The postwar roots of European defence

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Ahead of last week's NATO summit, The Conversation Weekly podcast visited Siena for the annual Vision Europe conference and interviewed political scientists Ana Juncos Garcia and Francesco Grillo about the future of the continent's security needs. Turns out there was talk of creating a European defence community after the second world war, but the French national assembly voted down ratification. As a result, NATO, with Washington as its anchor, became the continent's go-to. But in this episode we hear how European efforts to determine how to organise Europe's own defence are arguably even more pressing now.

The EU has made increasing renewable energy from offshore wind farms an essential part of its effort to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. But such installations cause impacts that can conflict with the protection of biodiverse and carbon-storing marine ecosystems. The key to harnessing offshore wind and protecting the oceans, write researchers Josep Lloret and Paul Wawrzynkowski, is maritime spatial planning, a tool that identifies areas that are better left farm-free and those where energy development is appropriate.

Only 14 kilometres from the European mainland, the Tangier Peninsula in Morocco is a "crossroads between continents and cultures", writes archaeologist and University of Barcelona doctoral student Hamza Benattia. In 2018, he began leading projects to explore an assumption that the area was "uninhabited and isolated" in late prehistoric times. The use of modern methods, mapping software, and field surveys and excavations with a team from Morocco's National Institute of Archaeology and Heritage resulted in discoveries of dozens of new sites including burials, rock art and standing stones. They point to "the existence of a complex prehistoric ritual landscape" and, according to Benattia, open new avenues for exploration.

Surf tourism has brought economic benefits to coastal areas around the world. But it has also raised concerns about environmental harm and ticked off locals who'd prefer to hang ten without the crowds. Jérémy Lemarié, a lecturer in sports management at the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne and a researcher in economic anthropology, looks at how countries and communities have sought to accommodate international wave seekers and regulate against their problematic effects.