This edited collection addresses a paradox at the heart of the European Union: if it is a constantly enlarging empire of governance, how can almost thirty member states design policies as an administrative whole, whilst narrowly approaching all political issues from one economic point of view? The contributors to this collection approach this by studying knowledge production, policy formation and policy implementation in the union. The topics covered include the history of the union, its nature as an empire in the making compared to historical successors as well as current USA and China, formation of union level statistical data and policy documents, paradoxes of fiscal governance, social innovation policy, youth and education policy, energy policy and foreign policy with particular regard to Russia. The concluding chapter outlines five alternative future scenarios for the union extending from collapse and marginalization to the emergence of a federal empire. The book is essential reading for anybody interested in the EU, including students and scholars across a range of disciplines, including sociology, political science, international relations, economics, management studies, public and social policy, science and technology studies, and environmental policy.

It is generally accepted that collective identity among member states in regional organizations strengthens peace, yet the process of constructing a collective identity can also reproduce conflict. Focusing on the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, this book demonstrates how collective identity depends on the construction of outsider states, such as Morocco, Turkey, and Australia, as different, and in some instances, as threatening. It then analyzes how these regional organizations can consequently aggravate conflicts involving outsider states.

This book, first published in 1973, analyses the European Community in a global perspective. It asks and answers two main questions: what does the European Community mean to the masses of the world, and what does it mean to the world community in general? Most critical studies of the EC were made from an internal point of view, and this book is rare in having an external perspective. The author discussed the EC with diverse audiences in 16 countries, and his analyses are invaluable in putting the European project in an international context.

David Begg examines how four small open economies- Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Ireland- have managed the stresses and strains of Europeanisation since the single market came into being, and as fault lines begin to appear within the European integration project. In particular, he drills down into the Irish Polity to see how its institutions have engaged with Europe and how decisions on critical issues like integration, EMU and Social Partnership were reached. He finds that both Ireland and Europe are at a critical juncture for different but interconnected reasons, and identifies the options that are available to them.

The term 'Eurocracy' is a word that exists in all European languages. Yet beyond fantasized representations of the 'Brussels bubble', we know little about members of the European Parliament, Commissioners, European civil servants, lobbyists, members of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank, European trade unionists, diplomats and journalists who work in or around the EU institutions? What are their social and professional trajectories, the type of authority they possess, and how does it matter? Based on extensive fieldwork, this volume aims at answering these questions by building upon Pierre Bourdieu's theory of the field of bureaucracy. 45 years after Altiero Spinelli's 'The Eurocrats', this book sheds new light on the relational structures that underpin the functioning of the EU polity. Specialists of European affairs, scholars and students in politics, administration and sociology as well as citizens will find original insights to understanding EU institutions and why the European project appears to be in crisis.

Rethinking the Future of Europe has brought together three contrasting collections of contributions: the incrementalist perspective concerning the step by step development of Europe, the more radical reform/restructuring approach to the future of Europe, and a view of Europe from the outside.

This two-volume book provides an important overview to EU economic and policy issues related to the development of the bioeconomy. What have been the recent trends and what are the implications for future economic development and policy making? Where does EU bioeconomy policy sit within an international context and what are the financial frameworks behind them? Volume I explores the economic theory of bioeconomy policy, as well as European integration, European agriculture, EU budget and future developments in EU agriculture policies.

This book analyses how domestic and European structures impact on national actors' identities, interests and foreign policy practices. Employing Norway as the case study area, the author uses this nation as an example to assess Europeanization and identity politics across the European Union (EU). Utilising an original and innovative approach called 'social constructivist fusion perspective', the author addresses Europeanization across several key factors. The author assesses the influence of the EU on 'half-way member countries', and the impact of identity politics and domestic structures, which factors contribute to or hinder Europeanization, and attempts to empirically measure Europeanization at the actor level. It analyses the impact of domestic and European structures on the identities, interests, attitudes and foreign policy practices of the Norwegian policy-makers. Whilst contributing to knowledge and literature on how constructivist approaches can be utilized in empirical studies of political elites, this book goes beyond theory to demonstrate that Europeanization is not only institutional, and provides evidence of the influence of identity politics. Europeanization, Integration and Identity will be or interest to students, scholars and policy-makers in the field of European Union politics, international relations, social constructivism and Scandinavian politics.

