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The Enlargement of the European Union and NATO: Ordering from the Menu in Central Europe
Wade Jacoby
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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Countries and Concepts: Politics, Geography, Culture (9th Edition)
ASIN: 0521833590 |
Book Description
In 2004 the European Union and NATO each added ten new member states, most from the post-communist countries of Eastern and Central Europe. In order to qualify for membership, these countries had to make a myriad of changes. They often emulated practices common in Western Europe, sometimes resulting in more effective and efficient institutions, sometimes resulting in failures. Wade Jacoby examines the trends in various fields and in several countries.
Book Description
In this first book-length treatment of integration theory for many years, Ben Rosamond provides an accessible and stimulating critical introduction to the full range of classical and contemporary perspectives. The book explains the centrality of theoretical work to the study of integration and the EU and carefully locates different theories within their wider intellectual and "real world" contexts. This thoroughly researched book engages with the key debates that have arisen from theoretical deliberations about European integration. It develops its own distinctive contribution, emphasizing the importance of "sociology of knowledge" questions when evaluating integration theory and stressing the continued significance of international theory to the study of the EU.
Customer Reviews:
Theories of European Integration.......2000-12-07
Ben Rosamond's book describes the current (and past) political science approaches regarding the EU. A strange animal indeed: not a federality or a state, but takes some of the members' soveirgnity; sometimes its an international organisation, sometimes it isn't.
It is an important book to read BEFORE any other about the EU, so you'll understand to which "side" in the approaches debate other writers belongs.
Book Description
Europe Undivided analyzes how an enlarging EU has facilitated a convergence toward liberal democracy among credible future members of the EU in Central and Eastern Europe. It reveals how variations in domestic competition put democratizing states on different political trajectories after 1989, and how the EU's leverage eventually influenced domestic politics in liberal and particularly illiberal democracies. In doing so, Europe Undivided illuminates the changing dynamics of the relationship between the EU and candidate states from 1989 to 2004, and challenges policymakers to manage and improve EU leverage to support democracy, ethnic tolerance, and economic reform in other candidates and proto-candidates such as the Western Balkan states, Turkey, and Ukraine. Albeit not by design, the most powerful and successful tool of EU foreign policy has turned out to be EU enlargement - and this book helps us understand why, and how, it works.
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The problem-solving capacity, and hence the democratic legitimacy, of national governments is being weakened by the dual processes of legal and economic integration in Europe; and the loss is not fully compensated by the development of effective and legitimate problem-solving capabilities at the European level. Professor Scharpf supports his position by examining the normative underpinnings of democratic legitimacy and by a detailed analysis of the structural asymmetry between the effectiveness of the legal instruments of `negative integration' which prevents governments from interfering with the free movements of goods, services, capital, and persons and the political constraints impeding positive political action at the European level. This is particularly true for policies pertaining to the welfare state. Governing in Europe explores strategies at the national level that could succeed in maintaining welfare state goals even under conditions of international economic competition, and it also discusses the conditions under which European policy could play a protective and enabling role with regard to these national solutions. The author suggests that if these opportunities should be used, multi-level governance in Europe could indeed regain both effectiveness and legitimacy.
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The European Parliament, the National Parliaments, and European Integration
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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ASIN: 0198296606 |
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European integration is progressing at an even more rapid rate. Accompanying this progress is an increasing debate about the institutional shape and legitimacy of this new political order. This debate is driven in part by conflicting values, and in part by uncertainty. This book addresses the question of parliamentary involvement in the emerging European political system by looking at both national and European levels of parliamentary representation. In doing this, it gives greater attention to the role of national parliaments than is usual in discussions about democracy in the European Union. Based on interviews and surveys among members of parliament at the European level, and in eleven member states, it analyses the role of parliaments and parliamentarians, the linkages between national citizenry and the European level, and the problems and perspectives of institutional change. The book is provides analyses of the views from within concerning European integration and concentrates of three dimensions: the MPs themselves; their embeddedness in the process; and their perspectives on institutional structures. These views from within offer new insights and answers to institutional problems in the European Union and the so-called democratic deficit.
