Making often complex concepts easily comprehended, this book enables the reader to quickly build a solid and well-rounded understanding of the EU's history and present, covering:

• key debates on Europe
• the ambiguous relationship with the US
• the EU's internal and external activities
• structure and institutions
• future developments and new directions.

The Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) has come a long way since its inception as the European Security and Defence Identity under NATO. Yet more than a decade after emerging as an autonomous entity, with its own capacity for civilian crisis management and military action, the European Union's CSDP is still very much a work in progress. This fully revised and updated new edition provides the most comprehensive account available of the CSDP and the debates surrounding it. Written by a leading authority in the field, the second edition draws on the author's own extensive research in the area, including hundreds of interviews with key actors, and takes account of developments since the reforms of the Lisbon Treaty. A brand new chapter assesses international relations theory and European integration theory as tools to understand the CSDP, and critically engages with theoretical approaches that view security and defence policy as the exclusive domain of sovereign nation-states. The book concludes with an analysis of future hurdles for the European Union as it responds to new and often unpredictable crises across the globe.

This groundbreaking new textbook offers extensive coverage of EU External Action studies, from its major concepts to the key theories in the field. Over the past decades, the European Union has progressively developed into a significant global actor in an increasing number of policy fields. This long-awaited volume looks into different ways of conceptualizing the EU as a global actor, the processes and impact of EU external action, explanations offered by IR and integration theories, the discursive, normative, practice and gender 'turns', and the 'decentring agenda' for EU external action. The book offers a reader-friendly guidance on these various ways in which to study the EU as a global actor: each chapter introduces one concept, approach or theory and illustrates its application by a case study of EU external action. In drawing the different perspectives together, the book underscores that 'EU External Action Studies' is becoming an academic speciality in its own right. Written by leading experts, the volume will make essential reading for students, scholars and practitioners of EU external action. EU External Action Studies nowadays attract attention from scholars and students in International Relations (IR), Foreign Policy Analysis and (interdisciplinary) EU Studies, as well as from practitioners.

This text offers a concise and accessible coverage of the historical background, the organization and policies of the 15 social democratic parties in the European Union with a focus on the 1945-1990s period. It combines an updated study of the evolution of each party's ideology, sociology and policies, with attention also to the impact of European integration on the fortunes of social democratic forces. The book can be used as a reference text by academics, students and political practitioners and contains contact details and reference information for each party.;The book is aimed at departments of politics (European politics, politics of European Union, comparative politics and government, political ideology), sociology, history, European studies; trade unions, Left political parties in EU; political commentators, journalists, and party research centres.

This book is about Europe's apparent inability to cope with the complex international environment. Why does the Union fail to create a workable (sound) Common Foreign and Security Policy? Five distinct explanations for Euro-paralysis are considered, focusing on power politics, the assertion of national interests, misguided institutional designs, a crisis of modern democracy, and the post-Cold War conceptual confusion.

If the plans concerning EMU will be realised, by 2002 national currencies will be replaced by the Euro and national central banks will be partially replaced by the European Central Bank. The Politics of Economic and Monetary Union starts with the argument that EMU is more a political than an economic project. It develops this theme by addressing five different questions. First, precisely what is the general role of EMU in the globalising political economy? Second, how EMU will change the power relations and the relationship between political' and economic'? Third, what effects will EMU have on generally accepted values - including for example efficiency, self-determination, and democracy? Fourth, how does the EMU-related politics of symbols - including money - take part in constructing political identities? And last, but certainly not least, what effects EMU will have on the social and political dimension of the Union and thus also on its legitimacy? The politics of EMU includes many dimensions. The book tries to explain the hegemony of the neoliberal and German vision of Europe in the context of recent development in the global political economy. It assesses the consequences of this hegemony and the possibility for alternatives from a variety of perspectives. In many chapters, it is also argued that the legitimation problems of the Union may turn into an acute crisis also because of EMU. We should expect an actualised crisis to lead to a transformation of the Union.

In this important new book, John McCormick argues that the EU has become an economic and political superpower, whose new global role calls into doubt most of the recent assessments of unipolarity in world politics and American 'Empire'. In his inimitably clear and accessible style, McCormick shows how the rise of Europe has been underplayed because of traditional notions of power politics based on military might which, he argues, are much less relevant in the twenty-first century world than in the past.

