Virtually Excellent: Opening Britain to Europe and the World through Innovative Education on European Security (VIRTUE)

Drawing upon the expertise and experience of existing research centres at USW, in particular the International Centre for Policing and Security (ICPS) and the Centre for Criminology, VIRTUE focus on European cooperation on security, crime and counter-terrorism, including partnerships with third-countries. It aspires to examine the role of the EU in international security matters, with a particular focus on European cooperation for countering crime and terrorism, from a multitude of disciplinary viewpoints.

Issues of particular interest will be (1) the political and policy dynamics influencing the development of security cooperation within the EU and/or with third countries; (2) the new policies and instruments adopted by the EU in the field of security; (3) the tensions between security and other fundamental rights and freedoms, in particular the right to privacy in the context of the development of large-scale databases; (4) technological developments and their impact on European security cooperation; and (5) the impact on and the involvement of civil society in the evolving European security cooperation

Objectives

  • To ensure students positively benefit from high-quality research-based, comprehensively multi-disciplinary teaching on a wide variety of EU integration and security issues;
  • To provide a foundation by which academics and students alike are beneficially influenced via a series of cutting-edge, innovative blended- and distance learning-formats on a range of multi-disciplinary themes;
  • To offer a series of outputs through which researchers, as well as a wide cross-section of interested members of civil society, can be viably informed of the rich variety of contemporary EU developments related to security, crime and terrorism;
  • To reinforce the various Jean Monnet activities currently running at the ICPS, under the aegis of the Jean Monnet Chair, Professor Christian Kaunert.