EU policy simulation: New dimensions of trade
Module: 4. Skills Workshop | 5. Professional Development
Abstract
This course teaches and trains basic negotiation, debating, critical and analytical skills and techniques. It does so while dealing with a critically important emerging policy issue: the EU’s policy responses to economic coercion, in a challenging geopolitical landscape. The aim is to make participants fit for negotiations, debates and high-level discussions in their future professional environments. We adopt a dynamic, participant-focused approach, by combining workshops with practical exercises under the umbrella of a European Union (EU) Policy Simulation.
The first part of the course serves as an overview of the EU’s apparatus (such as the roles and powers of the main institutions, the limitations and challenges of the EU) and workshops on the weaponisation of trade for geopolitical purposes. The second part of the course is a pedagogical exercise which provides an opportunity for students to experience the highest level of crisis management from the perspective of the EU. Participants will get to experience multiple roles at a European level. They will need to design policy recommendations from the standpoint of relevant European stakeholders, in light of an international trade-centered crisis. Furthermore, students will get to experiment with the emerging concept of the EU’s Anti-Coercion Instrument (ACI) as well as use creative and critical thinking to explore hypothetical scenarios for the development of an EU Anti-Coercion Strategy.
Examining a topic from different perspectives via simulation methodology provides a dynamic learning experience which enables participants to hone their analytical skills. In this simulation, participants will:
• Develop an understanding of the weaponisation of trade and its challenges.
• Successfully be able to produce recommendations for tackling complex policy challenges.
• Gain a more holistic understanding of the EU bodies and their policymaking tools and capabilities.
• Enhance confidence in their capabilities to operate in complex multi-faceted environments involving a wide variety of stakeholders.
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