Welcome to a blog devoted to the Political Science and International Studies Program’s fall study abroad program.
Yannis, Aislinn, and I thought it would be a good idea to create a space featuring brief posts about the Political Science Department and International Studies Program’s European Affairs in a Global Context fall study abroad program. The purpose is to give students and parents information about the program, as well as opportunities for us, the faculty leaders, to provide commentaries on current events bearing on the subjects we will be exploring throughout the fall semester.
Because this program features excursions to several European countries, we think it makes sense to chronicle some important developments — political, economic, and cultural — in the countries we will be visiting, and to provide some suggestions for further reading on issues that will figure prominently on our trips.
What follows, then, is a bit of history about this program as well as commentaries, and some links to news stories, that we would like to highlight as we prepare to return to Virginia Tech’s Steger Center in Switzerland in the fall of 2021.
We’ll keep these blog posts fairly short, and hopefully they’ll prove to be informative. We hope you enjoy this opportunity to explore European politics, culture, and political economy with us.
As we write this – in late December of 2021 – it is especially satisfying to record our plans for the fall of 2022. The reason is that these plans are being laid after some exceptional experiences in Europe this past fall.
Scott Nelson
Yannis Stivachtis
For starters we are delighted to report that none of us – faculty and students – were afflicted with COVID-19. To wit, the risks associated with the pandemic in Europe did not in the least define our semester at the Steger Center; neither did they impact the program’s excursions. With considerable help from our colleagues in the Global Education Office, we planned ahead. We took the necessary precautions. We reminded ourselves frequently that in spite of our vaccination status, the public health risks were real, and we needed to be extra careful. And we were. And we are thrilled to report that we all stayed safe.
Wine festival in Lausanne
The emergence of the Omicron variant is naturally figuring in our thinking about the fall of 2022. We will continue to be vigilant in our planning, to be sure. We will again require vaccinations and boosters for all program participants. We will monitor the public health situation in the cities and countries we plan to visit – more on those destinations below. We are optimistic that we can once again enjoy safe travel in Europe over the course of the fall 2022 semester.
It is now generally accepted that COVID-19 will be with the world for some time. Emerging strains of the virus will in all likelihood continue to make foreign travel challenging. All of us became accustomed to filling out the health documents when we traveled within Europe, and we also enjoyed the privilege of the Swiss Health Pass. Still, we were all too aware that the virus was present in Canton Ticino and in all of the places we visited. Hence, the below should be read with this “new normal” in mind.
Some might say we were just lucky this past fall. Perhaps we were. But from our perspective (as faculty leaders), all of the students understood the importance of masking, social distancing, eating outdoors, and reporting to one another and to us any health setback they experienced (there were three or four head colds, but all COVID tests we took were negative).
On to happier topics . . .
Before we get to our plans for this coming fall, a few pictures are in order.
Ellie, Andrea, Destiny, and Krystal in Marathon
This is among Scott’s favorite pictures from the fall of 2021. He often tried to capture moments just before the students would pose for the shutter. This one shows Ellie, Destiny, Andrea and Krystal in Marathon, Greece, following a delicious seaside lunch. If memory serves, the laughter was provoked by Caroline (who managed to duck out of the frame just in time).
Yannis, Caroline, and Joseph Joseph in Nicosia
This picture was taken at dinner with Joseph Joseph in Nicosia, Cyprus. Joseph is an old pal of Yannis’s – a Professor Emeritus at the University of Cyprus, and former Ambassador of Cyprus to the United States. Joseph’s soft-spoken voice was perfectly matched by his adoring eyes, his generous smile and his illuminating stories about his upbringing in a poor household in eastern Cyprus. This would have been well before the island’s independence, before the ethnic tensions of the 1960s, and before the Turkish invasions of 1974.
Those invasions left many parts of the island virtually uninhabited, and some completely uninhabited. The below pictures shows the sprawling seaside city of Varosha, near Famagusta. Abandoned by tens of thousands of Greek Cypriots in a matter of hours, the buildings, hotels, apartments and homes of Varosha have sat empty since July of 1974. These photos were taken from the northern edge of the city thanks to the “opening” of a narrow stretch of the Varosha to tourists. “They’ve turned it into a theme park,” Costas Constantinou warned us. It was a strange experience to see the endless expanse of this ghost city, still deserted after nearly 50 years. This must be one of the most valuable pieces of uninhabitable land on earth. And the Greek Cypriots who hold property claims in Varosha continue to be left in a sad state of legal and political limbo.
