Placement report: Research placement in the IRIO department at the University of Groningen

University of Groningen

International Relations and International Organization

Placement report:

Research placement in the IRIO department at the University

of Groningen

Student: Axel Zelensky Sirzen

Placement coordinator: Drs. Cécile A.M. Wagstaff

Placement supervisor: Dr. A.G. Harryvan

Contents

Tasks and responsibilities ... 4

Uncharted research ... 4

Academic bias ... 4

Holistic approach ... 5

Communication ... 6

Reflections and impressions ... 7

Social life ... 7

Expectations and considerations ... 8

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Introduction

The following research placement position took place between July and December 2020, at the International Relations department of the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (Netherlands). In light of COVID-19 and resulting global restrictions, this position was offered to Master students as a last resort for completing the obligatory placement requirements in order to graduate. Consequently, as the following report will show, this did not constitute a conventional placement experience. Despite therefore not meeting initial expectations for the placement credit, the position proved to be as formative as it was engaging. Administrational facilitation on behalf of the institution and professional supervision throughout the employment contributed immensely to a positively fulfilling placement opportunity.

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Pre-placement

COVID-19 obstacles

Having had the option to do a placement parallel to the Master thesis at the start of 2021, my placement applications had been outgoing since before the beginning of the year. The intention was to utilize the placement opportunity to seek professional experience and insight within the sphere of diplomacy or the workings of international institutions. For maximum benefit and an inter-culturally formative experience, this was preferably to occur outside the boundaries of a previously personally inhabited geographical location. As a Swiss citizen, I was hoping for a position at one of many Swiss embassies around the world, as well as at one of the major international institutions, such as the EU or the UN. However, my search was not limited to these preferences, continuing to apply to every position I could find that would comply with the placement requirements. Unfortunately, while within imminent reach of a placement, close to all potential employers retracted their positions due to pandemic related obstacles. With consecutive lockdowns and widespread terminations of employment possibilities, I had no choice but to write my thesis while extending the study programme by another 6 months in the hopes of finding a placement for that period. However, with deteriorating global conditions, prospects for a placement looked bleak. Even the few recurring positions that were reinstituted in the following months, were for a second time primarily offered to those that had not been able to pursue them during the previous recruitment period.

RUG placements

Fortunately, having anticipated the struggles of students with mandatory placement requirements in light of the aforementioned obstacles, RUG sought to accommodate those affected by offering internal placement opportunities. This came as a huge relief, as given the circumstances it appeared to be the only available option to complete the placement requirement without yet another study delay. Personal priorities in relation to the placement had inevitably been reduced from the previously mentioned preferences, to urgently needing any position in order to graduate without further time wasted. After consulting the university portal on the available positions, I proceeded to apply to those I was qualified for. After swift responses from the respective supervisors on whether or not their placements had already been occupied, I had the privilege of being offered several interviews and subsequent offers for the advertised university placements. Consequently, as scarce as the choice was, I was still able to pick between the resulting offers. One position required a daily commute to Amsterdam, thereby preventing me from pursuing the offer. Another consisted of a seemingly engaging offer to participate in a research project with multiple placements alongside other applicants. However, the projected starting date of the placement would be the following September 2020. Having

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conducted these interviews during the preceding June, the time until the placement initiation would ultimately have constituted unoccupied time, especially since the offer I ended up choosing offered an immediate commencement possibility.

Research placement

The chosen offer constituted a research assistant placement within the ‘International Relations and International Organization’ department at the University of Groningen. Having studied at the university for the past 5 years, the position did not require leaving the site of the university and therefore excluded the usual formalities, such as a geographical relocation and the search for an accommodation. Generally speaking, the position essentially entailed a shift from being an educational recipient of RUG as an academic institution, to gaining insight into the professional research level of academia. After a pleasant and comprehensive initial meeting with the supervising professor Dr. A.G. Harryvan, we agreed on a swift initiation of mutual collaboration on the preliminary stages of his research. Any form of tentative preparation on my behalf was thereby likewise excluded from the pre-employment process. Nevertheless, the research I was to assist with had yet to be realized and concerned the following topic: ‘The perception and reception of Europe’s internal market in the United States, by both governmental and non-governmental actors, from 1986 onwards’. Due to the early stages of the research, I was able to participate and contribute to the preparatory stages of the research process in its entirety before delving into the subsequent research procedures. I was therefore excited to observe first-hand the research process from the very conception of a preliminary topic to its practical realization, with all the relevant steps to be addressed along the way.

