The development of coherent and effective relations with other regions and countries is one of the most challenging tasks faced by the European Union. This original volume explores the EU’s engagement with the global South, focusing on three controversial policy areas: economic cooperation, development cooperation, and conflict management.
   
A discussion of    More >

This innovative new text explores the nature of European politics in the context of the origin and institutional development of the European state system.  Underlying the analysis are a series of questions:

• How did the state, the central element of contemporary European political life, emerge from and eventually triumph over the bewildering multiplicity of competing    More >

Understanding Contemporary Russia provides a thorough introduction to a country currently in the midst of political, economic, and social transformation. Interdisciplinary in design, the book is intended for use as a core text in introductory survey and politics courses and also as a supplement in a variety of discipline-oriented courses.

The authors draw on the best scholarship in    More >

Reconciling the imperatives of Germany’s national identity and its national interest has been a challenge for the country’s policymakers since the end of the Cold War. Anika Leithner explores how (and how much) the past continues to shape Germany’s foreign policy behavior in the first decade of the twenty-first century.

Leithner argues that, while German foreign policy is    More >

Why do democratic leaders sometimes choose not to establish institutions that would promote the consolidation of democracy? And what are the consequences of those choices? Focusing on the cases of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, John Scherpereel explores the interplay of historical institutional legacies, short-term elite interests, and international pressures (i.e., EU conditionality) in the    More >

Among the contentious issues that come into play in relations between Russia and the other post-Soviet states, security concerns are arguably at the top of the list. Ruth Deyermond explores the linkage between post-Soviet security politics and the development of state sovereignty in the region, focusing on Russia's interactions with Ukraine, Georgia, and Belarus.

Deyermond ranges    More >

This concise but wide-ranging work explores the major political, economic, and strategic challenges confronting the European Union in the context of a rapidly changing geopolitical environment.

Steve Wood and Wolfgang Quaisser consider the actors and issues at the center of current developments in the integration process. Beginning with some basic conceptual questions—for    More >

Thoroughly updated, this new edition of The European Union and the Member States explores the complex relationship between the EU and each of its now 25 members.

The country chapters follow a common format, considering: How and in what areas does EU policy affect, and how is it affected by, the member states? What mechanisms do the member states use to implement EU    More >

Political parties typically are assumed to be essential for contemporary democratic government and governance. Why, then, has the regime change in Russia failed to produce viable political parties? Grigorii Golosov addresses this question, exploring issues central to an understanding of Russian political development.

Golosov combines statistical and qualitative analysis,    More >

he connection between Soviet authoritarianism and human rights violations once seemed unassailable, as did the belief that a transition away from communist rule would lead to better protection of human rights. Challenging these assumptions, Jonathan Weiler argues that the tumultuous processes associated with political and economic reform have, in important instances, eroded human rights in    More >

Will the European Union soon have a policing agency similar to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation? John Occhipinti traces the evolution of the European Police Office (Europol), bringing to life the core themes—e.g., the tension between supranationalism and intergovernmentalism, concerns over the "democratic deficit" in the EU, and the impact of enlargement—in the study    More >

Despite an array of predictions that Germany's foreign policy would be unable to adapt easily to the postunification, post–Cold War environment, it has in fact remained effective, even as it evolves in response to myriad challenges. Scott Erb analyzes German policy, with an emphasis on the transitions from 1980 to the present.

Erb argues that Germany's success in dealing    More >

This book explains why three countries—Britain, France, and Italy—that have faced similar problems of high inflation and currency depreciation since the 1970s—Britain, France, and Italy—have pursued very different international monetary strategies.

Walsh argues that international monetary policies produce predictable sets of winners and losers, and that policy    More >

The shift in executive power from the European Union's member states to Brussels raises profound questions for Europe's social democratic parties as they seek to remain relevant within an integrated "Euro-polity." This book analyzes the response to this challenge: an entirely new organizational form of party politics emerging at the European level.

Ladrech shows how social democratic    More >

Why is Germany prepared to sacrifice the deutsche mark for European Monetary Union? Peter Loedel’s novel analysis, incorporating domestic, European, and global aspects of German monetary policy, suggests that the institutional relationship between the Bundesbank and the federal government, together with Germany’s bargaining strategies toward European and global monetary-governance    More >

What makes some multiethnic states integrate and others descend into civil war? Ishiyama and Breuning extend traditional explanations centered on socioeconomic, cultural, and historical factors to argue that the actions of leaders of ethnic segments—too often ignored—are also critical determinants of policy outcomes.

Applying a framework derived from comparative politics and IR    More >

The struggle between those who seek a more integrated, and even a federal, Europe and those proposing a looser confederation was once again highlighted at the 1996-1997 Intergovernmental Conference, and reflected in the IGC’s decisions. This fourth volume in the European Community Studies Association's biennial series examines the divisions within the EU in the key areas of the common    More >

Although the European Union as an entity now enjoys support from across most of the political spectrum, this has by no means resulted in the acceptance of a single vision of the EU. The apparent successes engendered by the Single European Act and the Maastricht Treaty have led instead to both a broadening and a reformulation of opposition. The nations of Western Europe have thus forged an    More >

With the ratification of the Treaty on European Union (Maastricht) in 1993, a new era in the history of European integration emerged—an era that juxtaposes the principle of subsidiarity with widening membership, and that challenges member states to balance interests of sovereignty with wider European goals.

This volume, the third in a biennial series, explores the implications of these    More >