Bringing together political, diplomatic, economic, cultural, and contemporary history, this book explores why and how European integration came to pass. It tells a fascinating story of ideals and realpolitik, political dreams and geographical realities, and planning and chaos. Mathieu Segers reveals that the roots of today's European Union lie deep in Europe's past and encompass more than war and peace, or diplomacy and economics. Based on original archival and primary source research, Seg...

On 9 May 1950, France launched a revolutionary plan for supranational cooperation in Western Europe. The Netherlands was taken completely by surprise. In the decades that followed, European integration moved forward at an unprecedented pace, taking the Netherlands with it. Geography and the post-war world seemed to leave the country no other choice. European integration forced — and is still forcing — the Netherlands on a far-reaching ‘journey to the continent’. For the Netherlands, Europe...

What is Europe? This question is ever more pressing, as present day Europe wallows in crisis - its deepest since the process of European integration took off in the 1950s. The current state of affairs sets the stage for this book. It brings together leading international thinkers and scholars of different generations in a feverish quest to better understand Europe's present state. In their essays these authors engage in the paradoxes and puzzles of European identity and cu...

Volume I examines the history of the European Union from an outside-in perspective, asking the following questions: how does the European Union look from the outside, and which outside forces shaped and guided the process of European integration? Split into three parts, the first addresses the main external events that have steered the European integration process, with emphasis placed on critical junctures following the Second World War, such as the division and reunification of Germany a...

Volume II examines the history of the European Union from an inside-out perspective, focusing on the internal developments that shaped the European integration process. Split into three parts, Part I covers the principles that have defined European integration, exploring the treaties and their changes through time, with Brexit being a core milestone. Part II considers the different instruments within the architecture of European integration, with special focus on the development of policie...

Reinventing Europe provides a thorough exploration of the history of the European Union, tracing its development from inception to recent times. It is the first book of its kind to contextualize the history of the EU within the wider frames of European and global history. The volume also breaks new ground by successfully highlighting the roles individuals, member states, transnational actors and European institutions played in both advancing and slowing down European integration i...

Europe’s right-wing and national populist parties are on the upswing, even despite some recent electoral setbacks. They have entered parliaments across Europe and some parties are even participating in national governments. What is remarkable is that right-wing and national populist parties have changed their mobilisation tactics. While predominantly xenophobic in the past, right-wing populists now mobilise against further European integration – and not without success.For all acto...

What is the role of international organizations in the international political system?The fourth edition of Clive Archer’s widely used textbook continues to provide students with an introduction to international organizations, exploring their rise and development, and accounts for their significance in the modern international political system.International Organizations fourth edition:has been fully updated to take into account the consider...

This book focuses on the varied support for the populist radical right in the Benelux countries: Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Despite many common characteristics, right-wing populist parties have historically been more successful in the Netherlands and Flanders than in Luxembourg and Wallonia.This book argues that the variation in the success of right-wing populist parties depends to a large extent on the way in which they are perceived and received in a given polity. I...

At least since the French Revolution, France has the peculair distinction of simultaneously fascinating, charming and exasperating its neighbours and foreign observers. Contemporary France provides an essential introduction for students of French politics and society, exploring contemporary developments while placing them in a deeper historical, intellectual, cultural and social context that makes for insightful analysis. Thus, chapters on France's economic policy and welfare state, its fo...

The Extreme Right in Western Europe is a concise introduction to one of the most persistent facets of late twentieth-century history, politics and society.The legacy of the Nazi era and the increasingly unacceptable face of extremism all militated against the success of far right-wing parties after World War Two. Nevertheless, contemporary problems and the solutions offered to ever more difficult questions such as immigration, unemployment, and law and order have enabled e...

The Politics of the New Germany continues to provide the most comprehensive, authoritative and up-to-date textbook on contemporary German Politics. The text takes a new approach to understanding politics in the post-unification Federal Republic. Assuming only elementary knowledge, it focuses on a series of the most important debates and issues in Germany today with the aim of helping students understand both the workings of the country's key institutions and some of the most impor...