Eurasia as Geopolitics
At the Parthenon, Athens, October 2022
Professors Nelson and Stivachtis, Calypso Taverna, Athens, October 2021
Hagia Sophia, presently a Mosque, Istanbul, November 2022
United Nations Buffer Zone, Nicosia, Cyprus, with the Lydra Palace in background
Poseidon Temple, near Athens, Greece
Taksim Mosque, Taksim Square, Istanbul, November 2022
The Department of Political Science and the International Studies Program are excited to launch a new study abroad program – Eurasia as Geopolitics. This program, which will be based in Athens, Greece, is offered under the auspices of Virginia Tech’s Center for European Union, Transatlantic and Trans-European Space Studies.
Eurasia as Geopolitics is a semester-long experiential learning program that will begin in the spring of 2024. The program involves five Virginia Tech courses – IS/PSCI 3115, 3626, 3844, 4024, 4994 – and features several week-long excursions to East and Central European cities, including Budapest, Tbilisi, Warsaw, and Istanbul.
The Eurasia as Geopolitics program is designed to explore the histories, economies, cultures and geopolitical forces within and among the territories, empires, nations and peoples of the vast Eurasian region. This region is usually defined as the great expanse of territory between Germany and Japan. The program will enable students to carve out a specialization that is increasingly in demand in national governments, international institutions as well as in NGO, think tank and research communities.
Athens provides an excellent location for this program due to its close proximity to Turkey and much of Central Europe and southern Eurasia. Program co-directors and Political Science professors Scott Nelson and Yannis Stivachtis have teamed up with Athens-based organizations RIEAS and ATINER to provide a home base for us in the seaside town of Glyfada, which is located just 20 minutes from the Athens city center and is easily reached by tram. Students will enjoy easy access to the Athens airport, one of Europe’s finest hubs for air travel with many European and Eurasian destinations accessible via daily nonstop flights.
Not to be confused with the European Affairs in a Global Context program – which is based at the Virginia Tech Steger Center in Switzerland and is offered in the fall semester – the Eurasia as Geopolitics program focuses on a region in which American students are not generally well versed. Political, economic and cultural dynamics that emanate from Russia, the Soviet and post-Soviet worlds, all the way to inner Mongolia, the regions of Central and Southwest Asia, and the Indian subcontinent will be examined in historical and comparative perspective. Historical dimensions of the Eurasian worlds the program will explore stretch back as far as early Byzantium (3rd century AD), the Ottoman epoch (1453-1919), and will include the Cold War era as well as the post-Soviet period.
As an experiential learning and research program that leverages the new programmatic initiative of Virginia Tech’s Center for European Union, Transatlantic and Trans-European Space Studies, the Eurasia as Geopolitics program should be attractive to students in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, though it is open to all Virginia Tech students.