Bio
Renaud Dehousse is Rector at SAIS Europe
Renaud Dehousse is the Inaugural Rector of SAIS Europe and Vice Dean of SAIS. He began his term at SAIS in January 2024, following the completion of his term as president of the European University Institute (EUI). Before becoming EUI president, Dehousse was a professor and holder of the Jean Monnet Chair of European Law and Policy Studies at Sciences Po Paris, where he founded and directed the Centre for European Studies. He chaired Sciences Po’s Board from 2013 to 2016. He also was a scientific advisor to the center for study and research founded by Jacques Delors, Notre Europe, and was a member of several working parties on the reform of European institutions established by the European institutions and national governments.
After studying law at the University of Liège (Belgium), Dehousse obtained a doctorate at the European University Institute. Before joining Sciences Po in 1999, he taught at the European University Institute, then at the University of Pisa. He was a visiting professor at the Universities of Florence (Cesare Alfieri), Cologne, Rome (LUISS), Lausanne, the College of Europe and at the University of Michigan Law School. His research covers multiple aspects of European law and politics.
Courses
- European Union Politics and Policy-Making in a Time of Crisis
Today’s European Union is going through a series of major changes. These changes are difficult to decipher. Three-quarters of a century after its inception, European integration remains a little-understood process. Part of the difficulty lies in the fact that the European Union is unlike any other organization. While it is more developed than 'classical' international organizations and has gained some influence in areas traditionally considered the prerogative of states, it is not a state and may possibly never become one. Moreover, since the beginning of this century, it has been confronted with a series of challenges (financial crisis, Euro crisis, migration crisis, the COVID pandemic and its aftermath, the rise of populism, etc.) which have led to deep changes in its governance. Some commentators argue that the old 'Monnet method' (named after its chief architect) must now be revisited or completely overhauled.
The purpose of this class is to provide students with the tools to understand how the EU operates, what it does, and the main problems it faces. In doing so, we will critically analyze some of the main academic debates on European integration and discuss their relevance for understanding today’s problems. This will facilitate a broader discussion about the nature of EU governance: is the EU truly an organization "unlike any other," as some have argued, or can it be compared to other forms of government? The class is intended to be accessible to all students, irrespective of their prior knowledge of the functioning of the EU.
