More than ever before, our conflict-ridden, drifting planet needs the qualities that Europe, unique among the continents, has developed in more than two millennia of history: its self-criticism, its urge to self-transcendence, exploration and experiment, its conviction that alternative and better forms of human togetherness can be achieved, as well as its dedication to the cause of seeking and promoting this improvement in practice. But today Europe is unsure of itself and its place in a fast-changing world; it is devoid of vision, limited in resources and lacking the will to pursue its vocation. It is also struggling with the consequences of a one-sided process of globalization which is divorcing power from politics, inciting the shift from the social state to security-focused governance and piling up the casualties of uncontrolled market expansion and the ethically blind commercialization of human life. Bauman argues that despite the odds Europe still has much to offer in dealing with the great challenges that face us in the twenty-first century. Through sharing its own hard-won historical lessons, Europe can play a vital role in moving from the Hobbesian-like world in which we find ourselves today towards the kind of peaceful unification of humanity that was once envisioned by Kant.

The EU’s single currency crisis and the ensuing human costs have led to Europe’s biggest disaster since 1945. This book examines each of its stages and the political and social impact, and reveals the longer-term origins of the crisis, particularly the failure of elites to promote a genuine European partnership grounded in democratic values and a desire to co-exist with a national outlook. The author defends an orderly retreat from the existing model of monetary union, arguing that an alternative is needed in order for countries enduring a prolonged slump to recover, and recommending that EU chiefs should also treat the nation-state as a partner in a common emergency that needs to be overcome. This jargon-free, insightful and long-term analysis of a dangerous crisis is an invaluable book for academics and students alike. It is also an effective tool for policy-makers, citizens and business people who require an accessible and in-depth appraisal of a continuing catastrophe.

This book recreates the first decade of the history of the EU: why and how the ECSC, EEC and the EURATOM treaties were proposed and negotiated, as well as the fiasco of the EDC. This history is set in the context of an analysis of the thinking of the EU's «Founding Fathers» (Monnet, Schuman, Adenauer, de Gasperi & Spaak).

In this important new book the renowned historian Serge Gruzinski returns to two episodes in the sixteenth century which mark a decisive stage in global history and show how China and Mexico experienced the expansion of Europe. In the early 1520s, Magellan set sail for Asia by the Western route, Cortes seized Mexico and some Portuguese based in Malacca dreamed of colonizing China. The Aztec Eagle was destroyed but the Chinese Dragon held strong and repelled the invaders - after first seizing their cannon. For the first time, people from three continents encountered one other, confronted one other and their lives became entangled. These events were of great interest to contemporaries and many people at the time grasped the magnitude of what was going on around them. The Iberians succeeded in America and failed in China. The New World became inseparable from the Europeans who were to conquer it, while the Celestial Empire became, for a long time to come, an unattainable goal. Gruzinski explores this encounter between civilizations that were different from one another but that already fascinated contemporaries, and he shows that our world today bears the mark of this distant age. For it was in the sixteenth century that human history began to be played out on a global stage. It was then that connections between different parts of the world began to accelerate, not only between Europe and the Americas but also between Europe and China. This is what is revealed by a global history of the sixteenth century, conceived as another way of reading the Renaissance, less Eurocentric and more in tune with our age.

In this new book, President Klaus examines the uneasy Europe of today, without illusions or personal attacks, but with a mercilessly realistic view of the system that Europe has created in the last half century. He examines the benefits of integrating the continent in strictly economic terms and explains the tragic flaw in the original plan to do so.

The contributors to this book set out to show that NATO's post-Cold War troubles are largely self-generated and almost exclusively "eastern". They focus in particular on the issue of what to do with the former Yugoslavia.

Die Autorinnen und Autoren dieses Bandes haben eine Reihe von Reden von Spitzenpolitikern zur europäischen Integration aus einer großen Zeitspanne (1946-2020) analysiert, wobei sie jede Rede in ihren zeitgeschichtlichen Kontext gestellt und in den biographischen Hintergrund des Redners eingeordnet haben. Die vergleichende Analyse zeigt, dass es notwendig ist, wieder zu entdecken, dass das Ideal des europäischen Einigungswerks genauso spannend sein kann wie andere nationale geschichtliche Kontroversen. Angesichts eines grassierenden Euroskeptizismus kann eine historische Einordnung und Kontextualisierung der Rolle der Kommunikation der europäischen Integration ein nützliches Instrumentarium sein, um die Bedeutung der europäischen Einigung und ihrer Werte zu erklären und zu verstehen. Mit Beiträgen von Dr. Andrea Becherucci, Prof. Frédéric Bozo, Prof. Elena Calandri, Prof. Andrea Catanzaro, Prof. Sante Cruciani, Dr. Deborah Cuccia, Prof. Elena Dundovich, Prof. Laura Fasanaro, Dr. Eva Garau, Prof. Dr. Michael Gehler, Prof. Piero Graglia, Prof. Giorgio Grimaldi, Prof. Gilles Grin, Prof. Maria Eleonora Guasconi, Prof. Giuliana Laschi, Prof. Guido Levi, Prof. Antonio Moreno Juste, Prof. Mara Morini, Prof. Marinella Neri Gualdesi, Dr. Jean-Marie Palayret, Prof. Simone Paoli, Prof. Daniele Pasquinucci, Prof. Laura Piccardo, Prof. Francesco Pierini, Prof. Ilaria Poggiolini, Prof. Daniela Preda, Prof. Sabine Russ-Sattar, Prof. Carlos Sanz Diaz, Prof. Jan Van der Harst, Prof. Antonio Varsori und Laura Wolf.