The COVID-19 pandemic devastated the European Union yet also spurred an unprecedented level of cooperation and joint decision making. The EU and its Member States rallied to meet the challenges of the global health threat with a jointly procured vaccine, a jointly funded economic recovery package and a jointly supported public borrowing programme. As a result, 2 years later the economy has begun to recover and the EU is ready to consider its next steps in crisis management and planning. A triple transition of climate, digital and social change will dictate the EU's overall strategy in coming years. Policymakers have an opportunity to set the Union on a path toward growth and prosperity, but if they are not careful they also could set the stage for entrenched inequality and disagreement. Continuing with longstanding policies also poses a danger, given the need for change to meet the challenges ahead. The EU will have a chance to set a course along one of three main scenarios: Business as Usual, Fragmentation and Conflict, or a New Era. Under the first option, the EU does not adapt as needed to protect the environment or give its population the skills they need to survive in a digital world, and the EU falls further behind its international counterparts. In the second scenario, EU policies actively unravel the alliances and economic programmes that have taken so long to build, with corresponding threats to political and economic stability. But the EU also has a better option: pursuing policies that will lead to a New Era within the single market and around the world.

The outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2008 ended a long period of crisis-free development of the European Union. Since then, the Union has experienced several subsequent crises. The global financial crisis of 2008-2009 turned into a sovereign debt crisis in Europe that lasted until 2013. (2) This was followed by the COVID crisis in 2020-2021. Europe was just about to emerge from this crisis when Russia waged war on Ukraine in February 2022. The destructions of this brutal war, the sanctions on the aggressor, Russia, and the subsequent rapid decoupling from Russia led to an energy crisis in Europe. This series of crises tested the EU's economic, social, and political resilience, and its capacity to adjust and reinvent itself. Volume I aims to identify the key challenges policymakers and societies in the EU face at the European and national levels. It also offers possible public policy actions to help the Union emerge from the current crisis stronger. Volume II looks behind these challenges and zooms in on some key aspects to improve our understanding of the nature of the challenges and the factors that shape and sometimes constrain possible policy responses.

The outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2008 ended a long period of crisis-free development of the European Union. Since then, the Union has experienced several subsequent crises. The global financial crisis of 2008-2009 turned into a sovereign debt crisis in Europe that lasted until 2013. (2) This was followed by the COVID crisis in 2020-2021. Europe was just about to emerge from this crisis when Russia waged war on Ukraine in February 2022. The destructions of this brutal war, the sanctions on the aggressor, Russia, and the subsequent rapid decoupling from Russia led to an energy crisis in Europe. This series of crises tested the EU's economic, social, and political resilience, and its capacity to adjust and reinvent itself. Volume I aims to identify the key challenges policymakers and societies in the EU face at the European and national levels. It also offers possible public policy actions to help the Union emerge from the current crisis stronger. Volume II looks behind these challenges and zooms in on some key aspects to improve our understanding of the nature of the challenges and the factors that shape and sometimes constrain possible policy responses.

This volume offers the first detailed statement by a contingent of RAND thinkers on the contours of a redefined Atlantic partnership.

"The American Dream is in decline. Americans are increasingly overworked, underpaid, and squeezed for time. But there is an alternative: the European Dream-a more leisurely, healthy, prosperous, and sustainable way of life. Europe's lifestyle is not only desirable, argues Jeremy Rifkin, but may be crucial to sustaining prosperity in the new era. With the dawn of the European Union, Europe has become an economic superpower in its own right-its GDP now surpasses that of the United States. Europe has achieved newfound dominance not by single-mindedly driving up stock prices, expanding working hours, and pressing every household into a double- wage-earner conundrum. Instead, the New Europe relies on market networks that place cooperation above competition; promotes a new sense of citizenship that extols the well-being of the whole person and the community rather than the dominant individual; and recognizes the necessity of deep play and leisure to create a better, more productive, and healthier workforce. From the medieval era to modernity, Rifkin delves deeply into the history of Europe, and eventually America, to show how the continent has succeeded in slowly and steadily developing a more adaptive, sensible way of working and living. In The European Dream, Rifkin posits a dawning truth that only the most jingoistic can ignore: Europe's flexible, communitarian model of society, business, and citizenship is better suited to the challenges of the twenty-first century. Indeed, the European Dream may come to define the new century as the American Dream defined the century now past." http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0720/2004047935-d.html

This book is a detailed study of contemporary economic, political and security relations between Western Europe (now represented by the European Union) and China and the two emerging special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau. In a comparative manner, the contributors analyse the policies of seven major European states and the European Commission, counter-balanced with the view from China, Hong Kong and Macau. This uniquely wide-ranging survey discusses the past record, the present performance and the future prospects of the Sino-European relationship.

Inquiries into the relationship between security and human rights are of very recent vintage. They have long been hampered by political scientists' predilection for political "realism." From that perspective, there seemed little doubt that power comes first and any human rights but a poor second. As wishful thinking turned into reality during the Eastern European revolutions of 1989, the limitations of such shortsighted realism became apparent. This book examines the causes and consequences of the emerging new relationship between security and human rights. It is divided into two parts, which deal respectively with security and human rights and their relationship to states and societies. What is the theoretical linkage between security and human rights? How has this linkage evolved within the context of East-West relations? What was the particular role of the Helsinki process in shaping this evolution? How do these issues affect the difficult transition from dictatorship to pluralism in countries facing the challenge of ethnic, economic, and social dislocation? The contributors to this volume seek to deepen our understanding of the forces that brought about the collapse of communism in Europe, and they explore the broader implications of change for the emerging post-cold war international order.

Spiegel and Wehling give students a basic overview of international relations, helping them discuss world politics from an informed perspective. The authors foster this perspective by moving from concrete (e.g., history, economics, and global issues) to more abstract and theoretical concerns (e.g., security, policy, and levels of analysis). Themes include such post-Cold War issues as co-operation/conflict and globalization/fragmentation.