This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. It is free to read, download and share on Elgaronline.com. Building a thorough and comprehensive understanding of the limits of the international rules-based liberal order across a variety of issue areas, this topical book highlights how the discourse and values inherent in these long-established political arrangements are now facing a backlash, and how Europe is responding towards it.

This book sets out to give a straightforward insider''s account of the current realities of European integration. It succinctly reviews the reasons and methods of European integration, analyses what the European Union (EU) really does, and examines how funds are spent. The whole range of current EU policies is critically reviewed: the Single market; the Euro; and the common policies on agriculture, fisheries, the regions, industry, competition, transport, the environment, social affairs, consumer protection, research, taxation, justice, trade, development, foreign affairs and defence.This book argues for a much slimmed-down European executive. It needs to become fully accountable in a democratically legitimised bicameral federal system, and take charge only of policies essential for effective internal and external security and for a working economic and monetary union. To avoid policy paralysis and continued mismanagement by a redistributive and over-regulatory bureaucracy, most of the current OC low politicsOCO and EU funds should be returned to the member states and their regions. This book thus makes a long overdue informed contribution to the debate on Europe''s future constitution."

Given the recent focus on the challenges to representative democracy, and the search for new institutions and procedures that can help to channel increasing participation, this book offers empirical insights on alternative conceptions of democracy and the actors that promote them. With a focus on the conceptions and practices of democracy within contemporary social movements in Europe, this volume contributes to the debate on the different dimensions of democracy, especially in its participative and deliberative forms. On the basis of an in-depth analysis of European Social Forums, gathering thousands of social movement organizations and tens of thousands of activists from all Europe, the book explores the transnational dimension of democracy and addresses a relevant, and little analyzed aspect of Europeanization: the Europeanization of social movements. From a methodological point of view, the research innovates by covering a group of individuals traditionally neglected in previous studies: social movement activists. Qualitative and quantitative methods are employed to research individual motivations as well as environmental dynamics. The various chapters combine analysis of the individuals’ attitudes and behavior with that of the organizational characteristics, procedures and practices of democracy. Providing a cross-national comparison on the global justice movement, the theoretical challenges of the new wave of protest and offering rich empirical data on contemporary activism, this book will appeal to students and scholars of comparative politics, sociology, political sociology, social movement studies, as well as transnational relations.

This is the first comprehensive history of the world's roads, highways, bridges, and the people and vehicles that traverse them, from prehistoric times to the present. Encyclopedic in its scope, fascinating in its details, Ways of the World is a unique work for reference and browsing. Maxwell Lay considers the myriad aspects of roads and their users: the earliest pathways, the rise of wheeled vehicles and animals to pull them, the development of surfaced roads, the motives for road and bridge building, and the rise of cars and their influence on roads, cities, and society. The work is amply illustrated, well indexed and cross-referenced, and includes a chronology of road history and a full bibliography. It is indispensable for anyone interested in travel, history, geography, transportation, cars, or the history of technology.

This book is a study of the role of cultural and heritage networks and how they can help institutions and their host societies manage the tensions and realise the opportunities arising from migration. In looking at past and emerging challenges of social inclusion and cultural dialogue, hybrid models of cultural identity, citizenship and national belonging, the study also sets out to answer the questions 'how'. How can cultural institutions leverage the power of cross-border networks in a contested place such as Europe today? How could they elaborate approaches and strategies based on cultural practices? How can the actions of the European Commission and relevant cultural bodies be strengthened, adapted or extended to meet these goals? Cultural Networks in Migrating Heritage will be of interest to scholars and students in museum and cultural heritage studies, visual arts, sociology of organisations and information studies. It will also be relevant to practitioners and policymakers from museums, libraries, NGOs and cultural institutions at large.

This volume provides the first comparative survey of the relations between the two most active book worlds in Eurasia between 1450 and 1850. Prominent scholars in book history explore different approaches to publishing, printing, and book culture. They discuss the extent of technology transfer and book distribution between the two regions and show how much book historians of East Asia and Europe can learn from one another by raising new questions, exploring remarkable similarities and differences in these regions’ production, distribution, and consumption of books. The chapters in turn show different ways of writing transnational comparative history. Whereas recent problems confronting research on European books can instruct researchers on East Asian book production, so can the privileged role of noncommercial publications in the East Asian textual record highlight for historians of the European book the singular contribution of commercial printing and market demands to the making of the European printed record. Likewise, although production growth was accompanied in both regions by a wider distribution of books, woodblock technology’s simplicity and mobility allowed for a shift in China of its production and distribution sites farther down the hierarchy of urban sites than was common in Europe. And, the different demands and consumption practices within these two regions’ expanding markets led to different genre preferences and uses as well as to the growth of distinctive female readerships. A substantial introduction pulls the work together and the volume ends with an essay that considers how these historical developments shape the present book worlds of Eurasia. “This splendid volume offers expert new insight into the ways of producing, financing, distributing, and reading printed books in early modern Europe and East Asia. This is comparative history at its best, which leaves us with a better understanding of each context and of the challenges common to book cultures across space and time.” —Ann Blair, author of Too Much to Know: Managing Scholarly Information before the Modern Age and professor of history, Harvard University “This engrossing account of the history of the book by leading specialists on the European and East Asian publishing worlds takes stock of what we know—and how much we still need to know—about the places that books had in the lives of our early modern forebears. Each chapter is masterful state-of-the-field coverage of its subject, and together they set a new standard for future studies of the book, East and West.” —Timothy Brook, author of The Troubled Empire: China in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties

While the EU has championed "effective multilateralism" and experienced a dramatic internal reform process to improve its performance in external relations, broader multilateral processes have also undergone dramatic change. This handbook addresses the increasingly contested issue of profound political importance: Europe’s presence in multilateral institutions. It assesses both the evolving role of Europe in international institutions, and the transformations in international institutions themselves. Acknowledging that the category of international institutions comprises a highly diverse field of multilateral engagements this handbook presents a state of the art approach that analyzes both what we have learned about the EU and international institutions as well as identifying promising avenues for further research. The handbook is divided into six parts: Part I examines the EU’s diplomatic and legal personality in international relations that constitutes the internal foundation for the EU’s engagement with international institutions. Part II assesses how EU multilateralism intersects with other international institutions and provides a means to assess the performance of international institutions as well as the EU itself in multilateral processes. Part III focuses on the EU’s participation with key institutions within the general UN system, such as the UN Security Council and the Human Rights Council as well as specific policy domains such as human rights across UN institutions. Part IV focuses on EU relations with wide range of international organizations in a variety of fields, from organizations in economic and security realms to environmental institutions and specialized agencies. Part V focuses on the EU’s engagement in a broad spectrum of issue-specific international agreements and international regimes, addressing issues such as non-proliferation of WMDs, climate change, information technology, and the emerging Gx-system (G7, G8, G20 etc). Part VI examines broader contextual factors that influence the relationship between the EU and international institutions, including the evolution of multilateralism, the trans-Atlantic relationship, global norms and the emergence of multipolarity. This comprehensive volume brings together scholars and practitioners to summarize and synthesize existing knowledge in the field. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of European politics, the EU’s external relations, international relations, international organizations and international political economy.

The collapse of the communist monopoly across Central and Southeastern Europe in 1989-1990 initiated a process of rapid change. This updated second edition comprehensively describes the post-communist trajectory of the states of Central and Southeastern Europe, encompassing democratization, privatization, corruption, and war.