Imagining Europe: Essays on the Past, Present and Future of the European Union examines the EU from a variety of perspectives. The collection begins with the expectation that, despite its challenges, the European Union is here to say, but it also proceeds from the premise that imaginative thinking is necessary to guide the 27 member organization into the future. The book offers nine chapters and a substantive introduction to examine the EU from the point-of-view of a commercial enterprise,...

This clear and engaging text examines the process and politics of the European UnionOs OEasternO enlargement, beginning with its initial response to the 1989 revolution up through the Helsinki summit decisions of December 1999. Michael Baun explores such topics as the EUOs original decision to enlarge, the pre-accession strategy for prospective members, the key political decisions on launching and expanding the accession negotiations, and the actual progress of the negotiations. He also ex...

Exploring the Maastricht Treaty process and the politics of European integration, the author argues that the end of the cold war and German unification have created a new set of geopolitical realities in Europe that have affected the nature and dynamics of European union.

This book examines the relationship between the Czech Republic and the European Union (EU). The authors examine the Czech Republic’s road to EU membership in 2004 and assess how EU accession has affected or changed the Czech Republic, including its domestic politics, governing institutions and public policies. It also examines how the Czech Republic has behaved as an EU member state, addressing the questions:What are the Czech Republic’s interests in the EU and how ...

This comprehensive study of local politics in Russia shows that the key reforms of local government, and the struggle to forge viable grassroots democracies have been inextricably linked to the wider struggle for power between the regions and the Kremlin, and to the specific nature of Russia’s highly politicized and negotiated form of asymmetrical federalism. During the Yeltsin era all attempts to create a universal and uniform system of local-self-government in the federation were a failu...

A pioneering textbook which explains the dynamics of politics across Europe in the post-Cold war era. Comparing democratisation, transition to a market economy and increasing economic and political integration in the countries of central and eastern Europe with experiences in Scandinavia, and southern and western Europe, the book provides a wealth of information and analysis on the state of Europe at the end of a momentous century of European and World history.

"I recommend our diplomats and ministers read this book: it will provide them with an intellectual backbone. On the big calls [Bootle] has a spectacularly good record." Dominic Lawson, The Sunday Times"Bootle is right on every count." The GuardianHOW BREXIT WILL WORK FOR BRITAIN AND EUROPEMaking a Success of Brexit and Reforming the EU is the extensively revised and expanded new edition of ...

**The book that got China right: a prophetic work on how America's policies towards China led it away from liberalization and further towards authoritarianism, from the bestselling author of Rise of the Vulcans"[The China Fantasy] predicted, China would remain an authoritarian country, and its success would encourage other authoritarian regimes to resist pressures to change . . . Mann’s prediction turned out to be true." -New York Review of Books, October 2017...

From 1998 to 2005, six elections took place in postcommunist Europe that had the surprising outcome of empowering the opposition and defeating authoritarian incumbents or their designated successors. Valerie J. Bunce and Sharon L. Wolchik compare these unexpected electoral breakthroughs. They draw three conclusions. First, the opposition was victorious because of the hard and creative work of a transnational network composed of local opposition and civil society groups, members of the inte...

The extraordinary story of the UN - its creation, the threats it has faced, and the possibilities it holds for the future.Can the world be governed by agreement rather than conflict? In 1945 the world's most powerful nation states came together to 'save succeeding generations from the scourge of war and reaffirm faith in the fundamental human rights'. Over sixty years later, the United Nations still doggedly pursues that mandate.Paul Kennedy's The Parli...

The sudden collapse of communism stimulated both the rapid emergence of fledgling democracies and scholarly attention to the post-communist transition. These newly democratized parliaments have been described as "parliaments in adolescence".This book identifies six parliaments which exemplify the wide range of developments in the new post-communist political systems, from the stable consolidated democracies to the less stable and more authoritarian states, within which their respec...

" Pluralism by Default will change the way we understand the emergence of democracies and the consolidation of autocracies." —Chrystia Freeland, author of PlutocratsExploring sources of political contestation in the former Soviet Union and beyond, Pluralism by Default proposes that pluralism in "new democracies" is often grounded less in democratic leadership or emerging civil society and more in the failure of authoritarianism. Dynamic co...