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In this revealing study, Cris Shore scrutinizes the process of European integration using the techniques of anthropology, and drawing on thought from across the social sciences. This critical anthropology of European integration is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the culture and politics of the EU.
Customer Reviews:
Superb account of EU state-building.......2001-05-17
Cris Shore has written a quite outstanding book on the European Union, showing how its leaders aim to create a single European state.
The EU's founders warned us that they sought to destroy the sovereignty and independence of its member states. Jean Monnet wrote, "Everyday realities will make it possible to form the political union which is the goal of our Community and to establish the United States of Europe." Konrad Adenauer said that the original proposal for pooling French and German steel production was "first and foremost political, not economic. This plan was to be the beginning of a federal structure of Europe."
Later, Chancellor Kohl said, "In Maastricht we laid the foundation stone for the completion of the European Union. The European Union Treaty introduces a new and decisive stage in the process of European Union which within a few years will lead to the creation of what the founding fathers of modern Europe dreamed after the last war: the United States of Europe."
In practice, the EU has already gone far towards creating a new state, although it has signally failed to create one that is honest and democratic. As Shore writes, "To most critical observers it seems quite evident that the European Community has acquired most of the characteristics of a state, however much some might wish to deny this." And, "with its single currency, its Central Bank and treaty control over money supply and borrowing, the EU takes on the powers of a sovereign state, albeit a transnational state without a democratic government." As Pascal Lamy, Delors' chef de cabinet, admitted, "The people weren't ready to agree to integration, so you had to get on without telling them too much about what was happening."
The Committee of Independent Experts reported in 1999 that fraud, cronyism, mismanagement and cover-ups were rife in the European Commission, summarising, "It is becoming difficult to find anyone who has even the slightest sense of responsibility." Shore concludes that the Report "exposed ... the extraordinary degree to which patronage, fraud and corruption ... had become established, even institutionalised, within the Commission."
Important contribution.......2001-02-07
Chris Shore's "Building Europe" is an innovative study of the European Union, and should be taken seriously. Shore is one of the first to jump in the post-EMU debate: now that Europe has almost completed Economic Union, what are the expectations, challenges, and impossibilities with regard to further integration? Shore offers a systematic discussion of the role of 'culture' in the European Union. How has a European identity been created, or not!, among both citizens and civil servants in Brussels? Shore turns out to be quite critical in the end. Europeanism is not strongly rooted among the peoples of Europe. And the elites in Brussels are far from what a perfect European bureaucrat must be like. He concludes that the goal of European federalism, which so strongly depends on some form of common European identity, may be one bridge too far. To conclude, Shore's informed and refreshing perspective on the actual challenges to European integration forms an important contribution to the debate. Anyone who wants to think of tomorrow's Europe may probably want to read "Building Europe", no matter if you agree or disagree with Shore's final conclusions.
Important contribution.......2001-02-07
Chris Shore's "Building Europe" is an innovative study of the European Union, and should be taken seriously. Shore is one of the first to jump in the post-EMU debate: now that Europe has almost completed Economic Union, what are the expectations, challenges, and impossibilities with regard to further integration? Shore offers a systematic discussion of the role of 'culture' in the European Union. How has a European identity been created, or not!, among both citizens and civil servants in Brussels? Shore turns out to be quite critical in the end. Europeanism is not strongly rooted among the peoples of Europe. And the elites in Brussels are far from what a perfect European bureaucrat must be like. He concludes that the goal of European federalism, which so strongly depends on some form of common European identity, may be one bridge too far. To conclude, Shore's informed and refreshing perspective on the actual challenges to European integration forms an important contribution to the debate. Anyone who wants to think of tomorrow's Europe may probably want to read "Building Europe", no matter if you agree or disagree with Shore's final conclusions.
