Europe Lecture

Professor Yanis Varoufakis presents 'Europe: The Dirty War for Its Integrity and Its Soul'

Abstract: After almost seven decades of small but determined steps toward continental integration, Europe is now at the mercy of centrifugal forces that seem to be tearing it apart. Much is being made of the Euro Crisis, and the divisive effects of the common currency across the continent. However, the forces at play today have deeper roots and can be traced back to the middle of the twentieth century, when the institutions of the European Union began to take shape. Professor Yanis Varoufakis will argue that the establishment of the Eurozone, and the impact the Great Financial Crisis of 2008, had on it were logical extensions of earlier choices and policies. His lecture will address a simple question: Can Europe’s current Crisis spur Europeans on to complete the project of integrating their continent? Or was it always a terminal project that raised expectations it could never fulfil?

Bio: Yanis Varoufakis is a renowned scholar and political commentator. He is Professor of Economic Theory at the University of Athens and is currently the Visiting Professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas, Austin. He is the author of numerous works including The Global Minotaur: The true origins of the financial crisis and the future of the world economy and Economic Indeterminacy: A personal encounter with the economists’ peculiar nemesis.