This book fosters critical reflection on Europe's place in a fast-changing global environment, covering the soft and hard facets of EU power along the spectrum of low politics-high politics. Taking an innovative case-study approach, it provides a wide understanding of European Studies and International Relations a beyond classical power considerations and addresses the crossroads of the two disciplines. Fundamentally, it addresses the specificity of the EU as an actor in International Relations and shows that the EU holds power and influence - creating opportunities for peace-making and peacebuilding - in a way classical IR theory would suggest it should not. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of European Studies, foreign policy analysis, International Relations, Security Studies, Political Science, History, Economics.

This book sheds new light on the socio-economic impact of multinational corporations. Combining Cultural Studies and International Political Economy, it provides a revealing analysis of the Walt Disney Company, and by extension the wider Hollywood studio system. It does so by examining the cultural and economic forces powering the industry's expansion, the 'civilisation' that Disney disseminates, and the various ways that societies beyond the USA have adopted facets of the Hollywood productions to which they are exposed. Identifying both the strengths and the weaknesses of these transnational firms, it demonstrates the significance of their contribution to American power and predominance.