This edited collection brings together distinguished scholars across a range of academic disciplines to explore how the European Union engages with culture. The book examines the ways in which cultural issues have been framed at the EU level and the policies and instruments to which they have given vent.

This book analyses the ongoing reform of the European economic union in the light of the new objective of 'stability of the euro area as a whole' in Article 136(3) TFEU. On the basis of the relevant legal sources, it qualifies this objective as the obligation to preserve the existence of the monetary union, the establishment of which was an EU goal laid down in Article 3(4) TEU. While to date the objective has been achieved through fiscal and macroeconomic consolidation in the member states and the activation of stabilisation mechanisms in cases of emergency, the book argues that full stability requires a better system of economic governance, either through a process of partial fiscal centralisation or the return to a more efficient and sustainable market discipline of public finances. It also analyses the concrete legal challenges these raise, including compliance with the conferral principle, the longstanding democratic deficit of the governance and the balance between financial solidarity and fiscal responsibility.

Resulting from an interdisciplinary dialogue between philosophy, political science and International Relations about Europe as a political community this volume rethinks the European political project beyond the rigid opposition between universalism and particularism approaching Europe as a space of the exposure of differences to each other.

At the turn of the century the regional-global security partnership became a key element of peace and security policy-making. This book investigates the impact of the joint effort made by the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN) to keep the peace and protect civilians in Darfur.

This book focuses on the collaboration that takes place in the field of conflict management between the global centre and the African regional level. It moves beyond the dominant framework on regional-global security partnerships, which mainly considers one-sided legal and political factors. Instead, new perspectives on the relationships are presented through the lens of international legitimacy. The book argues that the AU and the UN Security Council fight for legitimacy to ensure their positions of authority and to improve the chances of success of their activities. It demonstrates in regard to the case of Darfur why and how legitimacy matters for states, international organisations, and also for global actors and local populations.

Legitimacy, Peace Operations and Global-Regional Security will be of interest to students and scholars of International Relations, African Security and Global Governance.

In 2004 the European Union and NATO each added ten new member states, most from the post-communist countries of Eastern and Central Europe. In order to prepare for membership, these countries had to make many thousands of institutional and legal adjustments. Indeed, they often tried to modernize in just a few years, implementing practices that evolved over many decades in Western Europe. This book emphasizes the way that policy elites in Central and Eastern Europe often 'ordered from the menu' of established Western practices. When did this emulation of Western practices succeed and when did it result in a fiasco? Professor Jacoby examines empirical cases in agriculture, regional policy, consumer protection, health care, civilian control of the military, and military professionalism from Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Bulgaria, and the Ukraine. The book addresses debates in institutionalist theory, including conditionality, Europeanization, and external influences on democratic and market transitions.

The EU's 'social dimension' today is a product of the ideology of the 1990s. Its employment field is directed to increase the employability of workers and the adaptability of labor market regimes. The book argues that this social-liberal approach is best explained with a set of ideas strategically advanced by 'thought communities' in the policy process. It traces the success of this new approach in the debates among academic experts and policy-makers in the mid-1990s, the decisions leading to the adoption of the Treaty of Amsterdam, and the establishment of the approach in the policy field between 1997-2007. The author explores the processes through which ideas came to matter in the policy process. At every stage, the claim that ideas played a predominant role is strengthened by addressing the most viable alternative explanations such as institutional constraints set by Economic and Monetary Union and the preferences of political leaders.

The book examines the economic crisis in the European Union and its consequences for European integration and the member states. Discussing the provisions introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon, from the effects of macroeconomic monitoring to the restraints produced by the Fiscal Compact, it offers an analysis of the European Union's current situation and the effects of the measures adopted to manage the crisis, also making reference to how Europe is perceived by its citizens. Moreover, the chapters offer thoughts on the European integration process, in particular the effects that the policies adopted to tackle the crisis have had on the economic and financial sovereignty of the member states. This detailed examination of the situation of the EU between the Treaty of Lisbon and the Fiscal Compact is characterized by an original multidisciplinary approach that offers an articulate reflection on the criticalities that affect the actions of both European and national institutions.

The integration of the European Union may well be a worthwhile enterprise bringing many economic and social advantages, but integration faces many obstacles, from attachment to nationalism to opposition to a federal governmental system. Feld examines how the European Union countries arrived at their current situation and the prospects for further strengthening of ties. Feld contends that, given appropriate leadership in some EU member states, more and more citizens may begin to realize the advantages that flow from an effective combined effort, including a common currency capable of bringing extensive economic and social benefits to the EU population. As Feld maintains, the shape of future developments will depend on the number of added EU members and their economic and sociological histories. A work of value to students and researchers involved with the political and economic integration of Europe.

This book consists of a collection of essays that deal with glocalization in Europe, including the idea of Europeanization as glocalization. The contributors deal with a range of topics including migration, media, football, beauty, Christianity, democracy and the European Union.

