ESF Research Conferences

ESF-LiU Conference

REFORMING THE EUROPEAN STATE SYSTEM IN THE LONG EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

Chaired by

KoenStapelbroekE-Mail

Erasmus University RotterdamFaculty of Social SciencesDepartment of public administrationRotterdamNetherlands

http://www.eur.nl/fsw/english/

Dates

10 - 14 September 2008

Location

Klosterhotel, Vadstena, Sweden
The conference will take place at Klosterhotel in Vadstena, Sweden. Vadstena is located in the south-eastern province of Östergötland, in a lovely natural setting on the shores of beautiful Lake Vättern, offering comfortable accommodation in a historic environment. During the Middle Ages, Vadstena was the location of a catholic monastery for monks and nuns of the Birgittine order and nowadays the conference center and hotel is largely located in the same medieval buildings that were once the monastery. With 5 600 inhabitants, Vadstena is 45 km from Linköping and 330 km from Stockholm. Group transportation will be arranged from/to Linköping airport, via Linköping train station, on arrival and departure days.

 

Final Programme & List of Accepted Participants

© Amsterdam University Library, Special Collections Library

The idea of a united Europe was by no means unknown in the eighteenth century. It is rather the case that different models for how to unite Europe were played out with such great sophistication and over such a wide terrain of ‘disciplines’ that the centrality of the issue of repairing a divided Europe, nowadays, is not always immediately clear.

During the entire eighteenth century, statesmen, diplomats, pamphleteers and intellectuals across Europe engaged in a major debate on the regulation of international politics. The rise of foreign trade since the late seventeenth century had complicated the Westphalia system of balancing powers, which appeared to have reached its limits for containing all-out warfare. Economic and military competition between Europe's dominant states persistently affected the potential of neutral states of realising their own commercial and political objectives. Within this context, an enormously rich debate about the future of the European State System emerged that absorbed all the political, moral and legal issues of earlier times. Across Europe scholars discussed the same issues, and not in isolation but through trans-national networks.

The purpose of this conference is to recapture the original dimensions of rival eighteenth-century visions of the past, present and future problem of European interstate politics. The participants will discuss questions such as: How did eighteenth-century scholars apply the great tradition of natural law to deal with the future of Europe? Which different sources of sociability and commercial morality were taken to be the appropriate means for building up a stable system of economically interconnected nation-states? How did different views of ‘decline’ of dominant states guide the perception of the development of wealth and power in the international realm? How did debates on tax innovation, finance and overseas trade and colonialism represent the main dividing lines within European political thought?

Through asking these questions, traditional historiographical categories like mercantilism and liberalism, and themes like the end of the ancièn regime, secularisation and the relation between Enlightenment and Revolution are suspended. They are replaced with a fresh outlook on schemes of cooperative regulation in international affairs (the ‘Concert of Europe’ and ‘Perpetual Peace’) and envisaged mechanisms of the Balance of Power and Armed Neutrality. Thus, the speakers at this conference address the longstanding debate on ‘small states’ and European integration and answers questions about the politics of globalisation. Drawing on a historical-political background that reaches deep into the eighteenth century, they seek to revive traditional perceptions in order to better understand the challenges of present-day European foreign policy and economic development.

• Session 1: Small states and empires in the long eighteenth century
• Session 2: Nordic political economy and the future of Europe
• Session 3: Justice, law and war and the idea of a «Jus publicum europaeum»
• Session 4: Vattel and the foundations of international law
• Session 5: The rise of modern diplomacy 1714-1814

Invited graduate students and young scholars working on related topics will be given the opportunity to present their work during poster sessions.

The conference will offer the opportunity for junior and senior academics to meet and network in an informal atmosphere.

Abstracts, Posters & Short Oral Contributions

There will be no short talks other than those listed on the final programme. All other abstracts are accepted for poster presentation.

The list of posters is now available PDF (115 Kb)

Recommended poster size is 100 cm high x 70 cm wide. Use letters and drawings that can be read from approximately 100 cm distance.

Group Transportation & Practical Information Guide

Detailed information on all practical aspects of the conference (access to site, registration & fee payments, accommodation, travel reimbursements...) is available from the Practical Information Guide. Please read it fully and carefully...

GROUP TRANSPORTATION
Two buses will be arranged on arrival day, Wednesday 10 September, from Linköping to Vadstena as follows. The journey takes about 45 minutes.

Bus number 1 from Linköping airport, via Linköping train station:
Departure Linköping airport: 16.00 hrs
Departure Linköping train station: 16.30 hrs

Bus number 2 from Linköping airport only (no stop at train station):
Departure Linköping airport: 23.00 hrs upon arrival of KLM flight from Amsterdam

Airport departure point: the meeting point is located just outside the small airport building. The coaches will have a sign in the window indicating “ESF Research Conferences” for easy recognition.
Train station departure point: the meeting point is located in the long distance bus terminal of the station. From the exit of the main building of the railway station, it is approximately 300 metres to the right.

Group transportation back to Linköping will be arranged in a similar way for the departure day. Bus departure time on Sunday 14 September: 9.30 am (to Linköping train station and airport).

ACCOMMODATION
Please note that SINGLE accommodation can only be guaranteed to invited speakers. All other participants will have to share a TWIN room. In case single rooms would become available at the time of the conference, rooms will be attributed on a “first come, first served” basis. Only the TWIN conference fee (EUR 730) should be paid to the ESF when registering. The supplement for single (EUR 150) should be paid to Vadstena Klosterhotel. Should you wish to be put on the waiting list for single accommodation, please contact Ms Chiara Orefice

Conference Fees

Registration Form

For accepted participants and invited speakers only

All participants - including speakers & session chairs - are kindly expected to confirm their attendance (and, when applicable, to pay the conference fee) by filling in a Registration Form.
Closing date for registration & fee payment: 10 August 2008

Application Form

For new applicants only

If your name does not appear on the list of accepted participants above, please fill in an Application Form 

Please note that no more grants are available. New applicants need to have their own funding to attend the meeting.

ESF Contact

ChiaraOreficeE-Mail

European Science FoundationESF Conferences UnitBrusselsBelgium

Phone: +32 (0)2 533 2023
Fax: +32 (0)2 538 8486
Please quote 08-259 in any correspondence.

Partnership

This conference is organised by the European Science Foundation (ESF) in partnership with Linköping University.

With Support from

Links of interest

• CORDIS, the Community Research and Development Service, offers a gateway to the Seventh Framework Programme, with news, upcoming events, guidance and frequently asked questions to assist users to understand what FP7 is, who can participate in it and who takes decisions on the allocation of the budget to the research projects that will be funded.

CORDIS is a free service provided by the Publications Office of the EU.

• Second European Congress in World and Global History World Orders in Global History 3-5 July 2008 - Dresden, Germany. Recent years have seen increasing scholarly interest in world orders, i.e. in general patterns and coordinates emerging from the conditions of an entangled and globalized world. The fruitful differences in the ways in which scholars approach and understand world orders are underpinned by the shared observation that the multifold linkages and networks, the connections and mutual influences across the world, both create and are shaped by specific sets of power relations, institutions and ideas. So far this research emphasis has been particularly strong in the Anglo-American context, whereas European scholars have rather reluctantly approached this area. Therefore the second European Congress in World and Global History seeks to bring these potentials together and to discuss their empirical results, focusing on issues of enforcements and contestations of world orders in economic, social, political and cultural spheres. The congress is organized by the European Network in Universal and Global History.

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