These are just some of the topics we explored during our time on the island.
Ghost city of Varosha, outside Famagusta in the northern occupied territory of Cyprus
Now to the fall of 2022 . . .
At Zoran’s Cafe le Simplon
We are planning three program excursions next year. Once again, we plan to visit Lausanne and Geneva in order to give students an in-depth look at the international organizations that are at the heart of our program’s curriculum. Next fall we will prioritize the World Health Organization in addition to the World Trade Organization, the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, as well as the International Olympic Committee. And the plan, once again, is to be based in Lausanne, as this permits easy access to Geneva. Oh, and – ahem – it also allows us to be close to our friend Zoran’s Café le Simplon where we can enjoy French cuisine in a ridiculously civilized outdoor setting.
And as we did in 2019, we are planning to travel from Geneva to Brussels to visit the European Union institutions and NATO Headquarters.
This past fall (2021) several of the organizations we had hoped to visit in person were closed (due to the coronavirus). Nevertheless, we were able to hold Zoom meetings with officials in the place of on-site meetings. An ICRC representative – Elodie Schindler – was kind enough to speak with us on the lawn outside the ICRC headquarters. And we were grateful that the IOC opened its doors to us for not just one, but two meetings and a fabulous lunch as well as a museum visit.
Needless to say, the work of all of these organizations continues apace during COVID, and it will continue this fall no matter what happens with the pandemic. And our program should continue as well.
Elodie Schindler, from the ICRC, speaking to us on the lawn
The Geneva-Lausanne-Brussels excursion will comprise our first field trip of the program, and it will take place in mid to late September.
We continue to believe that a great number of Mediterranean issues – some quite old, others new – deserve elevation in the context of this program. Thus, we will return to Cyprus and Greece. In both countries we will deepen our engagement with local faculty and institutions to build on an already sound foundation provided by our friends Pavlos Koktsidis and Costas Constantinou at the University of Cyprus, and old John Nomikos, Director of the Research Institute for European and American Studies, in Athens. And in Greece we are hoping (no promises yet) to include a two-day trip to the country’s second-largest city, Thessaloniki, in the north of the country.
Lunch with Pavlos Koktsidis in Salamis, Cyprus Dinner at Calypso’s with Caroline and John Nomikos
Because our field excursions to Cyprus and Greece involve discussions of Turkey, we thought it was time to build an excursion to Istanbul into the program. Thus, over Thanksgiving break we are planning a five-day trip to this historic city.
We have long meant to get to Turkey, but the country’s politics of late have not proved – how shall we say . . . ? – especially inviting. After further reflection we decided not to let this get in our way. And besides, with the Turkish lira falling in value (not to mention the all-important attraction of the country’s culinary offerings) we feel the opportunity costs can be managed. Plus, non-stop flights to Istanbul from Milan’s Malpensa airport are affordable. More soon on what this trip will involve.
The courses we will offer in 2022 reflect several changes – all positive – that we have made in the Political Science Department as well as the International Studies Program. Professor Stivachtis now holds the Jean Monnet Chair at the University, and his leadership of the Center for European Union, Trans-Atlantic and trans-European Space Studies means that we can expand the profile of CEUTTSS and its many programs at the Steger Center.
OK, so these are the plans thus far. None of this is written in stone yet, of course. And if we’ve learned anything this past two years (and mindful of Machiavelli’s teachings), we must be prepared to change course if the situation demands it.
Sara and Caroline at dinner in Bellinzona
We are fortunate that the Steger Center permits a safe and convenient base of operations for the program. We are also fortunate to have Sara Steinert Borella as the Executive Director of the Steger Center on board.
The European Affairs in a Global Context program began in 2018. By this point we feel that we know a thing or two about how to make this entire experience substantive, stimulating and memorable for our students. This is not a “recreational” study abroad program. The courses are very challenging, the workload is quite heavy, and the itineraries of our excursions are demanding. All of that said, we are confident that we will do incredibly important work together. And it will be a blast for all to boot.
