In this 2004 volume, a formidable group of scholars investigate patterns of conflict that are arising in the European Union.

What are the consequences of globalization for the structure of political conflicts in Western Europe? How are political conflicts organized and articulated in the twenty-first century? And how does the transformation of territorial boundaries affect the scope and content of political conflicts? This book sets out to answer these questions by analyzing the results of a study of national and European electoral campaigns, protest events and public debates in six West European countries. While the mobilization of the losers in the processes of globalization by new right populist parties is seen to be the driving force of the restructuring of West European politics, the book goes beyond party politics. It attempts to show how the cleavage coalitions that are shaping up under the impact of globalization extend to state actors, interest groups and social movement organizations, and how the new conflicts are framed by the various actors involved.

For ethnic minorities in Europe separated by state borders—such as Basques in France and Spain or Hungarians who reside in Slovakia and Romania—the European Union has offered the hope of reconnection or at least of rendering the divisions less obstructive. Conationals on different sides of European borders may look forward to increased political engagement, including new norms to support the sharing of sovereignty, enhanced international cooperation, more porous borders, and invigorated protections for minority rights. Under the pan-European umbrella, it has been claimed that those belonging to divided nations would no longer have to depend solely on the goodwill of the governments of their states to have their collective rights respected. Yet for many divided nations, the promise of the European Union and other pan-European institutions remains unfulfilled. Divided Nations and European Integration examines the impact of the expansion of European institutions and the ways the EU acts as a confederal association of member states, rather than a fully multinational federation of peoples. A wide range of detailed case studies consider national communities long within the borders of the European Union, such as the Irish and Basques; communities that have more recently joined, such as the Croats and Hungarians; and communities that are not yet members but are on its borders or in its "near abroad," such as the Albanians, Serbs, and Kurds. This authoritative volume provides cautionary but valuable insights to students of European institutions, nations and nationalism, regional integration, conflict resolution, and minority rights. Contributors: Tozun Bahcheli, Zoe Bray, Alexandra Channer, Zsuzsa Csergő, Marsaili Fraser, James M. Goldgeier, Michael Keating, Tristan James Mabry, John McGarry, Margaret Moore, Sid Noel, Brendan O'Leary, David Romano, Etain Tannam, Stefan Wolff.

This book provides a comprehensive study into the promotion of regional integration as a central pillar of European Union (EU) relations with the rest of the world. It is a strategy to deal with a core security challenge: the transformation of conflicts and, in particular, regional conflicts. Yet to what extent has the promotion of regional integration been successful in transforming conflicts? What can we regard as the core mechanisms of such an impact? This volume offers a comprehensive assessment of the nexus between promoting integration and conflict transformation. The authors systematically compare the consequences of EU involvement in eight conflicts in four world regions within a common framework. In doing so, they focus on the promotion of integration as a preventative strategy to avoid conflicts turning violent and as a long-term strategy to transform violent conflicts by placing them in a broader institutional context. The book will be of use to students and scholars interested in European foreign policy, comparative regionalism, and conflict resolution.

It is generally assumed that regional integration leads to stability and peace. This book is a systematic study of the impact of European integration on the transformation of border conflicts. It provides a theoretical framework centred on four 'pathways' of impact and applies them to five cases of border conflicts: Cyprus, Ireland, Greece/Turkey, Israel/Palestine and various conflicts on Russia's border with the EU. The contributors suggest that integration and association provide the EU with potentially powerful means to influence border conflicts, but that the EU must constantly re-adjust its policies depending on the dynamics of each conflict. Their findings reveal the conditions upon which the impact of integration rests and challenge the widespread notion that integration is necessarily good for peace. This book will appeal to scholars and students of international relations, European politics, and security studies studying European integration and conflict analysis.

This book analyses emerging trends in the politicisation of EU conflicts in Western Europe between 2006 and 2019, evaluating the transformative effects arising from multiple crises – the Euro crisis, the migration crisis and the Brexit Referendum. It describes how EU issues have been increasingly emphasised and polarised by various political parties – both the mainstream pro-EU and anti-EU protest parties – and have been transformed into more meaningful determinants of voting. The respective chapters investigate the fluctuations in EU issue entrepreneurship and EU issue voting, identifying which party types have been more likely to benefit from their EU issue proximity to voters, and assessing the growing politicisation of the EU conflict in both South European and North-Western countries. This book will be of particular interest to students and scholars of political parties, European politics, Euroscepticism and voting behaviour.

Successive Enlargements to the European Union membership have transformed it into an economically, politically and culturally heterogeneous body with distinct vulnerabilities in its multi-level governance. This book analyses core-periphery relations to highlight the growing cleavage, and potential conflict, between the core and peripheral member-states of the Union in the face of the devastating consequences of Eurozone crisis. Taking a comparative and theoretical approach and using a variety of case studies, it examines how the crisis has both exacerbated tensions in centre-periphery relations within and outside the Eurozone, and how the European Union’s economic and political status is declining globally. This text will be of key interest to students and scholars of European Union studies, European integration, political economy, public policy, and comparative politics.