The European Union (EU) faces many crises and risks to its security and existence. While few of them threaten the lives of EU citizens, they all create a sense of anxiety and insecurity about the future for many ordinary Europeans. This comprehensive volume explores the concept of 'ontological security' which was introduced into international relations over a decade ago to better understand the 'security of being' found in feelings of fear, anxiety, crisis, and threat to wellbeing. The authors make use of this concept to explore how narratives of European integration have been part of public discourses in the post-war period and how reconciliation dynamics, national biographical narratives and memory politics have been enacted to create ontological security. Within this context, they also discuss the anxiety of the 'remainers' in the Brexit referendum and the consequences of its failure to address the ontological anxieties and insecurities of remain voters. The book also explores: how European security firms market ontological security and provide an ontological security-inspired reading of the EU's relations with post-communist states; the EU and NATO's engagement with hybrid threats; and the EU as an anxious community. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal European Security.

This text provides a clear and current overview of the motivations and outcomes of EU Member States regarding their foreign policy-making within and beyond the EU. It provides an in-depth analysis of intra-EU policy-making, and sheds light in an innovative and understandable way on the lesser known aspects of the inter-EU and extra-EU foreign policies of the 27 Member States.

The text has an innovative method of thematic organisation in which case study state profiles emerge via dominant foreign policy themes. The text examines the three main policy challenges currently faced by the 27 Member States.

First, EU Member States must cooperate within the mechanisms of the EU, including the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). Intra-EU policy-making sees the states cooperating according to well-practised inter-governmental methods, but along supranational lines for a widening number of areas.

Second, EU Member States continue to construct their own inter-EU foreign policies. In other words, bilateral arrangements between EU Member States but largely independent of the treaties and structures of the EU itself

Third, is the sovereign prerogative exercised by all EU Member States to construct their own foreign policies on everything from trade and defence with the rest of the world However, in directing extra-EU foreign policies, EU Member States directly experience the tension between the practice of Europeanisation and the pull of sovereignty.

This combination of clarity, thematic structure and empirical case studies make this an ideal textbook for all upper-level students of European foreign policy, comparative European politics and European studies.

This book presents a fresh examination of the values and principles that inform EU foreign policy, exploring the implications of these values and principles on the construction of European Union identity today.

The authors show how current debates on European Union foreign policy and on European identity tend to be kept separated, as if the process of identity formation had only an internal dimension or it was not related to the external behaviour of an international actor. Conceiving EU foreign policy in its broadest context as a set of political actions that are regarded by external actors as 'EU' actions, the book focuses on both Pillar I and Pillar II policies, involving EU and member state actions and material political actions and less material ones such as speech acts.

Adopting a multidisciplinary perspective and drawing on political science, political economy, sociology, environmental science and women's studies, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of European studies and politics.

This book presents a fresh examination of the values and principles that inform EU foreign policy, exploring the implications of these values and principles on the construction of European Union identity today. The authors show how current debates on European Union foreign policy and on European identity tend to be kept separated, as if the process of identity formation had only an internal dimension or it was not related to the external behaviour of an international actor. Conceiving EU foreign policy in its broadest context as a set of political actions that are regarded by external actors as 'EU' actions, the book focuses on both Pillar I and Pillar II policies, involving EU and member state actions and material political actions and less material ones such as speech acts. Adopting a multidisciplinary perspective and drawing on political science, political economy, sociology, environmental science and women's studies, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of European studies and politics.

This text provides a clear and current overview of the motivations and outcomes of EU Member States regarding their foreign policy-making within and beyond the EU. It provides an in-depth analysis of intra-EU policy-making, and sheds light in an innovative and understandable way on the lesser known aspects of the inter-EU and extra-EU foreign policies of the 27 Member States.

The text has an innovative method of thematic organisation in which case study state profiles emerge via dominant foreign policy themes. The text examines the three main policy challenges currently faced by the 27 Member States.

First, EU Member States must cooperate within the mechanisms of the EU, including the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). Intra-EU policy-making sees the states cooperating according to well-practised inter-governmental methods, but along supranational lines for a widening number of areas.

Second, EU Member States continue to construct their own inter-EU foreign policies. In other words, bilateral arrangements between EU Member States but largely independent of the treaties and structures of the EU itself

Third, is the sovereign prerogative exercised by all EU Member States to construct their own foreign policies on everything from trade and defence with the rest of the world However, in directing extra-EU foreign policies, EU Member States directly experience the tension between the practice of Europeanisation and the pull of sovereignty.