Following the disintegration of the Soviet bloc, many Central and Eastern European Countries launched a vigorous "return to Europe" campaign, which primarily focused on accession to NATO and the European Union. By 2007, ten countries became members of the Euro-Atlantic community, personifying the long-awaited reunification and reconciliation of Europe. The book argues that the EU and NATO eastern enlargements represent a settlement of historical-psychological accounts for countries affected by the "black trinity" the Munich Agreement, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and the Yalta-Potsdam Conferences.

This book examines civil society empowerment during the EU enlargement process. Building on extensive fieldwork, it compares mobilisation around rule of law issues in Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia. Moving beyond the traditional focus on the top-down impact of EU support, it demonstrates NGOs' agency and analyses their shifting strategies throughout the membership negotiations. Its approach and findings will appeal to scholars and advanced students of EU integration, social movements, and the politics of South East Europe.

In cultural and intellectual terms, one of the EU's most important objectives in pursuing unification has been to develop a common historical narrative of Europe. Across ten compelling case studies, this volume examines the premises underlying such a project to ask: Could such an uncontested history of Europe ever exist? Combining studies of national politics, supranational institutions, and the fraught EU-Mideast periphery with a particular focus on the twentieth century, the contributors to History and Belonging offer a fascinating survey of the attempt to forge a post-national identity politics.

This book explores what drives value politics and the way in which it redraws political conflict at EU level. Based on case studies and analyses of statistical data, the book shows what the uses and roles of values have been at EU level over the past decades in both market-related policies and in identity, cultural and morality policies. It challenges the common assumption that the latter is more driven by value conflicts. The research shows the intrinsic similarities between all policy areas regarding the agency and limits of values as drivers of change or continuity. It argues that European values are a broad and flexible symbolic repertoire instrumentalised to serve as a resource for mobilization, legitimation/delegitimation, the conquest and conservation of power. This book will be of key interest to both scholars and students in European studies/politics, comparative politics, public policy, political theory, sociology and cultural studies, as well as appealing to professionals of European affairs within and around the EU institutions.

The third edition of this book incorporates more than 10 years of fascinating dynamics since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. Apart from analysing the general basis of the Union's external action and its relationship to international law, the book explores the law and practice of the EU in more specialized fields of external action, such as common commercial policy, neighbourhood policy, development cooperation, cooperation with third countries, humanitarian aid, external environmental policy, and common foreign and security policy, as well as EU sanctions. Five years after the second edition published, this fully updated edition contains major developments within the law itself, along with changes and restructuring of the themes within the book. Carefully selected primary documents are accompanied with analytic commentary on the issues they raise and their significance for the overall structure of EU external relations law. The primary materials selected include many important legal documents that are hard to find elsewhere but give a vital insight into the operation of EU external relations law in practice.

This book discusses the politics of justice in relation to migration addressing both the controversies of governance and the active role of migrants' struggles in shaping the materiality of justice. Considering justice and migration as globally contested fields, the book questions received wisdoms of European migration politics, including images of a migratory 'crises', the reconfiguration of the borders of justice, and the spurious pretensions of controlling and governing mobility. Gathering global scholars from migration studies, international relations and critical theory, as well as social activists, it advances an extended concept of contestation that goes beyond the simple clash of interests between national and international political actors. As such the book expands the discourse to a wider politics of justice and advances different angles and methodological perspectives from which to question purely normative conceptions of justice. Looking beyond the simple transformations in laws and regulations, the book updates the debate on migration adopting a global perspective. This book is of key interest to scholars and students of migration studies, European studies, global justice, and labour, gender and EU studies.

The euro crisis, several sovereign debt crises, the Great Recession, the refugee crisis, and Brexit have all challenged Europeans' willingness to show solidarity with other European citizens and member states of the European Union. European Solidarity in Times of Crisis provides a clear theoretical framework to understand European solidarity for the first time. It offers a systematic empirical approach to determine the strength and causes of European solidarity. The authors distinguish between four domains of solidarity and test a set of theoretically derived criteria with a unique dataset to investigate European solidarity. Based on a survey conducted in thirteen EU member states in 2016, the empirical analysis leads to some unanticipated results. Europeans display a notably higher degree of solidarity than many politicians and social scientists have presumed so far. This especially applies to the support of people in need (welfare solidarity) and the reduction of territorial disparities between rich and poor EU countries (territorial solidarity), but also to the domain of fiscal solidarity (financial support of indebted EU countries). This optimistic view is less true for the domain of refugee solidarity. While citizens of western and southern EU countries accept the accommodation of refugees and their allocation between European countries, the majority of people in eastern European countries do not share this point of view. The book will appeal to students and scholars in fields such as comparative sociology, political science, social policy and migration research, and European studies. It is also relevant to a non-academic audience interested in the development of the European project.

