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Belgium: International Institutions and the Challenge of Globalization

Nels H. Granholm
Distinguished Professor of Biology
Coordinator of South Dakota State University’s Global Studies Program
South Dakota State University

The Brussels seminar was without a doubt one of the most informative and exciting educational experiences of my life. Part of that success was due to the quality of the seminar speakers, our comfortable learning facilities (Institute for European Studies at the Free University of Brussels), our associated outings to The Hague (ICTY and Peace Palace), Brugge, and to the Province of Brabant, and our spirited and informative discussions over delicious meals during the course of the Seminar. However, the majority of the success of this seminar is based on the extraordinary organizational skills and overall multidimensional expertise of Dr. Michelangelo van Meerten. I feel very privileged to be a part of this extraordinary learning experience. And, most importantly, my leaning will be translated into actions and other tangible results on the campus of South Dakota State University and elsewhere. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity.

How this experience will influence my future activities:

1. As Coordinator of SDSU’s Global Studies Program, I am responsible for advising all Global Studies majors and minors. All Global Studies Majors are required to complete a study abroad experience; my Brussels experience will allow me to provide key information on their study abroad component to countries of Europe (including Belgium and the other Low Countries) as potential locations for their required study abroad experience. Because of my knowledge of CIEE and the overall superb value and quality of CIEE in arranging semesters abroad, I will be pleased to direct students to CIEE institutions.
   
   
2. Modifying Previously Taught Courses: The information I learned in Brussels will be incorporated into my two core Global Studies courses. In addition to my personal notes from the seminar discussions we were also provided with texts containing journal reports or book chapters from a number of our speakers including Youri Devuyst, Jarrod Wiener, Kris Deschouwer, and Richard Lewis (“From Rome to the Hague” 2005 IPPR publication).
   
   
3. Developing New Course Offerings:
   
   a. Honors 303 – Colloquium in USA Foreign Policy. My Brussels experience will be most helpful in providing a distinctly European perspective controversial foreign policy issues.
   
   b. GLST/PHIL 399 – The Ethics of Globalization. This course will be international in scope since my colleague, Dr. Greg Peterson in the Philosophy and Religion Department of SDSU and as well as my Canadian colleague, Dr. Samantha Arnold (Politics Department, University of Winnipeg) will be team teaching this course between our two institutions. We’ll be devoting the entire semester to an exhaustive analysis of ethics and issues of globalization. This joint Canadian - USA venture will therefore represent an international exchange. We plan to discuss and deliberate on controversial international issues from BOTH Canadian and U.S.A. perspectives. Hopefully this Fall 2006 Canadian-USA joint teaching project will be the beginning of a serious and ongoing student/faculty exchange between our two countries.
   
   The information I learned in Brussels will be very beneficial if not critical to this interaction, i.e., Canada is more of a consensus-driven multilateral State (much more like the EU’s approach) than the USA; knowledge of how the EU views international events will be extremely helpful in our Canadian – USA student/faculty deliberations.
   
   
4. Internationalizing the SDSU Campus:
   
   a. SDSU has a “Globalization Requirement” for all students. Of the 56 courses that qualify, I teach or coordinate three of them – GLST 201, 401 (Global Studies I and II) and BIOL/PHIL 383 – Bioethics. Thus in all three of these courses, I will make use of the information I learned at the Brussels Seminar. Interestingly, in Bioethics this Fall, we plan on spending at least three weeks on global governance of environmental issues focusing on global warming; thus the highly productive discussion and textbook material of one of our Seminar speakers – Dr. Sebastian Oberthur (Academic Director of the Institute of European Studies) will be highly germane. The issues of global warming and adherence to the Kyoto Protocol are productive, even compelling examples of different (EU and member States of EU versus USA) policy approaches.
   
   b. I will most likely be asked to present discussions on my CIEE Brussels experience. These presentations as well as informal talks with students and faculty will also be of help in the overall internationalization of the SDSU campus.
   
   
5. Research Interests:
   
   Presently I am interested in three general areas of research: A) Ethics of globalization especially issues of equity, justice, and human rights, B) Effectiveness of grass roots programs like the USA Peace Corps in raising the standard of living in developing countries, and C) Concepts of global citizenship – what are the characters or traits of a true global citizen? What do presumed global citizens know and what are they doing with their knowledge? Based on my experiences at the Brussels Seminar, I am now in a better, more knowledgeable position to write with greater authority on these topics.
   
   
6. Opportunities for Collaboration:
   
   While in Brussels, our group was invited by Messrs. Anthony Antoine, Executive Director for the Institute of European Studies (VUB) and Jamie Shea, special advisor to the Secretary-General of NATO to consider official scholarly visits to IES or NATO. In addition, we learned about a number of other sources of potential collaboration from Seminar speakers as well as from Dr. van Meerten. Finally, our seven-member participant group had an excellent rapport with one another; we may develop some international collaborations as well.

In terms of my own professional interests as outlined above, the Seminar on “International Institutions and the Challenge of Globalization” was a compelling match. I plan to make use of the information I learned in Brussels to enrich the curriculum of the global studies, bioethics, and Honors College courses I teach, to lay groundwork for both student and faculty exchanges with European colleagues and institutions (especially those interested in the ethics of globalization), to provide greater depth, background, and meaning for my research, and to promote and strengthen internationalization and global awareness within international institutions at South Dakota State University, South Dakota Council of World Affairs (SDCWA), and others.