The choice of the specific university placement over others was likewise supported by my personal interest in the research topic itself. Having extensively studied and researched inter-regional relations, such as the EU-Russian and Sino-US relations, I was eager to delve into the transatlantic focus of the suggested topic. US-European relations had not yet permeated the scope of my previous academic experiences and therefore presented an opportunity for me to expand my geo-political knowledge. Furthermore, while personally being less well-versed in economic matters, the historically macro-economic focus of the research question allowed me to engage with the macro-economic aspect through the lens of historical geo-political developments. This in turn presented a promising yield of uncharted insights into the perspectives of various US-European administrations, as well as the long-term goals and hopes of both regions. Conclusively, aside from the benefit of immediate employment and a topic of personal fascination, it was likewise an opportunity to experience academia with the help of a supervisor with a generous readiness to mentor my inexperience, in order to see whether a post-Master PhD programme would be of interest.

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Tasks and responsibilities

While the scope of the following research was somewhat delineated by the aforementioned research question, the tasks involved were varied in nature. The primary goal was to find as much relevant information on the topic as possible and to ultimately compile it in a coherent way, in order to facilitate the research process of the supervisor beyond the placement period. However, the very mode of inquiry would morph depending on continuously emerging factors, such as the ongoing findings and the availability or unavailability of relevant information, thereby amending our inquisitive trajectory. The main task consisted of the reading, understanding and reviewing of relevant scientific literature, as well as primary sources on the topic. The scope was tentatively outlined to stretch from the creation of the European Single Market during the 80s to the solidifying regulatory influence of the EU in contemporary geo-politics, also coined as the ‘Brussels Effect’ by Anu Bradford in 2019.

Uncharted research

Having little experience on how to initiate such an academic venture and relying on the guidance of the supervisor in that regard, I was instructed to compile a list of relevant journals and databases that could prove relevant to the topic, in order to facilitate the subsequent extraction of relevant print and online resources. As straight forward as this first task might have seemed, it did in fact present a substantial challenge. While researching the extent of transatlantic institutions, as well as their respectively available online databases, these seemed to be chronologically limited to the early 2000s. Thereby, the main institutional foundations of the politico-economic relationship between the US and EU had a limited period of documentation, starting at the later stages of economic cooperation while excluding the initial phases of the relationship. In terms of content, this limitation yielded merely calls by the US to reduce the EU regulatory influence on mutual commerce, relating to the previously mentioned Brussels Effect, while offering nothing from within the context of the creation of the European Single Market since the 80s. This lack of available information on behalf of the primary representative institutions, reaffirmed the initial suspicions of the supervisor that little had been written on the early stages of the transatlantic economic relations.

Academic bias

Similarly, while attempting to compile a list of relevant journals, I quickly realized that there was a big discrepancy between the alleged objectivity of a journal and its subtextual motivations. Certain journals had accumulated a reputation of presenting a political bias, something my relatively inexperienced academic know-how had left me less accustomed to. While the presence and awareness of one-sided theoretical perspectives constituted an integral part of the IRIO Master programme, it

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ultimately remains a matter of consistent engagement with the wide range of journals in order to learn their respective theoretical affiliations and thereby, their academic limitations. Consequently, my supervisor could from the top of his head tell me which of the potential journals should be disregarded due to the limitations of their objectivity and therefore their reduced academic merit. Shortly thereafter however, as I was delving into the research, the radical ideational discrepancies between sources became amusingly evident. Nevertheless, contrary to the initial perception of these discrepancies as an obstacle in the search of objectivity, they rather became a source of insight instead. Since the topic fundamentally concerned the relation between differing political cultures, the variation among ideational accounts ultimately embodied alternative narratives, thereby offering increased insight into the topic as a whole and contributing to my cumulative understanding of both transatlantic perspectives. One of the first examples of this is adequately exemplified by US sources presenting Reagan as somebody who was revered in Europe, whereas European sources portrayed him as a man-child with a reckless attitude and detrimental economic policies.

Holistic approach

The early stages of source scouting quickly revealed not only my limited knowledge on the topic, but also that the economic aspect as the primary focus could not be removed from the socio-political context of the transatlantic relation. In order to understand the essence of the transatlantic relationship since the 80s and with the consent of the supervisor, I found it essential to do preliminary research on preceding decades, starting with the 60s. I deemed this necessary for my personal understanding of the development of the transatlantic relationship in a historical context, as well as beneficial for the inclusiveness and accuracy of my contributions to the project. This proved immensely productive, as it revealed the interplay between the high number of components within this multi-faceted issue area. From mutual struggles caused by grave collective predicaments, such as the Cold War and repeated economic crises, to a resulting divergence in underlying political philosophies, as well as internal frictions on both sides of the Atlantic. With the eventual unification of Europe as a mediator between the US and the USSR, all these influences on the US-European relationship varied immensely from decade to decade, as well as from one administration to the next. Consequently, my placement responsibilities of fact checking became synonymous with accounting for the inherent inter-regional subjectivity of the matter, fostering increased academic intuition on how best to approach a topic of this type.

