for? The changing European liberal order in a warring and warming world".

Activity: Examination and supervisionExternal Reviewer of PhD thesis/Opponent

Description

A series of contemporary predicaments linked to the crisis in the liberal international order, most importantly the war in Ukraine and global warming, challenge the post-Cold War European security order to an unprecedented degree. Contrary to the dominant position in the literature on the crisis of the liberal international order, this thesis finds that the predicaments do alter the European security order, but not in an illiberal direction. On the contrary, the war in Ukraine and global warming have, reinvigorated support for the European liberal project among decision-makers and citizens across Europe. But to tackle the predicaments, European decision-makers are formulating a more sceptical liberal order. Turning the sceptical liberal project into action across policy areas is dilemma-ridden for decision-makers as citizens are increasingly asked to accept personal sacrifices to face up to the challenges. If European decision-makers and citizens are unwilling to make such sacrifices, the sacrifices will be outsourced to other parts of the world and future generations. To make this argument the thesis studies the changing European security order across multiple actor perspectives; the theorist, the soldier, the decision-maker, the citizen, and the victim.

Assessment committee
Professor Rebecca Adler Nissen, University of Copenhagen (chair)
Professor Tarak Barkawi, Johns Hopkins University
Professor Ian Manners, Lund University
Period2024 May 27
Examinee/Supervised personJakob Dreyer
Examination/Supervision held at
  • University of Copenhagen: Department of Political Science
Degree of RecognitionNational

UKÄ subject classification

  • Political Science

Free keywords

  • International Liberal Order
  • European Security Order
  • European Union
  • Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • global warming
  • Common Security and Defence Policy
  • climate change
  • European Green Deal