This new text introduces the history, evolution and contemporary state of one of the European Union's most important, expensive and controversial policies. It examines the role that cohesion policy plays in European integration, as well as in economic development across regions, and analyzes the key debates and issues at stake.

Integration of the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) into the European Union (EU) has become more a question of timing than a question whether it will or should be made. Since one of the objectives of the EU is to establish a system ensuring competition in the internal market is not distorted the question arises if the CEECs can be integrated into such a competitive system. Which rules of competition are appropriate to improve the economic integration of the CEECs and to promote at the same time the enduring transition process? The relationship between competition policy and East-West integration is the general theme of the contributions in this book. One central issue of this volume is the way of integrating the Central and East European countries into the EU and supporting their development by liberalizing trade with the EU. A second issue is the implementation of a market economy in the post-socialist countries of Eastern Europe and in particular the aspect of implementing competition rules at a time when markets are just emerging. The twelve selected papers are organized in three sections: -Competition Policy and Integration (part 1); -Competition Policy During Transition (part 2); -Competition, Trade Policy and East-West-Integration (part 3).

This book analyses the European Parliament's relations with the national parliaments of the European Union, in terms of political party interactions, institutional arrangements, and two-way influence.;Each of the twelve chapters on the member-states of the EU covers three main themes: the links between party-political activity at the European and national levels; the degree of cooperation between the national and the European parliaments; and the extent to which the national legislature is influenced by the EP's resolutions or other communications.

The European nation state is now placed between the interconnected processes of globalization and European integration. This new book examines these evolving relationships, showing how the conventional territorial basis of the state is being reappraised.
Bringing together our leading thinkers on the nation state, this volume tackles key questions about how we should conceptualize measure and discuss the political significance of territory in today's world. For example, does the era of Europeanization and globalization herald the end of citizen's traditional attachment to their national territories? Do our conceptions of the state no longer correspond to contemporary political realities? These questions are approached from a range of positions that illuminate the debates now happening across the world.
Most accounts of the historical and contemporary significance of territory in Western European politics suffer from a combination of ambiguity and narrow focus. This book therefore delivers a clear set of key concepts, indicators and theoretical notions to carry out a historically and empirically grounded examination. It draws upon case studies from across Europe. The lessons and conclusions it details have a fascinating international scope and can be applied to our understanding of globalization, which it show to be intimately connected with European integration.
This is an invaluable book for all students of European integration, political science and international relations.

This accessible, user-friendly guide provides students with all the key information and analysis on the European Union and its policies.

It covers the main areas, such as the single market and budgeting, and also explores recent developments involving the introduction of the Economic and Monetary Union and the Treaty of Nice.
With the accession of ten new member States, the EU is experiencing dramatic changes and this is a comprehensive and thematic guide to all the recent developments. Companion to the European Union is an essential purchase for all students getting to grips with the complexities of the EU and is also an excellent resource for lecturers and professionals.

Why did France, with its strong sense of national identity, want to give up the Franc for the Euro? This book, by a former British diplomat in Paris, draws on new archive evidence to explore France's drive for European Economic and Monetary Union, and how unresolved Franco-German tensions over its design led to crisis.

This is the most comprehensive compilation of contacts and published information on the European Union, providing access to over 12,500 information sources. This major directory contains in-depth information on the key officials of each EU institution, publications, databases, diplomatic representation in Brussels, European-level trade and professional associations and NGOs, consultants and lawyers specializing in EU affairs, EU-accredited journalists, EU grants and loan programmes, and major website addresses.

This book is a unique attempt at a general assessment of European Union frontiers. Internal frontiers are losing some of their key functions but there are many responses to the new situation, as a case study of French frontiers abundantly illustrates. An examination of the EU external frontier shows that the EU is acquiring some state-like features, but the eastern frontier provides abundant evidence of the external frontier's complexity. The authors conclude that the increasing openness of national frontiers will continue, but their effective abolition, whether by European integration or through globalization, is improbable.

