European Affairs in a Global Context

The European Affairs program – now in its seventh year – is an exciting opportunity for students who wish to acquire in-depth knowledge of European history, political geography, institutions and culture over the past two centuries. In the Fall semester of 2026 the plan is to focus on Poland, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey among other countries.

Who is this program for?

The European Affairs program is designed for those students at Virginia Tech who are getting serious about leveraging the skills they are building in their majors toward a career or an advanced degree. In a word, the program explores Europe’s political and economic rise in the nineteenth century, its collapse in the twentieth century, and the remarkable story of Europe’s rebuilding after the Second World War. If the program enjoys a single focus, it is Europe’s remarkable achievements since World War Two. Europe is many things, but we should not forget seventy-five years of work to build institutions that are grounded in Western values – human rights, the rule of law, separation of powers, independent judiciaries, property rights, open market economies and much more. Europeans and others in the West sometimes need reminding that these institutions and values are an achievement, and should not be taken for granted. 

The program also examines socio-economic and political stress fractures that are emerging in Europe today. It gives students resources for studying, for instance, the causes of inequality and anti-immigrant sentiments, the rise of the far-right, political strains caused by the welfare state (Europe accounts for almost half of all global social spending), and the task of maintaining a single monetary union. Moreover, because Europe is not an island – it’s not even a continent – the program considers Europe’s relations with the U.S., and with Russia and China.

The Mediterranean region remains a focus of the European Affairs program. Greece and The Republic of Cyprus are part of Europe – both countries are in the EU and use the euro, and their ties to Europe run deep. Greece is a member of NATO, as is Turkey. Other countries of North Africa and the Levant – what is sometimes called the MENA region – also figure prominently in our consideration of Mediterranean politics.

Such regions and questions frame the places, events, institutions and transformations we will explore in 2026. Students will do this through inquires that address history, political economy and political culture (including Europe’s major artistic movements), as well as Western values (the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, for examples) in the context of substantial geopolitical transformations – e.g., the Concert of Europe, the collapse of Europe’s and Eurasia’s land empires, the two World Wars, the interwar period, the Cold War, and the post-Cold War era.

Based at the Steger Center in the southern Swiss canton of Ticino, the European Affairs program takes advantage of an idyllic setting conducive to seminar-style study and instruction and faculty mentoring of independent research projects.

Alumni of the program have gone on to study politics, law and international relations at such institutions as the London School of Economics and Political Science, UVA, VT, Georgetown, George Washington, the University College of Dublin, George Mason, Columbia, Loyola Law School, the University of Memphis Law School and the University of Denver. Recent graduates have been employed at Deloitte, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers, and several have joined the US Department of State and the US Peace Corps.

Required Courses and Class Schedule for Fall 2026:

ITAL 1105: Elementary Italian (or above) – Tuesdays and Thursdays

IS/PSCI 3116: Selected World Problems – Mondays and Wednesdays

IS/PSCI 3515: The Politics of Eastern and Central Europe, Mondays and Wednesdays

IS/PSCI 3854: European Political Economy – Mondays through Thursdays, 24 August through

17 September, and 3 November – 3 December

IS 4104: Topics in European Studies: Cyprus, Greece and Turkey – Mondays through

Thursdays, 1:30-3:30: 28 September – 19 October

Optional course: PSCI 2054C, a one-credit Pathways Course: TBA

Excursion Schedule:

Excursion 1:  19-27 September: Warsaw and Kraków

Excursion 2:  22 October – 1 November: Cyprus and Greece

Excursion 3:  21-25 November: Istanbul

Good weekends for students’ independent travel: 

28-30 August

4-6 September

2-4 October

9-11 October

6-8 November

13-15 November