Luuk Johannes van Middelaar (born 9 May 1973 in
Eindhoven
Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 January 2022,[historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...]
and
political philosopher
Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, l ...
. From December 2009 to 2014 he was a member of the ''cabinet'' of
Herman Van Rompuy
Herman Achille, Count Van Rompuy (; born 31 October 1947) is a Belgian politician, who served as the prime minister of Belgium from 2008 to 2009 and then as the first permanent president of the European Council from 2009 to 2014.
A politicia ...
, the first full-time
President of the European Council
The president of the European Council is the person presiding over and driving forward the work of the European Council on the world stage. This institution comprises the college of heads of state or government of EU member states as well as t ...
. Van Middelaar is best known for his book ''The Passage to Europe'' (originally published in 2009 and widely translated).
Van Middelaar studied history and philosophy at the
University of Groningen
The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a Public university#Continental Europe, public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen (city), Groningen in ...
and the
Centre Raymond Aron
Center or centre may refer to:
Mathematics
* Center (geometry), the middle of an object
* Center (algebra), used in various contexts
** Center (group theory)
** Center (ring theory)
* Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...
of the
École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociale in Paris. In 1999 his master's thesis (''doctoraalscriptie'' in
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
) was published as ''Politicide'' and awarded the Prix de Paris and the
Prize for Liberty
Nova Civitas was a Flanders, Flemish think tank based on the principles of liberalism, classic liberalism in combination with Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon conservatism. Nova Civitas claimed at its founding to be completely independent, although it was ...
(
Nova Civitas
Nova Civitas was a Flemish think tank based on the principles of classic liberalism in combination with Anglo-Saxon conservatism. Nova Civitas claimed at its founding to be completely independent, although it was recognized and supported by the Fl ...
). He became for a time an adviser and speechwriter to
Frits Bolkestein
Frederik "Frits" Bolkestein (; born 4 April 1933) is a retired Dutch politician and businessman who served as Leader of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) from 1990 to 1998 and European Commissioner for Internal Market from 1999 ...
(2002-2004) and
Jozias van Aartsen
Jozias Johannes van Aartsen (. born 25 December 1947) is a retired Dutch politician who served as Leader of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy from 2004 to 2006.
A native of The Hague, he attended the Christelijk Gymnasium Sorghvliet ...
(2004-2006). In 2009 he received his
PhD from the
University of Amsterdam
The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...
with a ''cum laude'' distinction. In 2012 he was awarded the
European Book Prize
The European Book Prize (french: Le Prix du Livre Européen) is a European Union literary award established in 2007. It is organized by the association Esprit d'Europe in Paris. It seeks to promote European values, and to contribute to European ci ...
and the
Prix Louis Martin 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
Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince o ...
in the Netherlands. He also holds a chair in European Values at the French-speaking
Catholic University of Louvain
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
in Belgium. Since 2018 he has been a member of the Dutch Advisory Council on International Affairs.
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
* with Madelon de Keizer: ''Utopie: utopisch denken, doen en bouwen in de twintigste eeuw'' (Utopia: Utopian Thinking, Acting and Building in the Twentieth Century) (Jaarboek van het
Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie). Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 2002.
* with Philippe Van Parijs: ''After the Storm: How to Save Democracy in Europe'' with contributions from, among others,
Amartya Sen
Amartya Kumar Sen (; born 3 November 1933) is an Indian economist and philosopher, who since 1972 has taught and worked in the United Kingdom and the United States. Sen has made contributions to welfare economics, social choice theory, econom ...
,
Pierre Manent
Pierre Manent (; born 6 May 1949, Toulouse) is a French political scientist and academic. He teaches political philosophy at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, in the Centre de recherches politiques Raymond Aron. Every autumn, he ...
,
Jürgen Habermas
Jürgen Habermas (, ; ; born 18 June 1929) is a German social theorist in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. His work addresses communicative rationality and the public sphere.
Associated with the Frankfurt School, Habermas's wor ...
,
Ivan Krastev
Ivan Krastev ( bg, Иван Кръстев, born 1965 in Lukovit, Bulgaria), is a Political Scientist, political scientist, the chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, permanent fellow at the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom M ...
,
David Miller,
Pierre Rosanvallon
Pierre Rosanvallon (born 1 January 1948) is a French historian and sociologist. He was named a professor at the Collège de France in 2001, holding the chair in modern and contemporary political history.
Career
His works are dedicated to the his ...
and
Larry Siedentop
Sir Larry Alan Siedentop (born 24 May 1936) is an American-born British political philosopher with a special interest in 19th-century French liberalism. He is the author of ''Democracy in Europe'' and an occasional contributor to several major Br ...
. Tielt: Lannoo, 2015.
Selected articles
Van Middelaar writes for various European journals and newspapers including ''
Le Débat
''Le Débat'' was a bi-monthly French periodical that appeared from 1980 to 2020. Founded by Pierre Nora and Marcel Gauchet, and associated with French left-wing politics, it was characterised as the "single most influential intellectual periodica ...
'', ''Le Monde''.
''The Guardian'', 27 March 2017.
Notes
External links
''Politicide'' - from the Foundation for the Production and Translation of Dutch Literature* Luuk van Middelaar
Columns NRC Handelsblad* Luuk van Middelaar
Personal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Middelaar, Luuk van
1973 births
Living people
20th-century Dutch philosophers
21st-century Dutch philosophers
21st-century Dutch historians
Political philosophers
University of Amsterdam alumni
People from Eindhoven