Upon our arrival in August, fewer finer pleasures awaited us than being greeted by Stevie, Sara Borella’s independent-minded beagle. With his endearing long ears and his purposeful gait, Stevie was a reminder that the Steger Center is a home in the best sense. Kitchen and dining area, fireplace, garden and other cozy amenities were complemented by the presence (and antics) of little Stevie. If he was nothing else, Stevie was entertaining. Sara maybe had an inkling as to how grateful we were that she brought Stevie with her from Bellinzona to work each day. But only an inkling.
I think it was W.C. Fields who once quipped, “Well, the man hates dogs and children – he can’t be all that bad.” We didn’t see many children at the Steger Center, but this was certainly not the prevailing ethos when it came to dogs in Riva. Or cats and rabbits for that matter. We were all badly missing our family pets, abandoned back in the States and available to us only on FaceTime. Mila’s great Leonberger Lyra, Kevin’s dogs Maud and Albert, Caroline’s rescue Olive, my own beloved Henry, and (this is my favorite) Morgan’s rabbit “Sir.” Stevie would need to step in as the surrogate for these and a great many other pets we pined for over the course of the fall semester.
Mila and Lyra
Stevie is very stubborn. And opinionated, especially when it comes to the important things. When he was not detained signing autographs or sleeping in his office, Stevie was on constant lookout for food. In the Steger Center cafeteria, in Riva’s and Lugano’s restaurants and bars, in my apartment (I dog sat for an afternoon), in the students’ apartments and on his daily walks to and from the train station in Capolago, Stevie had just one thing on his mind. And he quickly learned that the opportunities afforded by the Steger Center were limitless.
Caroline and Olive
But that wasn’t the face Stevie put on – he is much too smart to let on that he was six steps ahead of you when it came to strategizing for a handout or a second meal. When I checked in on Sara after her first couple of days as the new Executive Director of the Center, I learned that Stevie had already earned a reputation. He managed to snatch away Michele’s lunch, and this on his first day on the job. Sara quickly ran out to replace Michele’s sandwich, and fortunately Michele – a cat person deep down – is good humored about such things. With forty-some students and staff about the villa on any given day, there were lots of treats to be had in the students’ rooms, in the hallway coming out of the cafeteria, in the sitting rooms (buried in the couch cushions, behind the pillows), and just about anyplace else.
Stevie was usually held in check by Sara and his leash, to be sure, but on occasion he would effect an escape – or Sara would happily cede control to one of us. An especially fond memory I have was when Ally returned with Stevie after a sojourn to the apartments, and looking exasperated exclaimed to Sara, “He just doesn’t listen!”
Morgan and Sir
To say that Stevie is willful – most of all in his pursuit of food – is like saying water is wet. Whether it’s been nature or nurture, Stevie is a dog with agency.
It was the evening at Sara’s home in Bellinzona that convinced me of the full range of Stevie’s abilities. Together with Clive, Amy and Bob for dinner, Sara had prepared a lovely raclette followed by a gorgeous apple-craisin pie. (The crust alone was – as Sarah Van Hook would say – sublime). Shortly before dessert was served, Stevie perked up and got in position, next to my chair. Discussion about concerts we had seen (or wished we had seen) in the 70s and 80s could not have interested Stevie less. In fact, he appeared to realize that the deeper the conversation, the better his chances. I had only managed a bite of that delicious pie before Stevie suddenly jumped, lunging over my lap to seize the generous slice from my plate. And before he ducked under the table (knowing all too well he would need to avoid punishment), he gave me a just a brief sideways glance, as if to say, “You, my friend, are clueless.”
Kevin with Maud and Albert
So uncanny was Stevie’s urge to eat that his appetite became a frequent subject of discussion at the villa, especially at lunch (and not a few times in class). We teased Sara, reminding her that she needed to remember to feed Stevie at least once a day. During meals Evan and I would sneak Stevie pieces of bread, and Sara would pretend not to notice. Stevie’s eyes would grow big as he came to understand (we hoped) that Evan and I were friends, and that we actually had his back. Truth be told, we were at a disadvantage, as Stevie much prefers women to men. Many of us witnessed his great excitement when Krystal or Destiny walked into his office, when Jessica escorted him to class, or when Fabiola or Michele or Caroline chased him down in the stairway with yet another prize in his mouth.