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The EU And Social Inclusion: Facing the Challenges
Eric Marlier ,
A. B. Atkinson ,
Beatrijs Cantillon , and
Brian Nolan
Manufacturer: Policy Press
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ASIN: 1861348843 |
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Britain For and Against Europe: British Politics and the Question of European Integration
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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ASIN: 0198280785 |
Book Description
This study, by a host of leading experts, provides the most up-to-date analysis of the often problematic relationship between various elements of British political culture and the developing European Union. The book opens with a general review of the history of this relationship since 1950, by Andrew Gamble. This is followed by ten chapters by other leading researchers, each examining a particular aspect of the relationship, including the view of Britain from Europe, the attitudes of Labour, Conservative, and Liberal Democratic parties, the Scottish and Welsh Nationalist parties, the Trade Unions, Business, the Civil Service, and the media. The study concludes with a review of the findings of these chapters, and a discussion of their implications for future relations between Britain and her European partners.
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Napoleon's Integration of Europe
Stuart Woolf
Manufacturer: Routledge
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ASIN: 041504961X |
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Napoleon's wars were only a preliminary step in his larger plan to establish a rational state which would increase the pace of society's modernization. b /b b i Napoleon's Integration of Europe /i /b studies the implications of this project for the relationship between France and the rest of Europe. Through a systematic comparison of the experiences of French domination in the majority of European states, Stuart Woolf examines the problems encountered by French bureaucrats in ruling a progressively expanding empire, and explores, through the eyes of the populations subjected to French rule, the nature of collaboration and resistance. br br b /b b i Napoleon's Integration of Europe /i /b not only chronicles the history of France, but also the histories of Italy, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Poland, and Spain, at a crucial moment in the development of each. The first comparative study of Europe in the Napoleonic era, it provides an in-depth look at an early exercise in imperialism--in fact, the first attempt to create a single Europe.
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"A shrewd observer of Germany and eastern Europe, Pond has presented an informative overview of European affairs since 1989. . . . [A]n eminently readable account." - Foreign Affairs
"Veteran journalist Elizabeth Pond . . . sees a Europe that is doing well at overcoming 'impulses of nationalism, habit, and fear.' The Rebirth of Europe provides a thoughtful, fundamentally optimistic appraisal of the continent's prospects." - Dallas Morning News
"For many years Elizabeth Pond has been one of the most knowledgeable American experts on Europe. Her new book . . . is an impressive challenge to Europeans, as to Americans, to look ahead with optimism and to make the most of our common new opportunities." - Helmut Kohl, Chancellor of Germany, 1982-1998
Customer Reviews:
Book Review: The Ribirth of Europe.......2002-10-31
In her book, The Rebirth of Europe, Elizabeth Pond provides a great overview of the many issues and underlying dynamics facing the European Union (EU) and Europe, presently. In ten chapters, she encapsulates history, European and American perceptions, domestic politics, European Monetary Union (EMU), and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), as well as the European Strategic Defense Initiative (ESDI). Although she covers these and many other issues in-depth, she paints a rather optimistic future for both the EU and Europe without fully addressing the impact of certain salient underlying factors that she does touch on. These are domestic politics, nationalism, institutionalism, the modern social welfare state, as well as the trans-Atlantic defense capabilities gap.
In Chapters 1-5, Pond covers the evolution of Europe and the EU from very early history through the creation of the EMU. In doing this, she touches on a wide range of issues. Of note is her discourse on how the perceptions of Europe's bloody and fragmented past impact on both the modern European and American psyches. Furthermore, her work is exceedingly well documented and thorough, especially Chapter 4, Post-Cold War NATO. Her writings on NATO enlargement and ESDI are very much in synchronization with the current literature on these "hot" topics from a macro view.
Chapters 6-10 are also well done. They cover Central and Eastern Europe, the EMU, as well as ESDI and NATO in relation to current trans-Atlantic relations. However, the three-page Chapter 10, Epilogue, is rather weak for the concluding chapter of such a thoroughly encompassing and well-researched book. Additionally, it tends to contradict itself as Pond goes to great lengths summing up some of the significant pitfalls facing Europe and concludes with two very terse sentences: "Europe remains a work in-progress. So far, it seems condemned to succeed." Unfortunately, this is the problem with the entire book.