This book provides a detailed study into whether Ministers in the Council vote the same way as Members of the European Parliament if they are from the same national party. The author explores the voting behavior of national representatives at the EU level, and this analysis is combined with insights from interviews with practitioners to shed light on the influence of national parties in the legislative process of the EU. This influence is found to be limited, as ministers in the Council and Members of the European Parliament submit to the constraints in their respective institutions rather than strictly voting along party lines. The study enhances our knowledge not only with regard to the role of national parties at the EU level, but also concerning the inter- and intra-institutional decision-making processes in the European Union. This book will particularly be of use to scholars and upper-level students interested in EU studies, legislative behaviour, and party politics.

EU foreign policy has long been considered the exclusive domain of member states. This book challenges such conventional state-centered wisdom by analyzing the influence of the Brussels-based EU officials in the sensitive area of security and defense. It asks why the member states have delegated important functions to the EU and continues to examine how EU civil servants affect the planning and conduct of civilian and military operations.
Using multiple case studies and unique insights from over a hundred interviews, this book shows how everyday security policy is made in practice. Whether it concerns the deployment of uniformed personnel to Aceh, Bosnia, Chad or Kosovo, the EU officials in the Council and the European External Action Service shape outcomes and make a difference. This book will be of interest to scholars, students and practitioners of EU foreign policy.

The Euro-Zone represents the single most important step in European Integration since 1957 and one of the boldest economic, monetary, and political projects in modern history. In this first major study, the author examines the major political questions raised by the birth of the Euro-Zone on January 1 1999 and argues for a more politically informed analysis and assessment of its nature, operation, and prospects. How does the Euro-Zone operate? What does it mean for European States and for the political strategies of governments? How is its operation to be explained? What are its prospects for stability? What kinds of policies are needed to strengthen its capacity to withstand crisis? The book stresses the ECB-centric nature of the Euro-Zone and its implications both for policy and polices in Europe and for theories of integration. The ECB emerges as a powerful 'policy pusher' and 'ideational leader', with an authority and power exceeding that of the European Commission in the integration process. Dyson examines the elated problems of social justice, democratic consent, and identity. He also argues that the Euro-Zone represents a process of transition to the EU as a 'stabilization Staten An innovative aspect of the book is its application of a strength-strain model for the purpose of analyzing and assessing the stability of the Euro-Zone. It concludes that the stability of the Euro-Zone will be strongly conditioned by three factors: how Kantian rather than Hobbesian or Lockeian its political culture proves to be, with a key reproducibility failing here on the quality of political leadership; its possession of policy interments to tackle liquidity as well as debt traps; and the speed and efficiency of mechanisms of 'bench marking, policy transfer, and 'lesson-drawing'.

The author shows how sustainable development may be organized, valued and distributed by introducing situational contracting as an interactive and contextual mode of governance. Situational contracting provides a road map for where we want to go, serving the prevailing ideology in implementing the trade between efficiency and fairness.

This book assesses the instruments and measures geared towards determining the EU's relations with it's neighbours. These are channelled on the one hand by the enlargement policy focusing on the Western Balkans and on the other hand by the neighbourhood policy which will enable the integration of Central and Eastern European neighbouring countries without offering membership. Both of these policies have strong local and regional effects in the EU's neighbouring countries. However, little attention has been paid to the perceptions of and impact of these policies in the neighbouring countries themselves. By presenting theoretical contributions and empirical case studies drawing on qualitative and ethnographic fieldwork, this book provides new insights that will be of great interest for students, researchers and practitioners in the fields of Geography, Sociology, Political Science and European Studies.

Macro-regional strategies seek to improve the interplay of the EU with existing regimes and institutions, and foster coherence of transnational policies. Drawing on macro-regional governance and Europeanization, this edited volume provides an overview of processes of macro-regionalization in Europe displaying evidence of their significant impact.

In accordance with Article 102 of the Charter and the relevant General Assembly Resolutions, every treaty and international agreement registered or filed and recorded with the Secretariat since 1946 is published in the United Nations Treaty Series. At present, the collection includes about 30,000 treaties reproduced in their authentic languages, together with translations into English and French, as necessary.

This thought-provoking book examines the socio-legal mechanisms that drive EU constitutional tensions, as well as the role of principles and values in re-directing EU law and policy towards a democratic Social Europe. It addresses the current limits of Social Europe in relation to different areas of EU law, offering a critical assessment of the present status of EU integration. Covering areas such as posting of workers, the right to collective bargaining, political rights and free movement for EU citizens, and asylum policy, chapters provide a cross-disciplinary and policy-oriented treatment of these subjects alongside focused legal analysis. Complementing traditional concepts and methodologies with newly emerged empirical elements, the book exposes the EU's inherent tensions while also offering new perspectives on the ways in which EU constitutional principles, rooted in solidarity, could inform a future Social Europe. Law, Solidarity and the Limits of Social Europe will be a stimulating read for scholars and students of EU law and social policy. It will also be of interest to legal practitioners, policy makers and civil society organisations working in fields related to Social Europe.