While he is usually tethered to Sara, Stevie is a dog who moves in his own inimitable orbit.
First of all, thank you for your patience regarding the public health measures we’re all being asked to negotiate at this time.
Following the Steger Center Planning Committee meeting I attended on Friday morning, I am revising my recommendations to you about COVID testing prior to our departure on the 5th. In brief, I don’t think a COVID test is necessary prior to our departure next week Thursday. You are all vaccinated, and you will all have hard-copy and digital proof of vaccination (a photo of your vaccination card on your phone) on hand at the airport, and upon arrival in Zurich.
Switzerland currently requires proof of vaccination, and that will most likely remain in place in the weeks ahead. Germany (through which I will be traveling en route to Zurich) is currently requiring proof of vaccination OR a negative antigen (or PCR) test within 72 hours of departure for passengers traveling from outside of the Schengen area. The airlines appear to be aligning their own requirements with the countries they service.
So, if you have made arrangements to be tested next week, you may want to consider canceling your appointment. As long as you remain asymptomatic, and as long as you are vaccinated, you will be permitted to board your flight and safely enter Switzerland.
However, Yannis and I ask that you check your airline’s website daily, and that you still remain vigilant relative to risk of exposure to the coronavirus in the next five days. Masking and social distancing should protect you from contracting the coronavirus, and we should all do your utmost to stay out of harm’s way (do not visit crowded indoor spaces).
All of us should secure N95 or KN95 masks for our flights, and for use in Switzerland. These masks are the gold standard of facial protection, and it appears that airlines, merchants and municipalities are all monitoring more carefully the types of masks people are wearing.
Finally, please review the attached CDC recommendations, as well as the URL below, which provides a county view of rates of infection in the U.S. If you live in or will visit a high-risk area before departure, please take extra precautions.
Planning has been well underway for the EAGC study abroad program that will be based at Virginia Tech’s Steger Center for International Scholarship in Riva San Vitale, Switzerland in fall 2021. The program includes an extensive experiential learning component, with active learning excursions to Geneva, Lausanne, Nicosia and Athens. At this time we anticipate that we will be able to successfully complete all of these excursions during the fall 2021 program. However, we are developing contingency plans should it be necessary to cancel one or more of these excursions owing to travel restrictions related to the COVID pandemic.
The purpose of this communication is to emphasize the curricular and financial implications should it become necessary to modify our travel itinerary.
The most likely scenario that we envision should changes to our planned excursions be required is that trips involving travel outside of Switzerland may be curtailed or cancelled and other trips arranged in their place; numerous domestic (within Switzerland) alternatives, and/or travel to cities where public health risks are minimal, do exist and we will plan to take advantage of them if the need arises. If this occurs, we are working to identify alternate cities to visit. While these cities will necessarily not involve the same learning experiences as visits to the above cities, they will nevertheless be important and interesting relative to enhancing students’ understanding of Europe’s most important political, economic and socio-cultural dynamics of the twentieth century, which our program features.
At the present time, and in anticipation that we will in fact be able to complete our original international travel itinerary, we as program leaders are in the process of making financial arrangements to do so. The planning involves reserving lodging at various locations we will be visiting, purchasing airline and train tickets and making other arrangements that will be necessary for group travel.
In previous years, the faculty leaders of this program have made financial commitments well in advance of the travel dates, with some or all of the funds being non-refundable to the program in the event of cancellation (such as, for example, lodging reservations that often require pre-payment). While the possibility does exist that a program could be cancelled and, consequently, would result in the loss of the non-refundable fees that had been disbursed, we have so far – since 2018 when this program was launched – not had to face this situation. Moreover, at this time we are confident that travel (to Geneva, Lausanne, Nicosia and Athens) will occur as planned.
In the current COVID environment, there is a greater possibility that our program may not proceed as planned, and it may be necessary to cancel one or more of the trips if travel restrictions are introduced. If funds have been disbursed to pay for various activities related to travel and, in the event of trip interruption/cancellation, if those funds are NOT refunded to our program by hotels and tour operators, students will not be reimbursed. This is in accordance with the program’s payment agreement and pursuant to contractual agreements with program vendors.