This book explores the causes and implications of the Libyan crisis since the anti-Gaddafi uprisings of 2011 from the perspective of the EU and NATO. It asks the question of why those organizations failed to stabilize the country despite the serious challenges posed by the protracted crisis to European and transatlantic stakes in the region. This book argues that such failure originated in a twofold problem common to both organizations: their prioritization of legitimacy over strategy, and their path dependence - the insufficient degree of adaptation to meet the different needs of the crisis. Through a critical and integrated analysis of official sources and extensive interviews with EU, NATO, UN, and national government officials and militaries, as well as from NGO personnel, Libyan institutions and civil society, and media, the volume brings the perspective of both state and non-state actors to the fore. It reveals how wrong assumptions and centrifugal forces within the EU and NATO hampered initiatives, and how the inability to use hard power judiciously and effectively in an increasingly complex and multifaceted scenario worsened the crisis. This allowed for unprecedented influence of regional and global competitors such as Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Turkey and Russia in the richest African country. This book will be of key interest for scholars and students of Libya and North Africa, NATO, the European Union, security and conflict studies, Middle East studies, migration, terrorism, peacebuilding and, more broadly, international relations.

Since the end of the Cold War, Europe has been the stage of a large-scale project of international socialization. European regional organizations such as the OSCE, the Council of Europe, NATO, and the EU assumed the task of inducting the transition countries to the liberal-democratic standards of the Western international community. How and when have Western organizations had an impact on the transformation of Europe? Why have they been successful in some countries but not in others? How can we adequately analyze and theorize international socialization in Europe? In a comparative analysis of nine countries, the book tests theoretical conditions and mechanisms of international norm promotion and shows that successful socialization has been a result of credible EU and NATO membership conditionality as well as moderate political costs of compliance for the target governments.

This timely contribution pulls no punches and views the UK as institutionally Eurosceptic across politics and society, from the press to defence. It represents a rich and original contribution to the emerging field of Eurosceptic studies, and a key contribution to this important issue.

Leading scholars explore the complex questions arising from the ongoing transformation of Europe through the deepening and widening effects of European integration. Based on authoritative analyses, the book takes account of the many national, transnational and international processes and contexts in which European integration has become embedded.

'A major contribution to the rethinking of the socialist project. The analysis is clear and profound and identifies the dilemmas but also the potential of contemporary socialism.' - Andrew Gamble, Professor of Politics, University of Sheffield;This comparative and theoretical account of the heritage and prospects of socialism in Western Europe characterises socialist political theory as transformative. Socialists counterpose objective social appraisal, such as the theory of capitalism, to implausibly ambitious agents of change - the proletariat or the interventionist state. This framework of analysis generates a comparative account of European socialist parties and their attitudes to international institutions - especially the European Union - and suggests a favourable prognosis for the future of socialism.

Europe's Economic Dilemma analyses the reasons why the European Union's growth rate has fallen during the last quarter of a century to little more than a third of its previous level. It concludes that the major reason has been politically driven attempts to lock EU currencies together in inappropriate economic circumstances. These have led to chronic deflation, rising unemployment and falling investment and competitiveness as EU Member States, without exchange rate flexibility, have found themselves unable to compete with Germany.

The European Union (EU) is in crisis. The crisis extends beyond Brexit, the fluctuating fortunes of the eurozone and the challenge of mass migration. It cuts to the core of the EU itself. Trust is eroding; power is shifting; politics are toxic; disillusionment is widespread; and solidarity has frayed. In this major new text leading academics come together to unpack all dimensions of the EU in crisis, and to analyse its implications for the EU, its member states and the ongoing study of European integration.

This volume examines the ways in which EU policies towards developing countries are changing in response to the challenges of globalization and the end of the Cold War. It analyzes the relationships between the 15 Member States and more than 140 countries throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Mediterranean, examining the recent evolution and prospects for the future from a multidisciplinary perspective. It shows how the EU is a central focus for developing countries, as both the largest source of aid and technical cooperation and as the world's largest market for their exports.

The European Union's evolution to become a global actor is examined through its relationship with the United States from the Yomkippur war to the Gulf conflict. Indepth case-studies of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, martial law in Poland 1981-82 and the Kurdish crisis in Iraq 1991 are shown to support a theoretical critique. The dominant 'realist' approach to international relations is unable to adequately explain transatlantic tensions in this period. New frameworks are needed to explain the 'agency-structure' of internal European and EU-US relationships.