The Middelburg Center for Transatlantic Studies (MCTS) has issued a call for papers for its fifth biennial conference on Transatlantic Studies entitled, "The Obama Effect: Transatlantic Perspectives Past and Future." The Conference will be held October 27-30, 2010, at the MCTS and the Roosevelt Study Center (RSC) in Middelburg, The Netherlands.  

Confirmed plenary session speakers will include Scott Lucas, Jamie Shea and Marcel Wissenburg.

Organizing institutions include the Middelburg Center for Transatlantic Studies and the Roosevelt Studies Center, with support from the University of Central Missouri, USA, the University of South Dakota, USA, and the Roosevelt Academy, NL.

Call for Papers
The Obama Effect: Transatlantic Perspectives Past and Future
MCTS / RSC Conference
Middelburg, 27-30 October 2010 (NOTE CHANGE OF DATES FROM PREVIOUS CALL)

Since the end of the Cold War the transatlantic relationship has come under some strain. The loss of a common enemy in the Soviet Union has raised the profile of economic and political disputes rather than common ground. 9/11, Madrid, and London have demonstrated a terrorist threat and led to greater levels of security cooperation, but this has not fed into bringing Americans and Europeans closer together culturally or psychologically. The two terms of President George W. Bush seemed to indicate at best a sense of ‘transatlantic drift’ and at worst a growing divergence of interests and attitudes on both sides of the Atlantic. Both Europe (‘old’ and ‘new’) and North America (United States, Canada, and Mexico) were divided on major issues of foreign policy and future direction. Issues demanding cooperative effort were left unresolved: nuclear proliferation, climate change, conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the challenge of global capitalism to popular government, and competition for energy resources. The relevancy and efficacy of existing cooperative arrangements were openly challenged: the Convention Against Torture, the Geneva Conventions, the International Criminal Court, indeed the UN system itself.In the face of this, the election of Obama means for many an era of renewed discourse on a range of topics—such as human rights, the rule of law, and social religious and racial tolerance—that promise to enhance the transatlantic relationship.

With this in the background, this conference seeks to explore both the past and the future of the transatlantic relationship by using the election of President Obama as a potential turning point in North American-European relations.

On a small scale, what does Obama mean for transatlantic relations in the political, security, economic, and cultural realms?

On a larger scale, how should we understand the meaning of the Obama administration within two decades of transatlantic relations since the end of the Cold War?

Taking a longer perspective, which historical precedents from the twentieth century can help us frame our understanding of political transitions as that represented by Obama?

While the conference will focus on the post-Cold War period, papers, poster sessions, and panels related to the above background issues and themes are welcome that

1. develop historically-based arguments;
2. concentrate on examining and tracking bilateral transatlantic relations;
3. compare the different forms that US military, political, economic, legal, and cultural influence takes (and has taken) abroad, be it as a decisive factor or only as a contribution to driving change elsewhere;
4. investigate specific themes over time that have had differing impacts and drawn differing responses from various nations in the region.

The conference welcomes post-graduate students as well as more established scholars, and aims to be a forum for disciplines ranging across the social sciences and the arts.

Submit proposals online at www.transatlanticstudies.org. Each submission should include a 500-word proposal of the paper that is to be considered for presentation and a 200-word biographical sketch of the author(s), along with other relevant information included on the submission form.

The deadline for submitting proposals is 1 April 2010. Rolling acceptance will be practiced, but authors will be notified the status of their proposal no later than 1 May 2010. Updated information will be available at the conference website. The lingua franca of the conference is English.

Along with the presentation of accepted papers, the conference will feature speakers representing diverse views of transatlantic studies and relations.

Organizing institutions include the Middelburg Center for Transatlantic Studies; Roosevelt Study Center, NL; University of Central Missouri, USA; and, the University of South Dakota, USA. Support for the Conference also comes from the Roosevelt Academy, NL. For additional information contact Prof. Don Wallace at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  , or Prof. Scott-Smith available at g.scott-smith@zeeland.nl or see the conference website at www.transatlanticstudies.org.