Center for West European Studies & EU Jean Monnet Center

Co-Funded by the European Union Ambassador Mark Gitenstein US Ambassador to the European Union, 2021-2025 US Ambassador to Romania, 2009-2012 How is the EU accession process proceeding with Moldova, Ukraine and other aspiring entrants in the region? Ambassador Gitenstein will offer an assessment of the European Commission’s application of its various enforcement tools to ensure compliance by member states of their treaty obligations. He will additionally discuss the role of the United States in supporting those processes and the role played by hostile powers like Russia in undermining them. Furthermore, Ambassador Gitenstein will consider the disturbing deterioration of independent media in the region as the essential bulwark for democracy, free markets and against corruption and backsliding. Ambassador Audra Plepytė Ambassador of Lithuania to the United States and Mexico, 2021-Present Permanent Representative of Lithuania to the United Nations, 2017-2021 Ambassador Audra Plepytė was appointed as Lithuania’s Ambassador to the United States of America and to the United Mexican States in 2021. Before this she was a Lithuanian Permanent Representative to the United Nations where she facilitated several negotiations, led the Group of Friends, and was elected to executive bodies of UN instruments and institutions, including being elected as the President of the Executive Board of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in 2021. As a career diplomat for over 30 years, she has held numerous positions within the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, dealing with bilateral and multilateral issues, heading the European Union Department (2014–2017), the Personnel Department, and International Missions and Conflict Prevention Division. She was also Lithuania’s ambassador to Spain, World Tourism Organization from 2010 till 2014. Ambassador Plepytė has BA and MA in Philosophy at Vilnius University. She also has a diploma from the Institute of International Relations at Vilnius University, as well as a certificate of Diplomatic studies at Oxford University in UK. _______________________________ Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

Co-Funded by the European Union. Associate Professor Guntis Šmidchens, Director CEREAS and Head of Baltic Studies discusses the experience of Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia in the European Union at the 2024 EU Policy Forum Educator Workshop. This annual workshop is organized at the University of Washington by the Center for European Studies and the Jean Monnet Center of Excellence. | Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

An interview by Danny Hoffman, Director of the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington with Ilmari Käihkö, an associate professor of War Studies at the Swedish Defense University and a researcher at the University of Helsinki. Dr. Käihkö was a guest speaker at the UW for a public event titled, "Finnish/Nordic Perspectives on the War in Ukraine." Recorded in April 2025. Dr. Käihkö visited the University of Washington as part of the 2024-2025 Finland-Washington Research Exchange Program.

Dr. Joyce Mushaben presents her lecture "The Art of Mainstreaming: Ursula von der Leyen in Pursuit of a Union of Equality" on May 25, 2022. Dr. Mushaben was at the time the CIDEU Scholar in Residence at the University of Washington's Jackson School of International Studies. This podcast was co-funded by the European Union.

Why do women of all socio-economic backgrounds accumulate less wealth than men? Why do marital separations impoverish women while they do not prevent men from remaining or becoming wealthy? In her new book co-authored with Sibylle Gollac, The Gender of Capital: How Families Perpetuate Wealth Inequalities (Harvard University Press, 2023), Céline Bessière answers these questions, drawing from ethnographic observations and statistical analysis. The Gender of Capital shows that formal legal equality has not eliminated economic inequality between men and women. It illustrates the mechanisms through which women of all social classes lose financially when they divorce or inherit. Examples as diverse as those of the single mothers who joined the French “Yellow Vest” movement, the high-profile divorce of Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos, and the division of the estate of the Trump family demonstrate that capital is gendered. Bessière will discuss how class divisions and the patriarchal appropriation of capital reinforce one another. A professor of sociology at Paris–Dauphine University, visiting professor at NYU, senior member of the Institut Universitaire de France, Céline Bessière studies the material, economic, and legal dimensions of the family. In France, The Gender of Capital was also adapted into a graphic novel.

Guntis Smidchens presents his lecture, "Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian “New Idealism” for a Postimperial World" on Aug. 15, 2023. This lecture was part of the 2023 EU Policy Forum Educator Workshop. This teacher workshop is sponsored by the European Union, the UW Center for West European Studies & EU Center, the Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies, the Center for Global Studies, the World Affairs Council. The workshop is hosted by the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies. For more information, please email the Center for West European Studies at cweseuc@uw.edu. Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.