To be specific, students in the EAGC program will make a $3,500 installment payment on or before June 10, 2021. Should it be necessary for the program to use some or all of these funds to secure program travel arrangements, and should that travel activity be cancelled after June 10 with loss of some of those funds as non-refundable payments to vendors, these payments will not be refunded to students. The program leaders do not have the authority to reimburse students if there is an insufficient amount in the program fund. But we should assure you that we are doing everything possible to make financial commitments as late as possible to minimize the risk of this happening. Furthermore, we are actively seeking vendors who will allow us to make fully-refundable reservations. So, be assured that we are doing everything we can to minimize financial risk associated with this study abroad program.
The policies described here are consistent with Virginia Tech policies, including Global Travel Policy 1070. Section 3.3 of policy 1070 describes the procedures by which the Global Travel Oversight Committee approves international travel to countries experiencing U.S. Department of State Elevated Travel Advisories.
By signing the Payment Agreement that each of you signed following your acceptance into the program, you have indicated that you “have read, understood, and accept the charges, terms, and policies stated in this document.” The letter you are now reading is intended to more specifically detail Virginia Tech’s refund policy should some portion or all of our program be cancelled.
You should also know that faculty who are leading this program are meeting weekly with colleagues and administrators at Virginia Tech, as well as with colleagues in Switzerland, to monitor and assess the COVID risks in Europe.
With the vaccine rollout across Europe we are optimistic that with the right precautions, our planned group excursions will be safe for all of our students.
And questions may be directed to: Dr. Scott Nelson, Department of Political Science, Virginia Tech. Email: scnelson@vt.edu
I put together a list of some of the things that I was happy I brought when I went to Riva in 2019. It’s not a complete list, just some of the things that you may not think to bring. I hope this list can help you when you’re packing and not entirely sure of what all to fit into your suitcase.
An interview with our colleague Costas Constantinou, Professor of International Relations at the University of Cyprus, was published in “E-International Relations” in 2019, and offers resources for understanding diplomacy and international relations in historical, cultural and theoretical perspective.
I feel fortunate to be surrounded by interesting colleagues. Yannis Stivachtis is one of the most interesting colleagues I have. I always learn something new (and memorable) from him, especially when we’re able to travel in Europe together. He always makes me laugh. His stories about his father, who recently passed away at the age of 102, and of his father’s generation bring me into contact with much different eras and the struggles faced by people in precarious times. “Scott, my father was a chain smoker. Do you know why he was a chain smoker? Because during the war, my father was a soldier. And the soldiers had all the cigarettes they needed. But they had only one match.”
Yannis is also capable of off-hand observations that stop me in my tracks. He once said to me, “If you want to understand fascism, just follow European football.”
Yannis follows the sport closely (I don’t follow it at all, and he’s never held it against me). He’s also got a keen eye out for pre-fascist tendencies. Most Europeans with a sense of history have this skill; Americans, not so much. Late last year, as he and I and Aislinn were strolling on the Greek island of Aegina, he said to us, “You must understand something about the end of the dictatorship in Greece. The fascists didn’t disappear in 1974. They just dispersed.”
I first travelled with Yannis to Athens in 2006, shortly after we first met. It was just two years after the city had hosted the Olympic Games and well into the “hangover” period following that momentous moment, when the city, and in this particular case the country, were trying to recover from massive overspending and escalating public debt. Touring the city on the subway Yannis pointed out the now-unused sports facilities dotting the urban landscape, already relics of a more optimistic time, lying forgotten like the city’s abandoned Hellinikon International Airport in the Elliniko suburb near the coast.
At that time — 2006 — Greece was really struggling, but the financial collapse that began in 2008 was yet to visit the worst upon the country. It was the impact of immigrants — so visible outside our hotel in Omonia Square — that suggested a difficult decade ahead. They were filing into Greece from Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and many countries of Africa. Athens had so few resources to accommodate them humanely, and their temporary status as alien residents in Europe was not known to much of the world at the time. Among all the European countries, Greece was the least prepared to deal with the influx of such desperate people whose ultimate goal was to make it to Germany and France and other prosperous countries in the North.
