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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250403T180000
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UID:5407-1743703200-1743706800@www.scrippscollege.edu
SUMMARY:2025 URCEU: Will Europe Meet This Moment?
DESCRIPTION:Europe has awoken to a stark new geopolitical reality. The post-Cold War era of European integration\, transatlantic cooperation\, and benign globalization is gone. For over three years Russia has waged a brutal war against an EU aspirant country\, committing heinous war crimes and crimes against humanity. China lurks in the shadows while it props up the Kremlin\, manipulates markets\, and exploits economic dependencies. The lynchpin of European security\, the United States\, suddenly appears willing to walk away from its collective defense commitments and threatens Europe with a trade war. Meanwhile\, internal challenges like oligarchic populism\, de-industrialization\, and over-regulation keep holding Europe back. Can European leaders muster the political will to address today’s internal and geopolitical challenges? And what will it take for them to do so? \nABOUT THE SPEAKER; Ambassador Michael Carpenter served in the Biden administration as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Europe at the National Security Council. From 2021-24\, he was the U.S. Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)\, the world’s largest regional security organization representing over a billion people across 57 countries. For that role\, he was confirmed by the United States Senate by unanimous consent. Previously Ambassador Carpenter was Senior Director and then Managing Director of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement at the University of Pennsylvania. In the Obama administration\, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia\, Ukraine\, Eurasia\, and Conventional Arms Control. He also worked as a Special Advisor to the Vice President and as Director for Russia at the National Security Council. Before that Carpenter was a career Foreign Service Officer with the State Department. He served overseas in the U.S. Embassies in Poland\, Slovenia\, and Barbados as well as in Washington. Carpenter received four Superior Honor Awards and three Meritorious Honor Awards from the State Department. He has also received fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation\, the International Research & Exchanges Board\, the American Council of Learned Societies\, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Ambassador Carpenter holds a B.A. in International Relations from Stanford University a M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley. \nRSVP HERE 
URL:https://www.scrippscollege.edu/eucenter/event/2025-urceu-will-europe-meet-this-moment
LOCATION:Hampton Room\, Scripps College
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.scrippscollege.edu/eucenter/wp-content/uploads/sites/73/2025/03/2025-URCEU-Program-Keynote-1-scaled.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="EU Center":MAILTO:eucenter@scrippscollege.edu
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250404T121500
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250404T131500
DTSTAMP:20260614T141946
CREATED:20250325T210148Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250325T210148Z
UID:5410-1743768900-1743772500@www.scrippscollege.edu
SUMMARY:2025 URCEU: Never Waste a Crisis: How the EU Uses its Digital Policies to Become More Innovative\, Competitive and Safe
DESCRIPTION:The European Union was born out of a crisis. After WWII\, six countries agreed to pull together coal and steel procurement to make war between them “not merely unthinkable\, but materially impossible”. 70 years later\, the European Union pulled together procurement of vaccines to address the pandemic\, and introduced the digital Covid certificate that revolutionised travelling across the EU 27 member states. The EU Single Market rules removed obstacles to the circulation of people\, goods\, services and capital\, allowing businesses to operate more efficiently across national borders. This not only increased consumer choice and lowered prices\, but also improved consumer protection\, ensuring safer and higher-quality goods for all European citizens. With the unprecedented speed of technology developments in the last two decades\, business and communications between people have shifted online\, sparking tremendous opportunity growth while also increasing risks. To help harness opportunities and foster innovation while protecting the fundamental rights of people\, the EU devised a digital policy strategy with one consistent set of rules for 27 countries to allow companies to scale-up easier across the EU. The Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act aim to create a safer online environment\, bring more transparency and accountability\, and foster competition