This combination of clarity, thematic structure and empirical case studies make this an ideal textbook for all upper-level students of European foreign policy, comparative European politics and European studies.

The European Union (EU) faces many crises and risks to its security and existence. While few of them threaten the lives of EU citizens, they all create a sense of anxiety and insecurity about the future for many ordinary Europeans. This comprehensive volume explores the concept of 'ontological security' which was introduced into international relations over a decade ago to better understand the 'security of being' found in feelings of fear, anxiety, crisis, and threat to wellbeing. The authors make use of this concept to explore how narratives of European integration have been part of public discourses in the post-war period and how reconciliation dynamics, national biographical narratives and memory politics have been enacted to create ontological security. Within this context, they also discuss the anxiety of the 'remainers' in the Brexit referendum and the consequences of its failure to address the ontological anxieties and insecurities of remain voters. The book also explores: how European security firms market ontological security and provide an ontological security-inspired reading of the EU's relations with post-communist states; the EU and NATO's engagement with hybrid threats; and the EU as an anxious community. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal European Security.

The only comparative analysis of the foreign policies of European Union member states. Examines those policies which are 'Europeanised' through the EU's processes and those policies which are retained or excluded from these processes. Analyses the dual impact of the Maastricht Treaty on the European Union, and the post-Cold War environment on the foreign policy processes of the EU's member states. Argues for a distinctive approach to the foreign policy analysis of EU states which recognises the fundamental changes that membership brings after the Cold War, but also acknowledges the diverse role of policies which states seek to retain or advance as being 'special'. All the empirical chapters are structured by six sets of explanatory questions. -- .

Ring systems represent a very important branch of organic chemistry. Benzene is perhaps the pre-eminent example and provides the benchmark for the so-called aromatic character of cyclic systems. Cycloalkanes are another prominent class of organic compounds and these saturated ring systems form a homologous series known as alicyclics. Materials that are constructed from organic polymers such as polythene, polystyrene, polyisoprene (natural rubber) and polyvinyl chloride are common features of our daily lives. Most of these and related organic polymers are generated from acyclic precursors by free radical, anionic, cationic or organometallic polymerisation processes or by condensation reactions. The focus of this book is monocyclic inorganic ring systems of the p-block elements and the polymers that are, in many cases derived from them. Bicyclic or polycyclic arrangements are considered when they are closely related to those of monocyclic systems. Inorganic heterocycles that are more accurately described as coordination complexes of chelating inorganic ligands are included only when they are directly related to an inorganic homocycle or heterocycle by the replacement of one p-block element by a more metallic p-block element. After a short introductory chapter, the first half of the book is comprised of seven chapters that deal with the fundamentals of the subject intended for undergraduates or researchers who are unfamiliar with the topic, covering the following areas: - synthetic methods - characterisation techniques - delocalisation in inorganic rings - paramagnetic inorganic rings - inorganic macrocycles - ligand chemistry - inorganic polymers (general concepts including, synthesis, structure and bonding, characterisation methods, properties and applications) The final four chapters discuss in detail the chemistry of inorganic homo- and hetero-cycles involving the elements of groups 13-16 (the p-block elements). The focus is on relating the early seminal contributions to the field with exciting new developments. From the fundamental standpoint, novel structures and new bonding concepts are highlighted, in addition to synthetic approaches. This is the first book that addresses both the fundamental and applied aspects of inorganic ring systems through an emphasis of their use as precursors to inorganic polymers and other useful materials (e.g. semiconductors and ceramics). The book is intended primarily for senior undergraduates and graduate students in inorganic chemistry, as well research workers in the field of inorganic ring systems and polymers. At the undergraduate level it serves as a supplementary text to the more general inorganic chemistry text books and at the graduate level it would be the text of choice for a course in the area of inorganic rings and polymers.

The book analyses the concept and conditions of transnational solidarity, its challenges and opportunities, drawing on diverse disciplines as Law, Political Science, Sociology, Philosophy, Psychology and History. In the contemporary world, we see two major opposing trends. The first involves nationalistic and populistic movements. Transnational solidarity has been under pressure for a decade because of, among others, global economic and migration crises, leading to populistic and authoritarian leadership in some European countries, the United States and Brazil. Countries withdraw from international commitments on climate, trade and refugees and the European Union struggles with Brexit. The second trend, partly a reaction to the first, is a strengthened transnational grass-root community - a cosmopolitan movement - which protests primarily against climate change. Based on interdisciplinary reflections on the concept of transnational solidarity, its challenges and opportunities are analysed, drawing on Europe as a focal case study for a broader, global perspective.