Yannis can be tough on his fellow Greeks and on their ancestors (another lesson for Americans), especially when it comes to skeptics of the European Union project. And the neo-fascist party Golden Dawn. Receiving his postgraduate education in Lancaster, England, Yannis has his feet in both worlds — that of his homeland, and that of the Europe which had created the great post-War project of political and economic integration. Greece joined the European Community in 1981, when he was still a pupil in grammar school in Pireaus. At that time, Greeks didn’t fully understand the purpose of the integration (no one did), Yannis told me, but it promised a more prosperous future after a tortuous period of civil war, dictatorship and geopolitical strife. Just seven years into the political experience of democracy, Greece was looking forward, and forward meant Western. Young people were hopeful. Older people were suspicious. They were suspicious of almost everything, Yannis assured me — life had taught them that survival required it.
Yannis and Scott in Hydra, Greece in 2019
One of the few times I’ve seen Yannis almost lose his temper was when he was subjected to anti-EU arguments by those who should have known better. One of the individuals in this category was a former high-ranking government official; another was an academic. During a seminar in Athens that was prepared for our students last year, Yannis was severe but polite as he dressed down a presenter who had argued that the European project had simply failed, and that Greece would be advised to go the way of Great Britain. Later on that day, he issued a less measured retort, which was expressed to me in a moment of incredulous exasperation: “AYFKM?!”
The point being, Greece would hardly have a functioning economy today without the collective efforts of the EU. And without a functioning economy, political stability would be out of the question.
Last year I began studying the history of Greece’s second largest city, Thessaloniki, for a course that Yannis and I were team-teaching in Blacksburg. Yannis alerted me in advance to several now-forgotten political experiences in that city during the Second World War — experiences you won’t read about in textbooks. Greece’s history is fraught. (Is there a country whose history is not?). It lies on what we are told — far too often, true — is a geopolitical fault line between East and West. Its political independence in the modern era dates to 1830, but the Ottoman Empire was not dissolved until 1923. Aftershocks of two world wars, civil war, dictatorship, the wars of Yugoslavia in the 1990s all impacted Greece, and partly account for Brussels’ interest in keeping it within the European fold.
One morning this past October I saw a news story out of Greece making headlines in major world newspapers; I filed it away for consideration later in the day. In the meantime Yannis sent me a link to a Guardian newspaper report on the day’s developments, with the headline “Golden Dawn Guilty Verdicts Celebrated across Greece.” Greek judges had ruled that Golden Dawn was actually a criminal organization in disguise, especially during its rise after the 2008 financial crisis. The most vicious political violence that party members were convicted of was visited upon migrants and left-wing critics, including a rap artist, Pavlos Fyssas, who was murdered in 2013. The New York Times also devoted significant reporting to the judicial ruling: “‘Today is an important day for democracy,’ the country’s president, Katerina Sakellaropoulou said. ‘Today’s decision is a confirmation of the fact that democracy and its institutions are always capable of fending off any attempts to undermine them.’” Thousands gathered in the streets of Athens to celebrate.
Fascism takes many forms and it comes from many places. It can afflict any organized society, but its impact is acutely felt in multiethnic societies where in-group identities are consolidated and pitted against out-group identities, always by means of a skillful Cipolla, the hypnotist-magician who wielded awful mesmerizing powers over his audience in Thomas Mann’s short story “Mario and the Magician.” The fascist syndrome arises when trust in public goods is low and doubt about the fate of public life is high. If ever there was a society with the right admixture for fascism, it would seem to be Greece. And yet, as Yannis reminded me several years ago, Golden Dawn never saw more than the smallest representation in the country’s parliament.
Now, with a historical verdict and the Greek public’s jubilation that the party’s true nature had been exposed, and that individuals — party leaders — would be held accountable, there was cause for celebration. A political celebration.
Yannis was very proud, but quietly so. I will let him have the last words:
“When the Golden Dawn verdict was announced, I remembered what an observer said following the Nuremberg verdicts: ‘We killed this monster, but the bitch that gave birth to it is still alive and well.
“Dealing with fascism requires education both at home and at school. Not education in terms of degrees, but education in terms of personal development; the will to learn and know — education leading to enlightened citizenship and commitment to civic duty. It also requires that we study history and learn its lessons so that we can recognize the monster arising in its new camouflage.”
Scott Nelson
Some optimism from our students learning about Greece