In this timely volume, the ongoing, dramatic economic and geopolitical changes in NAFTA and the European Union are examined. Gianaris pays particular attention to the potential for stronger economic cooperation between North America and Western Europe. This unique book deals with similarities in economic organizations and related fiscal and monetary policies as they affect trade and financial transactions between these regions, and provides a detailed examination of trade and investment relations, capital flows, and currency realignments as well as transatlantic joint ventures. In addition, it deals with problems of privatization, employee participation, closer integration, and the challenge of enlarging NAFTA to include other Latin American countries and the European Union to include Eastern Europe. Gianaris weaves together a historical framework with comparative studies of the nation-states of NAFTA and the European Union. He discusses structural changes and the main problems and developments in the relationships between NAFTA and the European Union as well as problems of mutual trade, investments, and joint ventures. A useful book for students, scholars, and investors with a broad range of interests in the American and European continents.

This book tells the inside story of Europe's first presidential campaign, the candidates, how they were chosen, the campaign trail, the TV debates and the tense negotiations which followed. It explains what led to this new way of choosing the Commission president and what it means for the future of the EU.

This book builds on the six years of hands-on experience that the author had while working in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It provides an overview and history of NATO, looks at the political and military components of the Alliance, as well as the military command from the perspective of real-world contemporary NATO operations and planning. The author also looks at the military training, lessons, and exercise components and how it prepares forces to support upcoming NATO Response Force (NRF) rotations to ensure that NATO is a viable threat deterrent and responsive organization to both Article 5 and non-Article 5 operations. This book will serve as a primer into the world's longest enduring Alliance and one that has made an impact on real world operations over the last 20 years in Europe (Bosnia and Kosovo), Africa (Libya), Asia (Afghanistan and Pakistan), and the Middle East (Iraq).

What would it mean for the EU to be a legitimate body, and where do our ideas on this question come from? In this award winning book, Claudia Schrag Sternberg explores some of the most significant questions surrounding the legitimacy of the European Union. Specifically, The Struggle for EU Legitimacy traces the history of constructions and contestations of the EU's legitimacy, in discourses of the European institutions and in public debate. Through an interpretive, non-quantitative textual analysis of an eclectic range of sources, it examines both long-term patterns in EU-official discourses and their reception in member-state public spheres, specifically in the German and French debates on the Maastricht and Constitutional Draft Treaties. The story told portrays the history of legitimating the EU as a never-ending contest over the ends and goals of integration, as well as a balancing act - which was inescapable given the nature of the integration project - between 'bringing the people in' and 'keeping them out', and between actively politicising and deliberately de-politicising the stakes of EU politics. Schrag Sternberg suggests that continuous contestation is not only a defining feature of this history, but a source of legitimacy in its own right.

Moving from the birth of Europe to the current crisis, this text questions the relevance of the Union today. Will Europe sink back into instability and rivalry? Is the sovereign debt crisis merely the beginning of intractable economic challenges? These pressing issues are addressed in a topical portrait of a Europe in decline.

Today's embassy blends tradition and change. It accommodates multiple state and non-state actors who jostle on the international stage. This innovative study considers why embassies today are especially relevant to the international system, examining the new representation options and global diplomacy techniques in an information age.Located at the cutting edge of sustaining relations with foreign countries, the embassy plays an expanded role of in bilateral, regional and multilateral affairs, as a promoter of national interests. As foreign ministries and diplomatic networks are expected to deliver more whilst material and human resources in public services are shrinking, this text addresses how embassies can improve their functioning, working in an enlightened, empowered and effective manner. Supported by empirical research and interviews with diplomats and other professionals, alongside unique insights into the experiences of developing countries, The Contemporary Embassy will be a valuable resource for diplomacy scholars and practitioners alike.

Critics like to depict the European Union as undemocratic and unpopular, but their arguments are too often based on myths and misunderstandings. This does us all a disservice, and in this period of uncertainty about the future of Europe it is more important than ever that we have a firm grasp of the issues at stake. This powerful new book debunks the misconceptions surrounding the EU and makes a compelling and comprehensive case for the benefits of European integration. It shows how the EU has improved the lives of Europeans in countless ways, and how it has given Europe a powerful presence on the international stage. Guaranteed to illuminate as well as spark debate, this book will appeal to anyone who seeks to better understand what Europe means and why it matters.

The human right to survive and develop, a fundamental premise of the "U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child," can be attained only if adequate living conditions are secured for the child. This book reviews the significance of the physical, mental, spiritual, moral, and social aspects of holistic child development called for by Article 27 of the "Convention." The editors share a vision of childhood wherein the child is accorded dignity, and opportunities exist to promote advancement of human potential. Contributors from several nations and a variety of disciplines, including psychology, law, social work, medicine, economics, and international studies, address the challenge of identifying adequate living conditions across cultures and discuss issues affecting communities and governments as they attempt to fulfill their responsibilities to children and their families. Key themes throughout the book are the significance of the child's perspective, the primacy of the family environment, the need to balance the interests of diverse cultures while reducing historical inequities, and the ecological interdependence of children, families, communities, and nations. The editors and contributors call for organized social and political action to realize the child's right to develop, including ways to measure and monitor children's well-being beyond survival.