This book analyses European foreign policy as the activity of the European Union (EU) as a global actor and explores its efforts to raise its visibility in Southeast Asia through its relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Myanmar. Contributors examine the EU's engagement in a process of dynamic consolidation of its relationship with Asia and the Pacific region. They shed light on how interregional relations with ASEAN and interactions with Myanmar can be viewed as a perfect opportunity to promote the EU's presence in the region. Chapters examine the EU's efforts to inspire Myanmar to connect with security cooperation and Myanmar's engagement with the EU to diversify its foreign relations with China. The book also explores the extent to which the EU has failed regarding the Rohingya crisis and whether the EU's effort to support the peace process in Myanmar has been beneficial. A timely and important contribution to the growing literature on the EU's role in the world and its relations with East and Southeast Asia, this book will be of interest to academics in the field of International Relations, European Politics and Foreign Policy, Comparative Regionalism, East Asian and Southeast Asian Studies.

Citizens' Solidarity in Europe systematically dissects the manifestations of solidarity buried beneath the official policies and measures of public authority in Europe. This critical book provides a comparative analysis of eight European countries, illustrating the scale of support for cross-national solidarity from both individuals and civic organizations. Contributors offer comprehensive and original data, analysing opinion polls, organizational fields and media content, to unpack the thoughts, opinions and attitudes of civil society. Chapters highlight the detrimental factors that tend to inhibit or annihilate solidarity, and those that are beneficial for the nurturing of solidarity. Offering innovative ideas and fresh data, this book will be crucial reading for researchers and students of sociology and political science, particularly those focused on European and comparative studies. Journalists, NGOs, public authorities and politicians will also benefit from its unique insight into public opinion. Contributors include: S. Baglioni, V.K. Brandle, M. Cinalli, O. Eisele, V. Federico, M. Grasso, M. Kousis, C. Lahusen, A. Loukakis, T. Montgomery, M. Paschou, H.-J. Trenz

This book explores the concept and practice of resilience that has generated much debate among both scholars and practitioners. The contributions propose a new understanding of resilience, both as a quality and a way of thinking, taking it to the level of 'the person' and 'the local', to argue that a more sustainable way to govern the world today is bottom-up and inside-out. While carrying a seemingly unifying message of self-reliance, adaptation and survival in the face of adversity, resilience curiously continues to appear as 'all things to all people', making it hard for the EU and international institutions to make full use of its arresting potential. Engendering resilience today, in the highly volatile and uncertain world hit by crises, pandemic and diminishing control, becomes a priority as never before. This book develops a more comprehensive view of resilience by looking at it both as a quality of the system and a way of thinking inherent to 'the local' that cannot be engineered from the outside. It is argued in this volume that in some cases the level of 'the person', especially the person's sense of what constitutes a 'good life', may be the most appropriate focus for understanding change and strategic adaptation in response to it. This understanding widens the scope of discussion from what makes an entity, system or person more adaptable, to how one can best govern today to establish a stable equilibrium between the global and the local, the external and the internal, and become more responsive to the challenges and changes of today's highly uncertain world. The chapters in this book were originally published in the journal Contemporary Security Policy.

This book examines the ability of the EU and European actor networks to coherently and effectively navigate, manage, and influence debates and policy on the international stage. It also questions whether increasing complexity across a range of critical global issues and networks has affected this ability. Engaging with the growing theoretical and conceptual literature on networks and complexity, the book provides a deeper understanding of how the European Union and European actors navigate within global networks and complex regimes across a range of regulatory, policy cooperation, and foreign and security policy issue areas. It sheds light on how far they are able to respond to and shape solutions to some of the most pressing challenges on the global agenda in the 21st century. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of EU/European and global networks and more broadly to European and EU studies, Global Governance, International Relations, International Political Economy, and Foreign Policy and Security Studies.

