The European Union’s stalled expansion, the Euro deficit and emerging crises of economic and political sovereignty in Greece, Italy and Spain have significantly altered the image of the EU as a model of progressive civilization. However, despite recent events the EU maintains its international image as the paragon of European politics and global governance. This book unites leading scholars on Europe and Empire to revisit the view of the European Union as an ‘imperial’ power. It offers a re-appraisal of the EU as empire in response to geopolitical and economic developments since 2007 and asks if the policies, practices, and priorities of the Union exhibit characteristics of a modern empire. This text will be of key interest to students and scholars of the EU, European studies, history, sociology, international relations, and economics.

This book seeks to comprehend the evolving nature of the European Union following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the failure of the European Constitution. Its prime focus is the last wave of enlargement that has profoundly transformed the EU. Although there are many parallels between the European integration process and state building processes, the Union is nothing like a Westphalian super state. The new emerging polity resembles a kind of neo-medieval empire with a polycentric system of government, multiple and overlapping jurisdictions, striking cultural and economic heterogeneity, fuzzy borders, and divided sovereignty. The book tries to spell out the origin, the shape, and the implications of this empire. The aim of this book is to suggest a novel way of thinking about the European Union and the process of European integration. The book shows 'two Europes' coming together following the end of the cold war. It proposes a system of economic and democratic governance that meets the ever greater challenges of modernization, interdependence, and globalization. It identifies the most plausible scenario of promoting peaceful change in Europe and beyond. The author argues that mainstream thinking about European integration is based on mistaken statist assumptions and suggests more effective and legitimate ways of governing Europe than through adoption of a European Constitution, creation of a European army, or introduction of a European social model. The book covers many fields from politics, and economics to foreign affairs and security. It analyzes developments in both Eastern and Western Europe. It also gives ample room to both theoretical and empirical considerations.

The European Union will remain united, but incomplete, asymmetrical and with undefined borders. The EU, which is much more than a common market, but less than a super-state or federation, can be conceived as an "empire." With this approach, Josep Colomer analyzes the current Europe's dilemmas: the vanishing of the states' sovereignty, the core role of Germany, the border conflicts with the neighboring Russian Empire, the differences between the euro-zone and the other member-states, and the malaise of the United Kingdom and the temptation of Brexit. 'This essay will be of clear and lasting value to a range of actors on the international stage. It is erudite and scholarly, yet accessible and elegantly written, using humor and colorful metaphors to simplify a complex subject that is often treated in a dry and abstract way. The argument is innovative, yet confident and convincing.' Helen Margetts, University of Oxford, UK 'Josep M. Colomer's 'The European Empire' offers an easily readable discussion of the ways in which the European Union has developed and deals with ongoing challenges, by underlying its achievements but also its shortcomings. Clearly written for a broader audience.' Simon Hug, Universite de Geneve, Switzerland"

This book offers a strikingly new perspective on EU enlargement. Basing his findings on substantial empirical evidence, Zielonka presents a carefully argued account of the kind of political entity the European Union is becoming, with particular reference to recent enlargement.

Rethinking Europe's Future is a major reevaluation of Europe's prospects as it enters the twenty-first century. David Calleo has written a book worthy of the complexity and grandeur of the challenges Europe now faces. Summoning the insights of history, political economy, and philosophy, he explains why Europe was for a long time the world's greatest problem and how the Cold War's bipolar partition brought stability of a sort. Without the Cold War, Europe risks revisiting its more traditional history. With so many contingent factors--in particular Russia and Europe's Muslim neighbors--no one, Calleo believes, can pretend to predict the future with assurance. Calleo's book ponders how to think about this future. The book begins by considering the rival ''lessons'' and trends that emerge from Europe's deeper past. It goes on to discuss the theories for managing the traditional state system, the transition from autocratic states to communitarian nation states, the enduring strength of nation states, and their uneasy relationship with capitalism. Calleo next focuses on the Cold War's dynamic legacies for Europe--an Atlantic Alliance, a European Union, and a global economy. These three systems now compete to define the future. The book's third and major section examines how Europe has tried to meet the present challenges of Russian weakness and German reunification. Succeeding chapters focus on Maastricht and the Euro, on the impact of globalization on Europeanization, and on the EU's unfinished business--expanding into ''Pan Europe,'' adapting a hybrid constitution, and creating a new security system. Calleo presents three models of a new Europe--each proposing a different relationship with the U.S. and Russia. A final chapter probes how a strong European Union might affect the world and the prospects for American hegemony. This is a beautifully written book that offers rich insight into a critical moment in our history, whose outcome will shape the world long after our time.

This book looks at Poland at the time of the war in Ukraine with an emphasis on the pertinent political philosophical reflection of its public scholars regarding the problem of the country’s moral rearmament—a major axiological challenge for the West and its member states in dangerous times. After initially looking at the sociopolitical context of the question in Poland, that is, the country’s response to the early phase of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as presenting the aggressive Russian empire together with the European Union as a normative empire, the main question is examined in the context of the Polish national community. Thus Poland is studied from several aspects of cultural and political philosophy, augmented by political theology, which provide potentially relevant resources to confront the challenge. From this perspective reflection on existing historical memory in Poland is presented that explains the survival of a tragic sensibility and can act as a counter to the historical amnesia that has been determined as a deterrent of the axiological task of moral rearmament, and plays an important part in a deeper reflection of the present dangerous times.