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Luuk van Middelaar

Luuk Johannes van Middelaar (born 9 May 1973) is a Dutch historian and political philosopher. From 2010 to 2014 he was a member of the cabinet of Herman Van Rompuy, the first full-time President of the European Council, as an advisor and chief speechwriter. Van Middelaar is best known for his 2009 book The Passage to Europe.

Biography

A native of Eindhoven, Van Middelaar studied history and philosophy at the University of Groningen and the Centre Raymond Aron of the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociale in Paris. In 1999 his master's thesis (doctoraalscriptie in Dutch) was published as Politicide and awarded the Prix de Paris and the Prize for Liberty (Nova Civitas). He became for a time an adviser and speechwriter to Frits Bolkestein (2002–2004) and Jozias van Aartsen (2004–2006). In 2009 he received his PhD from the University of Amsterdam with a cum laude distinction. In 2012 he was awarded the European Book Prize and the for The Passage to Europe and Socrates Prize in 2010 for the best philosophy book written in Dutch.

Since early 2015 he has had a weekly political column in NRC Handelsblad, taking up again a position he held from 2008 to 2009. In 2015 he was appointed Professor of the Foundations and Practice of the European Union and its Institutions at Leiden University in the Netherlands. He also holds a chair in European Values at the French-speaking Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. Since 2018 he has been a member of the Dutch Advisory Council on International Affairs.

In October 2022, van Middelaar co-founded the Brussels Institute for Geopolitics, a geopolitical think tank based in Brussels, Belgium where he continues to serve as director.

Bibliography

Books written by van Middelaar

  • Politicide: De moord op de politiek in de Franse filosofie (Politicide: The Murder of Politics in French Philosophy; master's thesis, published in the series Kennis, openbare mening, politiek). Amsterdam: Van Gennep, 1999.
  • De passage naar Europa, Geschiedenis van een begin. Groningen: Historische uitgeverij, 2009. Translated into 11 languages.
  • Translated into French 2012 as Le passage à l'Europe. Histoire d'un commencement. Paris: Gallimard. Revised edition with a new foreword.
  • Translated into English 2013 as The Passage to Europe: How a Continent Became a Union. London and New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Revised edition (including a Commentary section) with a new preface.
  • Translated into German 2016 as Vom Kontinent zur Union - Gegenwart und Geschichte des vereinten Europa. Berlin:Suhrkamp. New forewoonce more rd.
  • Improvisatie & Oppositie: De nieuwe politiek van Europa. Groningen: Historische Uitgeverij, 2017.
  • Translated into French 2018 as Quand l’Europe improvise: dix ans de crises politiques. Paris: Gallimard, Le Débat. Updated version.
  • Translated into English 2019 as Alarums and Excursions: Improvising Politics on the European Stage. New York: Agenda Publishing.
  • Een Europees pandemonium: Kwetsbaarheid en politieke kracht (A European pandemonium: Vulnerability and political power). Groningen: Historische Uitgeverij, 2021.
  • Translated into English 2021 as Pandemonium: Saving Europe. Newcastle upon Tyne: Agenda Publishing.

Books co-edited by van Middelaar

Selected articles

Van Middelaar writes for various European journals and newspapers including Le Débat, Le Monde.

Notes

External links