This book explores the images and perceptions of the EU in the eyes of their Strategic Partners. Spanning four continents, these ten important global actors - the BRICS together with the USA, Canada, Japan, South Korea and Mexico - are of profound significance to the EU in economics, politics, security and global governance. In 2015, the volume's editors and contributors were commissioned by the European External Action Service to research these countries' perceptions towards the EU. The research highlights how in changing multilateral settings, images and perceptions significantly influence the behaviour and foreign policy choices of actors. The findings presented in this book helped to inform the content and focus of the 2016 EU Global Strategy, and will be of interest to scholars, students and practitioners of EU foreign policy, European integration and public diplomacy.

Comitology is the most important form of multi-level governance in the European Union. Member State and Commission actors together create roughly 2,500 executive acts per year, amounting to about half of all European laws together. But to what degree is this unknown and invisible committee system being held to account for its decisions? This book for the first time addresses accountability in truly multi-level terms. It looks at accountability foreseen in the constitutional setup of the comitology system, as well as at how this plays out in practice at the European level and within national governments. Controlling Comitology combines findings from different levels of government, and analyses a plurality of data sources including interviews, survey data of committee participants and their superiors, legislative databases and meeting documents. The book argues that accountability has steadily improved over time, but also that unexpected gaps have emerged. This books is important reading for student and scholars of comitology as well as accountability and law-making in the European Union.

Hardbound. After years of debate and a turbulent passage through Congress, The North American Free Trade Agreement came into effect on 1st January 1994. The agreement heralds a new era in North America's economic and political behavior and will dominate the international economic arena of the western hemisphere in the coming decades.In order to understand the implications and challenges of NAFTA on both a domestic and international level, this book examines the corporate, managerial and financial consequences for the participating countries (United States, Canada and Mexico), as well as the wider impact of economic regionalism in the new world order, especially in relation to the European Union.An overview of the agreement itself is followed by analysis from an external perspective and an examination of intra-regional issues.

Investigating the unique EU-CARICOM legal relationship, this book explores the major theme of globalisation, which shapes inter-regional organisations individually and determines their relationship to one another. It evaluates how EU-CARICOM relations have fostered trade, security and other development measures, reflecting on the past, future and present of the Caribbean states that are active in the EU-CARICOM framework. Providing case studies on key issues such as immigration, tax and energy, it examines the impact that the EU-CARICOM has on the slave trade and the deportation of millions of people. Such bitter experiences still indirectly shape culture, hopes and the economic framework of possibilities today; therefore, the focus of the volume is on the issues which the constant stream of globalisation creates. The book assesses many potential impacts that the agenda of the EU and Brexit pending will have upon the EU-CARICOM relationship, given the potential for these to create instability. Overall, it highlights how the EU and CARICOM are representations for multilateralism and serve as models that provide the basis for many successful initiatives and agreements. In all new agreements and negotiations, the will to accept the Sustainable Development Goals and thus to make inequality, climate change and other goals of the SDGs the basis of an order that puts people at the centre, are evaluated, and the global agenda 2030 and its impact on EU-CARICOM. Overall, it highlights how the EU and CARICOM are representations for multilateralism and serve as models that provide the basis for many successful initiatives and agreements. In all new agreements and negotiations, the will to accept the Sustainable Development Goals and thus to make inequality, climate change and other goals of the SDGs the basis of an order that puts people at the centre, are evaluated, and the global agenda 2030 and its impact on EU-CARICOM.

In this volume an international cast of contributors analyze and discuss the role of societal actors in European integration from the creation of the present-day European Union in 1958 to the Maastricht Treaty in 1992. Based throughout on newly accessible sources the authors discuss a variety of societal actors from political parties to business groups and civil society organizations demonstrating the scope and limits of their role in European polity-building and policy-making before the Maastricht Treaty, with an outlook on the period since then. This is an important text for students and Scholars of European Studies, European Union Politics and contemporary History.

This book analyses the European Union's (EU) role in conflict resolution and reconciliation in Europe. It argues that the evolution of the policy mix, resources, framing influences and political opportunities - through which European integration affects conflicts and processes of conflict resolution - demonstrates a historical trend through which the EU has become an indispensable factor of conflict resolution. It begins by examining policy-making at the European level for the management of particular sectors such as early integration in the European Coal and Steel Community, before analysing the function of core EU policies (Northern Ireland), the challenges of enlargement (Cyprus) and the European perspective for the Western Balkans (Kosovo). The book will be of value to academics and non-expert observers alike with an interest in European integration and peace studies. -- .