Skip to main content

Phinnemore

David Phinnemore

Professor David Phinnemore

Professor of European Politics
Jean Monnet Chair in European Political Science
Visiting Professor, College of Europe, Bruges
(PhD Kent)

Convenor, MA in European Union Politics

Director of Postgraduate Research Students

Contact Details Room 024.01.004
tel: +44 (0) 28 9097 3744                                 
email: d.phinnemore@qub.ac.uk

Teaching Areas

My teaching interests are focused on contemporary European politics and especially the politics of the European Union and EU enlargement. I currently convene and teach the following modules:

  • Contemporary Europe (PAI1001) – first year undergraduate module
  • The European Union, Enlargement and the Wider Europe (PAI3024) – final year undergraduate module
  • The European Union: History, Institutions and Theory (PAI9040) – core postgraduate module

 

I am also a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium where I teach on EU Enlargement as part of the MA in EU International Relations and Diplomacy.

Research Supervision

I am interested in supervising PhD students investigating various aspects of European politics, most notably relating to the EU, its enlargements (past and present), its external relations (e.g. the European Neighbourhood Policy, the European Economic Area, EU-Swiss relations), and its institutional and constitutional development (e.g EU treaty reform). I am also interested in supervising students working on the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union.

Current and recent thesis topics supervised include: Romania, Turkey and the European Union; Europeanization and environmental policy-making in Central and Eastern Europe; Kaliningrad and Europeanization; small states in the Common Foreign and Security Policy; Ukraine and Moldova between the EU and Russia; the influence of international politics on the meaning of norms; anti-corruption networks in Russia.

Research Interests

My main research interests cover three broad areas:
 
The institutional and constitutional development of the European, notably EU treaty negotiations and reform: research focuses on the negotiation of successive treaties since the Treaties of Rome and the impact that later treaties – such as the Treaty of Nice or the Treaty of Lisbon – have had on the structure and content of the EU's treaty base.
 
EU enlargement: the interest here is primarily on the historical and contemporary evolution of the dynamics of enlargement and how these have affected and affect the membership prospects of applicant and candidate countries. The research considers the interrelated roles and evolution of member state interests, institutional activism, conditionality, narratives of enlargement and public opinion. Past research has focused in particular on the Romanian case. Current research considers, in comparative perspective, the positions of Turkey and the countries in South-Eastern Europe within the EU enlargement process as well as the prospects for other current (e.g. Iceland) and would-be applicants (e.g. Moldova, Ukraine).
 
EU external relations: research is concerned notably with the different forms of relations (especially association) that the EU has created (e.g. European Economic Area, Stabilization and Association Agreements, EU-Swiss bilaterals) and is creating with European non-member states (e.g. Moldova, Ukraine) and how these have contributed to the accession, where desired, of the non-member state. The research focuses on historical and contemporary cases. It considers too the viability of various forms of relations as alternatives to membership.

See below for selected publications

Administrative Responsibilities

Director of Postgraduate Research Students (2009-);  Teaching Assistant Coordinator (2009-); Director of Education (2005-07; 2008-09)

Professional Activities

I am an active member and former (2005-2008) elected committee member of the University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES), the UK’s professional body for those involved in teaching and research in the area of European Studies. I was from 2001-2005 the association's treasurer. I currently chair the UK Selection Committee for the College of Europe (http://www.uaces.org/students/coleurop/).

I am a member of the editorial board of the Routledge/UACES Contemporary European Studies book series as well as the journal Perspectives on European Politics and Society

I have been an Associate Fellow with the European Programme at Chatham House (2004-2007).

During 2010-11 I was seconded to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office  as a Senior Research Analyst specializing on European Union matters.

I have been external examiner for PhDs at the Universities of Birmingham, Cambridge, Limerick, Wales Aberystwyth, and West of England as well as University College Dublin. I have also been external examiner for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes at the School of Politics and International Studies at the University of Leeds. 

I am a member of the Peer Review College of the Economic and Social Research Council, a reviewer for the European Science Foundation, and currently external examiner for the University of Manchester  and the National University of Ireland.

Selected Recent and Forthcoming Publications

  •  The Treaty of Lisbon: From Conception to Implementation (Basingstoke: Palgrave, forthcoming)
  • ‘Romania – Uneven Europeanization’, in Bulmer, S. and Lequesne, C. (eds), The Member States of the European Union, 2nd edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming) (with Dimitris Papadimitriou)
  • ‘The Stabilization and Association Process: a Framework for European Union Enlargement?’, in Elbasani, A. (ed) European Integration and the Western Balkans: European Enlargement, Domestic Challenges and Institutional Challenges  (London: Routledge, forthcoming)
  • The European Union’s 2007 Enlargement (London: Routledge, 2011) (edited with Cristina Chiva)
  •  ‘Continuity and Change in the European Union’s Approach to Enlargement: Turkey and Central and Eastern Europe compared’, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 10 (2) 2010, 207-223 (with Erhan Içener and Dimitris Papadimitriou)
  •   ‘And We’d Like to Thank…: Romania’s Integration into the European Union, 1989-2007’, Journal of European Integration, 32 (3) 2010, 291-308
  • ‘The United Kingdom: Red Lines Defended, in Carbone, M. (ed), National Politics and European Integration: From the Constitution to the Lisbon Treaty (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar,  2010), pp. 71-89 (with Neill Nugent)
  • ‘From Negotiations to Accession: Lessons from the 2007 Enlargement’, Perspectives on European Politics and Society, 10 (2) 2009, 240-53
  • Reflections on European Integration: 50 Years of the Treaty of Rome (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009) (edited with Alex Warleigh-Lack)
  • Romania and the European Union: From marginalization to membership (London: Routledge, 2008) (with Dimitris Papadimitriou) – winner of the 2009 Best Book Prize  of the Political Studies Association of Ireland.
  • The EU and Romania (London: Federal Trust, 2006) (editor)
  • 'Beyond 25 - The Changing Face of EU Enlargement: Commitment, Conditionality and the Constitutional Treaty', Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans,8 (1) 2006, 7-26
  • ‘Towards European union’, in Cini, M. (ed), European Union Politics 2nd edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 30-45
  • ‘The Rise and Fall of the Constitutional Treaty’, in Cini, M. (ed), European Union Politics 2nd edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 46-65 (with Clive H. Church)
  • Understanding the European Constitution: An Introduction to the EU Constitutional Treaty (London: Routledge, 2005) (with Clive H. Church)
  • The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe: An Overview, Royal Institute of International Affairs – European Programme, Briefing Note 04-01, June 2004
  • ‘Europeanisation, Conditionality and Domestic Change: The Twinning Exercise and Administrative Reform in Romania’, Journal of Common Market Studies, 42 (3) 2004, 619-39 (with Dimitris Papadimitriou)
  • ‘Stabilisation and Association Agreements: Europe Agreements for the Western Balkans?’, European Foreign Affairs Review, 8 (1) 2003, 77-103
  • ‘Mettre en Œuvre les Jumelages Institutionnels: les leçons du cas roumain’, Revue d’Etudes Comparatives Est-Ouest, 34 (4) 2003, 65-83 (with Dimitris Papadimitriou)
  • 'Exporting Europeanisation to the Wider Europe: the Twinning Exercise and Administrative Reform in the Candidate Countries and Beyond’, Journal of Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 3 (2) 2003, 1-22 (with Dimitris Papadimitriou)
  • The Penguin Guide to the European Treaties (London: Penguin, 2002) with Clive H. Church