Europe Alone

Since the end of World War II and the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States has taken the lead in maintaining European security through its membership in NATO. However, the economic and political positions of both the United States and Europe have changed in the last seventy-five years, leading many to wonder if America is still willing and able to provide for Europe’s security needs, especially at a time when the Russian Federation has become a more aggressive military and political player. Europe Alone explores the prospects of European security in a future when the United States may no longer be a reliable partner. Leading security scholars offer a multifaceted approach to the changing role and meaning of national security into the future. They look at European security issues from the perspective of small states and seek to broaden the concept of security beyond traditional domestic policing or national defense.

Based on the research of the EU-6th framework funded research consortium on 'New Modes of Governance in the European Union', this volume explores the roots, execution and applications of new forms of governance and evaluates their success.

The quasi-federal European Union stands out as the major exception in the thinly institutionalized world of international politics. Something has led Europeans—and only Europeans—beyond the nation-state to a fundamentally new political architecture. Craig Parsons argues in A Certain Idea of Europe that this "something" was a particular set of ideas generated in Western Europe after the Second World War. In Parsons's view, today's European Union reflects the ideological (and perhaps visionary) project of an elite minority. His book traces the progressive victory of this project in France, where the battle over European institutions erupted most divisively. Drawing on archival research and extensive interviews with French policymakers, the author carefully traces a fifty-year conflict between radically different European plans. Only through aggressive leadership did the advocates of a supranational "community" Europe succeed at building the EU and binding their opponents within it. Parsons puts the causal impact of ideas, and their binding effects through institutions, at the center of his book. In so doing he presents a strong logic of "social construction"—a sharp departure from other accounts of EU history that downplay the role of ideas and ideology.

EU–Middle East relations are multifaceted, varied and complex, shaped by historical, political, economic, migratory, social and cultural dynamics. Covering these relations from a broad perspective that captures continuities, ruptures and entanglements, this handbook provides a clearer understanding of trends, thus contributing to a range of different turns in international relations. The interdisciplinary and diverse assessments through which readers may grasp a more nuanced comprehension of the intricate entanglements in EU–Middle East relations are carefully provided in these pages by leading experts in the various (sub)fields, including academics, think-tankers, as well as policymakers. The volume offers original reflections on historical constructions; theoretical approaches; multilateralism and geopolitical perspectives; contemporary issues; peace, security and conflict; and development, economics, trade and society. This handbook provides an entry point for an informed exploration of the multiple themes, actors, structures, policies and processes that mould EU–Middle East relations. It is designed for policymakers, academics and students of all levels interested in politics, international and global studies, contemporary history, regionalism and area studies.

A guide to the technical, political and economic agenda for aerospace in the next decade and beyond. It focuses on the consolidated American aerospace industry, which has undergone $100 billion worth of merger activity, and the task of rationalism and consolidation in the European industry.