The British EU diplomat Robert Cooper will be visiting this year’s MatchPoints Seminar at Aarhus University.

2011.05.02 | AU Kommunikation

The seminar, entitled “Challenging Democracy”, is to be held on 12-14 May at Aarhus University, and the high-profile but controversial Robert Cooper is to be one of the speakers.

Robert Cooper is currently the leading adviser on security and foreign policy for Lady Ashton, the EU’s foreign minister. He is well known for his doctrine on “New Liberal Imperialism”, which he described in his book The Post-Modern State (2002).

Among other things the book proposes the terms “failed states”, “modern states” and “postmodern states”, which are all familiar expressions in the field of political science today. Failed states are former European colonies which never developed into efficient states (Somalia and Afghanistan, for instance). Modern states are national states which grew out of industrialisation and which are now developing into postmodern states – globalised states with economic and political agreements spanning national borders.

Robert Cooper is also well known for his controversial statements about the necessity of the postmodern world growing accustomed to double morality, and for defending the tough line adopted by the government of Bahrain against the demonstrations in March this year by saying that it was not easy to handle major demonstrations, which were sometimes violent. Handling such demonstrations can be a hard task for the police, he said, adding that even the best states in the Western world did not always get it right and that accidents can happen.

His analyses and view of the global world order had a big influence on Tony Blair and now play a significant role in the development of a European security and defence policy.

Robert Cooper will be speaking on Thursday 12 May at 13.30-14.15.

• Read the programme for the MatchPoints Seminar 2011