Tagged: Europe

University of Oklahoma political economist and European Union expert Mitchell Smith joins the program for a conversation about the eurozone's economy slipping further into recession, and the American kicked out of Russia over accusations of spying for the CIA.

Veteran diplomat Richard Arndt speaks with Suzette Grillot and Joshua Landis about how the national security state changed U.S. diplomatic relations. He's the author of The First Resort of Kings: American Cultural Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century.

Slow growth is plaguing many European countries as they struggle to cut their spending and debts. France's GDP has fallen for two consecutive quarters, and Greece's international lenders say unemployment will remain above 20 percent for another three years.

Mitchell Smith, the Chair of OU's Department of International and Area Studies and the Director of the European Union Center, says austerity has generated more than just economic tensions.

"I actually think the political problems a number of European countries are experiencing are even more worrisome than the economic problems," Smith says. "The eurozone countries have, at least for the time being, allayed some of the concerns of financial markets and they don't want to stir things up and start another run-up of a financial crisis."

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher will be remembered Wednesday during a funeral with full military honors at St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Suzette Grillot, the host of KGOU’s World Views and the Dean of the University of Oklahoma’s College of International Studies, says debates about Thatcher’s legacy and even her funeral suggest Britain is still deeply divided.

Rebecca Cruise and Suzette Grillot discuss the banking crisis in the Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus, and the decision to re-try American student Amanda Knox in Italy.

University of Oklahoma Italian language and literature professor Jason Houston joins Grillot from Arezzo, Italy. He's been following the Catholic Church's transition of power in the Vatican, and speculates what the last voluntary papal resignation in 1294 could teach us about 2013.