The idea for this volume came from the enigma that some Central and Eastern European (CEE) European Union (EU) member states have been keen to join the Eurozone while others have shown persistent reluctance. Moreover, the attitudes towards joining have seemingly not correlated with either the level of economic development or the time spent as part of the EU, nor with any other rational reason such as the level of integration into the EU real economy, or the level of trust in the EU on the part of the public. Therefore, at first sight, the answer to the question 'why in, why out?' remains rather unclear. The attractiveness of the currency union has nevertheless not disappeared for the CEE countries. Despite the Eurozone crisis of 2010-13, it was during that time that the Baltic states introduced the euro. Then, after a few years of inactivity, Croatia and Bulgaria successfully applied for membership of the exchange rate mechanism in July 2020, amid the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. At the same time, the three Visegrad countries still using their national currencies - Poland, Czechia and Hungary - no longer have a target date to join the monetary union. This volume aims to discuss these issues from horizontal aspects and through country studies, with contributions from expert authors from, or closely related to, the CEE region.

The idea for this volume came from the enigma that some Central and Eastern European (CEE) European Union (EU) member states have been keen to join the Eurozone while others have shown persistent reluctance. Moreover, the attitudes towards joining have seemingly not correlated with either the level of economic development or the time spent as part of the EU, nor with any other rational reason such as the level of integration into the EU real economy, or the level of trust in the EU on the part of the public. Therefore, at first sight, the answer to the question 'why in, why out?' remains rather unclear. The attractiveness of the currency union has nevertheless not disappeared for the CEE countries. Despite the Eurozone crisis of 2010-13, it was during that time that the Baltic states introduced the euro. Then, after a few years of inactivity, Croatia and Bulgaria successfully applied for membership of the exchange rate mechanism in July 2020, amid the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. At the same time, the three Visegrad countries still using their national currencies - Poland, Czechia and Hungary - no longer have a target date to join the monetary union. This volume aims to discuss these issues from horizontal aspects and through country studies, with contributions from expert authors from, or closely related to, the CEE region.

In the evolving post-Westphalian world regional entities become key political and economic players as the authors argue in this volume. As a result of regionalization, the international politics and economics is witnessing great transformations too. This volume explores some ideas of how these transformations may develop. It is written by three generations of researchers and scholars at European, Russian, and Asian higher education institutions. Their different perspectives are integrated in a coherent, multi-dimensional view to answer challenges facing what is called increasingly "Greater Eurasia". The volume employs a rigorous conceptual framework over a wide geographic range and applies different approaches to ask and answer challenging questions. The arguments presented in this book are built around the concepts of regionalism and transregionalism. The volume is focusing on three different geographical entities: Europe, Eurasia and East Asia, and examines ASEM, EAEU, BRI, EU, ASEAN, CIS, as well as TTIP, TTP, OBOR .