Continuity and Change in Contemporary Europe focuses on the dramatic events in Eastern and Western Europe over recent years, events which have not produced the 'golden age' which many people expected when the Berlin Wall came down. In fact, Europe in the 1990s is, the authors argue, in many ways a more uncertain place than it was before 1989. This is not due simply to recent events themselves, but also to longer term historical problems. Hence the book traces the complex interplay of past continuities and present day changes in an increasingly unified Europe by looking at national experiences and at the broader international and institutional context.The authors cover the status quo in the aftermath of the last war, economic and social growth and attempts at European integration; the new developments of the 1980s with the surge in Western European integration, glasnost and perestroika, and the revolutions in Eastern Europe; and giving special attention to the problems of the 1990s, in the European Union, inside the states of Europe, and in security and international affairs. Undergraduates will find Continuity and Change in Contemporary Europe especially helpful since it deals not just with history, but current affairs, the emerging challenges with which Europe is increasingly faced, and ways to understand them.

In the latter part of a turbulent century for Europe, France and Germany have been at the forefront of the developments that have shaped both Western and Eastern Europe. Having initiated and controlled economic and monetary union, the greater goal is now that of further European integration, and the Franco-German dynamic is likely to be crucial again in the success or failure of achieving this.The Franco-German Axis in European Integration examines the effectiveness and durability of the Franco-German relationship in European integration, tracing this important partnership through many political and economic disparities. This study goes on to assess the role of these two states in the challenges now facing the Union; from EMU, to the process of stabilising its eastern borders, and from enlargement of the Union, to the struggle to agree on a common foreign security policy. This volume will appeal as much to policymakers and interest groups as it will to scholars, students, and researchers in the field of European studies and international relations.