Globalisation Multilateralism Europe

This student-friendly textbook offers a comprehensive introduction to globalization studies and the European Union within a multipolar world. It provides its readers with critical analysis of the key concepts of multilateral global and regional governance and Europe’s role in the world; and this in an accessible and intelligible fashion. This volume collects contributions by eminent scholars from world class universities from five different continents. As such, this unique exercise in transnational multi-disciplinary cooperation, provides extensive coverage of the main issues pertaining to multilateral cooperation - notably its history, troubles, legitimacy challenges and efficiency questions - from a variety of national perspectives. The book covers the major issues confronting students of European and global studies, amongst which: pressing security challenges, new forms of institutionalized cooperation, shifting international trade flows, the notion of responsibility to protect, social imbalances and environmental emergencies, the need for less contingent forms of legitimacy for global regulation, as well as global public opinion and transnational civil society networks. Each chapter includes a summary of its salient points; methodological indications; illuminating illustrations; and a suggested list for further reading. This textbook strives to help students develop a better and more secure grasp of the innovative balance between interdisciplinary openness and disciplinary rigor when engaging with global governance studies, comparative regionalism, normative studies, international political economy or international law.

This volume focuses on multilateralism in the 21st century and examines how, and how effectively, the EU delivers on its commitment to effective multilateralism. Presenting results generated by MERCURY, an EU research programme into multilateralism, this book addresses a central research question: does the EU deliver on its commitment to effective multilateralism? Globalisation has created powerful new incentives for states to cooperate and has generated renewed interest in multilateralism. While a large body of work exists on multilateralism as a concept, it continues to be ill-defined and poorly understood. This book sheds new light on 21st century multilateralism by exploring conceptual approaches as well as generating innovative, empirical knowledge on its practice. Research on EU external relations has increasingly focused on the concept of ‘effective multilateralism’. Yet, the application of this concept as a guiding principle of EU foreign policy in non-security policy areas has rarely been examined. This book explores whether the EU is pursuing effective multilateralism in specific policy areas, including trade, climate change and conflict resolution, and distinct geographical and institutional settings, both internal to the EU and in specified regions, international organisations (IOs) and bilateral partnerships. This book offers evidence-based, actionable policy lessons from Europe’s experience in promoting multilateralism. The European Union and Multilateralism in the 21st Century will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations, international organizations, and European Union politics and foreign policy.

This volume focuses on multilateralism in the 21st century and examines how, and how effectively, the EU delivers on its commitment to effective multilateralism. Presenting results generated by MERCURY, an EU research programme into multilateralism, this book addresses a central research question: does the EU deliver on its commitment to effective multilateralism? Globalisation has created powerful new incentives for states to cooperate and has generated renewed interest in multilateralism. While a large body of work exists on multilateralism as a concept, it continues to be ill-defined and poorly understood. This book sheds new light on 21st century multilateralism by exploring conceptual approaches as well as generating innovative, empirical knowledge on its practice. Research on EU external relations has increasingly focused on the concept of 'effective multilateralism'. Yet, the application of this concept as a guiding principle of EU foreign policy in non-security policy areas has rarely been examined. This book explores whether the EU is pursuing effective multilateralism in specific policy areas, including trade, climate change and conflict resolution, and distinct geographical and institutional settings, both internal to the EU and in specified regions, international organisations (IOs) and bilateral partnerships. This book offers evidence-based, actionable policy lessons from Europe's experience in promoting multilateralism. The European Union and Multilateralism in the 21st Century will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations, international organizations, and European Union politics and foreign policy.

This book offers an important chronological perspective on the evolution of multilateralism within Europe and beyond. It provides a critical reconstruction of the history of the idea and praxis of peaceful global governance, a comparative analysis of regional multilateral organisations and a discussion about concrete trends and perspectives of a new multilateralism against the challenging context of the current multipolar power politics. Focusing on the changing European interplay with multilateralism – from Eurocentric cradle of civilian cooperation among sovereign imperial states, to political dwarf after the two world wars and decolonisation, and to potential co-leader of a multilayered and multi-actor cooperation within the current multipolar order, it addresses a theoretical “gap” by fuelling the long-recognised idealism v. realism debate over international cooperation and institutionalisation with both historical and new empirical insights. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of European studies, global governance, multilateralism, international organisations and more broadly international relations.

This volume presents a reconsideration of the concepts of State and political power within the evolving multilateral network of cooperation and conflict. By means of an innovating research strategy, it explains state resilience within global governance while deepening the obsolescence of the traditional sovereign state concepts, including by emerging powers. Rather than considering the EU as an isolated case study, the book considers the EU as both a reference and a proactive player, which fosters a new research agenda both for comparative studies and political theory. Lastly, in view of the currently emergent, unprecedented and asymmetrical, ‘multi-polar’ world, it considers the need for a new research agenda on multilateralism.

Europe, the State and Globalisation explores the interplay between the state and state sovereignty, nationalism, European integration and globalisation. It provides essential foundations in all these areas, while using stimulating arguments to prompt discussion and provoke interest in the relationships between these processes. Throughout, Europe, the State and Globalisation addresses various issues of historical and theoretical importance, including the institutions of the European Union, integration theory, regional policy, multilevel governance and EU enlargement, International Relations theory, the nature and impact of globalisation, the challenges of transnational government and the changing nature of the state The text is ideal for undergraduate courses in European Politics.

This book examines the role of the cultural factor, and patterns of its interaction with social, economic and political developments, in fostering identity-based new populisms and various forms of political authoritarianism across the globe. Comparing authoritarianism in the Asian and Western context, this book attempts to shed light on the different ways in which new political actors make use of cultural traditions or constructs in order to justify their claims to power and challenge the culture of modernity as understood in the Western world. Lastly, the book focuses on the consequence of these new challenges for multilateral cooperation at regional and global levels, asking the question: is the world going towards fragmentation and anarchy or a pluralist and innovative form of multilateral cooperation? This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of populism and authoritarianism studies, democracy, global governance and more broadly to international relations.

European politicians often speak of their efforts to 'manage globalization.' At one level, this is merely a rhetorical device to make globalization more palatable to citizens and prove that policy-makers are still firmly in control of their country’s fate. This volume argues that the advocacy of managed globalization goes beyond rhetoric and actually has been a primary driver of major European Union (EU) policies in the past twenty years. The EU has indeed tried to manage globalization through the use of five major mechanisms: 1) expanding policy scope 2) exercising regulatory influence 3) empowering international institutions 4) enlarging the territorial sphere of EU influence, and 5) redistributing the costs of globalization. These mechanisms are neither entirely novel, nor are they always effective but they provide the contours of an approach to globalization that is neither ad hoc deregulation, nor old-style economic protectionism. The recent financial crisis may have seemed initially to vindicate the European efforts to manage globalization, but it also represented the limits of such efforts without the full participation of the US and China. The EU cannot rig the game of globalization, but it can try to provide predictability, oversight, and regularity with rules that accommodate European interests. This book was based on a special issue of Journal of European Public Policy.