In Chapter 1, Pond states, "intellectually it is less risky to be pessimistic than to be optimistic." Thus, she seems determined, despite the fact that she, herself, addresses significant pitfalls facing the EU, Europe, and the trans-Atlantic relationship, determined to be unabashedly optimistic instead of cautiously optimistic, or even somewhat pessimistic. First, she addresses nationalism, in the form of the modern day Flemish and Wallonian separatists' movements in Belgium. These movements are spawned in large part due to taxes. (Modern day Flanders' carries the lion's share of the tax burden for the whole of Belgium.) Thus, when Pond discusses EU institutional enlargement, the high unemployment rates prevalent in Europe today, the need for the EU or European countries to upgrade their military capacity, and the EU Central Bank's unresponsiveness to some of these problems, she neglects to intermesh these fiscal issues with salient political or fiscal solutions that the reader can understand. Furthermore, she fails to even broach the subject of how these issues are to be resolved without jeopardizing the foundations of the modern social welfare state (i.e., free health care, exorbitant unemployment benefits, etc...). Finally, she fails to address an even larger problem within this framework; the large numbers of immigrants form Africa and the Middle East, who come to Europe seeking these benefits and their impact on European nationalism.
Next, Pond stresses the importance of leadership throughout her book, whether it is individual or national. She cites examples of Adenauer, Kohl, Mitterand, and DeGaulle, all at times taking up the mantle of EU leadership, despite widespread domestic animosity, to further the greater good of the EU and Europe. However, she then states that there are no new great politicians/ statesmen of this caliber in present day Europe, who are willing to fly in the face of certain domestic political death for the greater good. This is not consistent for the prevailing view of optimism that Pond wishes to connote.
Finally, although Pond does a good job of addressing NATO, ESDI, and the trans-Atlantic relationship, once again, she does not convince the reader that the problems surrounding these issues are easily surmountable. First, is the military capability gap between Europe and the United States (US). While Pond does a good job of citing the problems and stated intellectual workarounds (i.e., Heisbourg's proposals for Europe to develop professional armies and European defense industrial consolidation to avoid redundancy ), she does not take into account the economic costs, both domestically and politically, nor the effects of globalization (corporate mergers, multi-national corporations) on such intellectual proposals. Furthermore, she does not take into account the risks associated with sharing the technology to upgrade European weapons systems to the caliber of US weapons systems in the form of security leaks when a large number of states become involved.
In the end, Pond's book is an excellent work for readers seeking a greater understanding of the issues facing modern Europe and the trans-Atlantic relationship. However, it fails to make one, who is somewhat knowledgeable in European affairs, feel as optimistic about Europe's future as Pond does. Had Pond taken time to further address some of the issues outlined above in her Epilogue, with cogent solutions, the book would be a powerful work indeed. As it stands, her work leaves a somewhat educated reader wondering if Pond is too optimistic about Europe's future. This writer, although optimistic as well, is not as optimistic as Pond. The issues facing Europe are real, multi-faceted, and exceedingly interlaced to be simply congealed as solvable in the short-run. Pond is right that Europe is a work in progress, but a work that will take significantly longer than Pond implies, especially if Europe and the EU does suffer a significant setback any of the issue areas Pond addresses.
upbeat assessment of European integration.......1999-09-16
As someone working daily in Brussels on European issues and with an interest in EU enlargement, i found this book a breath of fresh air amidst reading on all the problems the EU has to face in enlargement. The author gives a convincingly upbeat and positive assessment of how far the CEECs have come in terms of institution building for democracy and the rule of law, of protection of minorities and human rights, and a (historically new) willingness to work with each other to resolve outstanding and often very old historical conflicts, often related ot minorities and borders. This new phenomenon is at least partly due to the incentive of prospects for EU Membership. The political Copenhagen Criteria set out for EU Membership apperently prove to be succesful at least in this respect. This is not to say that many economic and political issues are resolved, nor that these countries now or even soon will meet all the criteria. But the progress in many CEECs in such fields as democracy and human rights has indeed been remarkable, and that needs to be acknowledged and welcomed.
In terms of pure analysis the book is perhaps not so strong, but then again it is not meant for academia but for a more general public. I think the author, whose journalistic background shines through, does an excellent job in bringing a positive antidote to Euro-pessimism on enlargement.
Books:
- The Enlargement of the European Union and NATO: Ordering from the Menu in Central Europe
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- The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy
- The World Is Flat [Updated and Expanded]: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
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