Event Highlights: Financial Stability and Energy Security in the Americas and Europe – The Role of Transnational Policy Networks
This two-day international workshop was organised within the research project GR:EEN (Global Reordering: Evolution through European Networks) on February 14-15, 2013 with the aim of studying relations between the EU and regional Transnational Policy Networks (TPNs) in the Americas. TPNs are emerging as important elements of trans-state policymaking in the 21st century. In recent years, the ability of NGOs, transnational governance bodies and firms to shape world politics has steadily grown and an inquiry into their workings adds an informal, nongovernmental dimension to the debates on the interactions between the EU and other regions in the world.
The conference brought together policy makers and academics mainly working in the fields of energy security and financial stability. These two areas were chosen not only because they are key themes of the GR:EEN research project but also because they provide two salient and relevant lenses through which to understand the nature, dynamics and influence of TPNs.
Some of the focal issues under consideration:
- a) What are Transnational Policy Networks and what is their role? What are the methods TPNs use in the areas of energy security and financial stability?
- b) What are the relations between the European Union and TPNs in the Americas?
- c) What are the relationships between initiatives undertaken by TPNs and other cross-border cooperative instruments employed by state and private actors?
- d) How do TPNs in the Americas operate in ways that affect the functioning of the European Union in the areas of energy security and financial stability?
TPNs were not limited to non-state actors. The workshop also explored the workings of government networks including the dynamics within the folds of regulators, law makers and judges that operate and engage across borders.
Supported by Boston University’s Center for Finance, Law, and Policy and the European Commission’s Framework 7 Global Re-ordering: Evolution through European Networks (GR:EEN).
[Workshop website including panel descriptions and videos] [Download schedule] [Participant bios] [Report]