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Communication

Research methodology and subject specificities aside, the collaborative bulk of my responsibilities consisted of communicating the findings, consulting on further steps to be taken, as well as drafting progress reports. The productivity of these steps depended mainly on the effectiveness of regular meetings with the supervisor and passionate discussions on the topic and related curiosities. Most obstacles that were encountered throughout my work were resolved through the more than adequate council by the supervisor. For instance, where specific sources had not been shared by previous academics on essential aspects of the research, the supervisor would advise on what could be pursued by different means and what should be excluded from the purview of my efforts. The placement thereby became not only thematically engaging but likewise formatively gratifying, as the supervisor did his part of constructively guiding each step, while giving me the freedom to choose my own focal priorities and to work independently. This contributed to a positive working environment and a stimulated personal motivation. For the entirety of the placement period the supervisor effectively schooled me in the aforementioned methodological practicalities, as well as how to conduct proper analyses on specific cases and data sets, as well as how to present summaries and project results. Conclusively, the experience not only fostered an interest and increased knowledge on European integration, but likewise cultivated professional qualities of time management, team work and an overall sound judgement when dealing with detailed and sensitive information.

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Reflections and impressions

Social life

As mentioned above, the completed placement did not require me to relocate or to seek renewed accommodation. Having undertaken both my Bachelor and Master programmes in Groningen, I found myself thoroughly familiar with the social conditions of the lively student city. However, due to the aforementioned pandemic related restrictions, there was barely any social life to speak of for the entirety of my employment. Nevertheless, for the sake of documentation, it is worth mentioning that both the academic and social surroundings are to a large extent internationally conducive. As a person with multiple nationalities, I found the university surroundings to be exceptionally accommodating of inter-culturalism. My personal housing situation exemplified this demographic quite effectively, with 6 young internationals living together in a one-family house. However, social life was unfortunately restricted to the household, at times even impeding the regular meetings with the placement supervisor. Since the placement primarily implied remote and independent work either way, this did not particularly affect progress. The position did not offer any sort of renumeration, as is the case with many obligatory placements, even those offered by the UN. While grateful for the university efforts to prevent further study delays for the students, it did nevertheless put a strain on personal finances, as ultimately most students will be paying for the work they do during the placement. This in turn explains why the aforementioned Swiss placements were initially preferable, since they offer adequate compensation. Regardless, the placement opportunity despite a global pandemic was a privilege in itself.

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Expectations and considerations

Despite the relief of finally landing a placement, I was somewhat disappointed the university placements were mostly restricted to research assistant positions. Essentially, my expectations were that after 5 years of studying, I would spend the placement period doing basically the same thing. Personal motivation levels were therefore marginal at best. However, as outlined above, the incentive of engaging in a fascinating topic and receiving passionate supervision, ultimately put these negative expectations to rest. Above all, the similarity between my studies and the placement allowed me to put into practice what I had learned throughout my studies, within a context of substantial academic output. Furthermore, as mentioned before, I was curious about potentially pursuing a PhD programme after the placement, especially considering the insecure job market in these trying pandemic times. This placement was not only an opportunity to see how I would fare in the academic sphere and whether it would be of any interest to me, but also a chance for me to consult a veteran academic on the particularities of doing a PhD.

The connection between my previous inter-disciplinary studies and the placement is evident, mostly because it concerned quite literally the same academic discipline and thereby helped me in the creation of quality output. Given the unusually restricted circumstances of my placement experience, it is difficult to offer any tips for future applicants other than the commendations I have mentioned already. It is certainly beneficial for those curious about a potential career in academia. I myself have since the completion of the placement applied to several research assistant positions, which undoubtedly will value the experience I have gained through the placement. Regardless, in terms of my specific placement supervisor and the RUG as an institutional provider of placements, I have full confidence in a positive academic experience for any further applicants. Despite the pleasant experience, personally I wish to distance myself for the time being from academia in order to gather some alternative professional experience. Unfortunately, this seems to be a necessary prerequisite in a contemporary job market that shows symptoms of academic inflation, often requiring high academic qualifications alongside several years of working experience, even for entry-level positions.

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Conclusion

To sum up, I was more than lucky to have been offered a placement that so accurately fits my academic profile, allowing me to educate myself on a previously unknown topic. Not only did it yield insight into an as of yet underdeveloped research topic, but likewise allowed me to experience the professional world of academia for future reference. The position has undoubtedly promoted the development of relevant professional traits and research skills, while also granting me the flexibility to choose my own path throughout the research. In particular, I had the privilege to enhance my ability to conduct analyses of case specific and statistical data, as well as the knowledge of how to effectively review sources and to differentiate between valuable sources and those that can be disregarded on grounds of their political bias. Ultimately, I have improved my fact-checking capabilities and how to encapsulate all of the above through holistic summaries and research progress reports.