in the digital market\, opening up opportunities for smaller companies. The recently signed EU AI Act governs artificial intelligence systems\, prioritizing ethics and trustworthiness. To boost AI innovation\, the EU is investing in supercomputers and established AI factories\, providing researchers and companies access to compute power and data. And somehow\, when you ask people about the EU\, the narrative that Europe is held back by its “over-regulation” still prevails. Will the EU digital policies be enough to help its companies thrive? How can it leverage its strengths to create a unique value proposition in the global tech landscape? \nABOUT THE SPEAKER; Joanna Smolinska is Counsellor for Digital and Deputy Head of the EU Office in San Francisco. She focuses on AI policy and regulation\, online content moderation\, policies promoting digital markets openness and innovation in the context of transatlantic relations\, forging cooperation with California civil society\, business\, academia and government. Before coming to SF\, she had worked for 15 years in the European Commission in Brussels across a wide range of policy areas\, including digital and green transformation\, digital services and copyright regulations\, tech standardization\, blockchain\, and technology start-ups/scale-ups. She was actively involved in the development of the EU Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act. Of Polish nationality\, Joanna graduated from Warsaw School of Economics\, holds a Master’s Degree in Finance from the University of Geneva\, and a Master’s Degree in European Law and Economic Analysis from the College of Europe in Bruges\, Belgium. Joanna is also a Non-resident Fellow with the Transatlantic Leadership Program and the Digital Innovation Initiative at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) and a Tech Policy Fellow of the 2024-25 cohort at UC Berkeley. \nRSVP HERE
URL:https://www.scrippscollege.edu/eucenter/event/2025-urceu-never-waste-a-crisis-how-the-eu-uses-its-digital-policies-to-become-more-innovative-competitive-and-safe
LOCATION:Hampton Room\, Scripps College
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.scrippscollege.edu/eucenter/wp-content/uploads/sites/73/2025/03/2025-URCEU-Program-Keynote-2-scaled.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="EU Center":MAILTO:eucenter@scrippscollege.edu
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250416T121500
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250416T131500
DTSTAMP:20260614T141946
CREATED:20250408T205448Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250528T023218Z
UID:5421-1744805700-1744809300@www.scrippscollege.edu
SUMMARY:Understanding Georgia's Ongoing Protests
DESCRIPTION:Since late 2024\, Georgia has experienced significant social and political unrest\, marked by persistent street protests. For over four months\, Georgians have been taking to the streets daily demanding snap elections. The protests erupted following the ruling Georgian Dream party’s announcement to suspend European Union accession talks until 2028\, a move that contradicted public aspirations for closer ties with the West. In response\, the government has enacted repressive laws and employed excessive force against demonstrators\, leading to widespread human rights concerns. The authorities in Georgia continue to arrest protesters\, imposing harsh sentences\, and enacting laws to increase penalties for protest-related offenses. Reports from human rights organizations detail instances of police brutality\, including beatings and torture of detainees\, as well as the levying of substantial fines against demonstrators. Ms. Chkhikvadze has been covering the protests and following the events closely. She will speak about the underlying causes behind the turmoil in Georgia\, including concerns about democracy\, human rights\, and Russian influence. She will discuss what these protests signify for Georgia’s democratic future and geopolitical positioning. \nABOUT THE SPEAKER; Ani Chkhikvadze is a journalist reporting on international politics\, security\, and U.S. foreign policy\, specializing in European and Eurasian affairs. Her extensive coverage of geopolitical developments has appeared in The Foreign Policy Magazine\, The Washington Post\, The Spectator\, and The Free Press. Ms. Chkhikvadze spent eight years at Voice of America’s Georgian Service in Washington\, D.C.\, reporting extensively on U.S. foreign policy\, transatlantic relations\, wider European affairs\, and developments in the Caucasus and Georgia. Ms. Chkhikvadze holds a master’s degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and is fluent in Georgian and Russian.
URL:https://www.scrippscollege.edu/eucenter/event/understanding-georgias-ongoing-protests
LOCATION:Humanities Museum (HUM 225)
ORGANIZER;CN="EU Center":MAILTO:eucenter@scrippscollege.edu
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