The European Union (EU) faces many crises and risks to its security and existence. While few of them threaten the lives of EU citizens, they all create a sense of anxiety and insecurity about the future for many ordinary Europeans. This comprehensive volume explores the concept of ‘ontological security’ which was introduced into international relations over a decade ago to better understand the ‘security of being’ found in feelings of fear, anxiety, crisis, and threat to wellbeing. The authors make use of this concept to explore how narratives of European integration have been part of public discourses in the post-war period and how reconciliation dynamics, national biographical narratives and memory politics have been enacted to create ontological security. Within this context, they also discuss the anxiety of the ‘remainers’ in the Brexit referendum and the consequences of its failure to address the ontological anxieties and insecurities of remain voters. The book also explores: how European security firms market ontological security and provide an ontological security-inspired reading of the EU’s relations with post-communist states; the EU and NATO’s engagement with hybrid threats; and the EU as an anxious community. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal European Security.

This book examines the relevance of integration theories for studying and analsing the crisis situations faced by the EU since 2009. Ten years on from the start of the ‘age of crisis’, it critically analyses the impact of the multiple crises’ context on the EU polity and questions the utility of integration theories for grasping the peculiarities of the particular crisis under study. Bringing together prominent scholars in EU studies, the volume constitutes an essential reference book on integration theories. Its contribution is twofold. First, it provides a comparative overview of classical integration theories for studying and analysing current crisis situations the EU faces. Second, the book connects theories to current debates through an in-depth discussion of recent crises that hit European integration since 2009, with a particular focus on the financial crisis, Brexit, refugee crisis, illiberal tendencies in some member states, and the Coronavirus pandemic. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of European integration, European Union politics, political theory, and, more broadly, to European studies.

The edited volume attempts to critically approach EU-Central Asian relations, asking whether – when adopting a more sectoral governance approach – the EU’s transformative power vis-à-vis the region is greater than initially argued and if so, under what conditions it flourishes most. It assesses whether, through adopting a sectoral approach to the area of, development, infrastructure, water management, security, climate change, energy, trade, health, education, or any other element defining EU-Central Asian relations, the European Union is able to (co-)shape this geopolitically strategic region. If so, what drives the EU’s ability to do so; if not, what mitigates its (potential) influence? This book contributes to the scholarship on the EU’s external governance both empirically and theoretically.

This book is an exploration of how the European Union (EU) and other regional actors construct, understand and use different forms of power in a political space that is increasingly referred to as "Greater Eurasia". The contributors examine the extent that the understanding of power shapes how states and the EU act on a range of questions from energy to the balance of power in Eurasia. They explore how the EU’s and other regional actors’, primarily Russia’s, understanding of power determines whether the post-Soviet space is a neighbourhood, a battleground or an arena for geopolitical and geostrategic confrontation. The chapters deal with a range of issues from negotiations between the EU and Azerbaijan, to how the EU and Russia are trying to shape relations in Central Asia. The volume represents an innovative way of understanding the changing dynamics of the relationship between Russia and the EU, with some original empirical data, and presents these dynamics within a broader conceptual and geographic framework. It also contributes to emerging debates about how the ideational construction of political space may provide insight into how actors behave. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Europe-Asia Studies.

This volume analyses the European Union as an international actor, focusing on its role in peace and security. In an international context where the challenges to peace and security are diverse, including the current context of war in Ukraine, this volume theoretically contextualizes the EU in peace and security studies, explores the institutional dimension of its functioning, and interprets the narratives and policies this actor pursues. A set of illustrative case studies seeks to reflect on the dynamics of peace and security within the framework of the EU and its actions/interventions, such as in the Eastern Partnership or in relations with Russia, and in contexts such as growing disinformation or through its presence on a mission on the ground.

This book brings together an all-women group of scholars to provide a historically grounded and theoretically rich examination of the continuities and changes in Turkey’s foreign policy since the Republic's establishment in 1923. Using different International Relations theories, clarifying the interaction between domestic politics and foreign policymaking, the book charts the evolution of Turkey’s foreign policy vis-a-vis several regions and global actors and examines the major developments in Turkey’s relations with these actors. Some chapters emphasize the continuities in Turkey’s external relations, and others examine the significant changes and discontinuities in certain areas. Recognizing that Turkey’s state interests may not always coincide with the interests of the ruling elite, the book demonstrates that the centennial birthday of Turkey represents a constitutive moment for Turkey’s future and calls for a pragmatic, as opposed to a completely ideologically-based, grand strategy that should focus on progressive ideals.

The crises of the European Union extend beyond the challenges of Covid-19, Brexit, the Eurozone, and mass migration, cutting to the core of the EU itself. Taking a structural rather than event-based approach, this text unpacks all aspects of the EU in crisis and analyses the implications of these crises for the EU and its member states. This edition argues that crises and challenges are no longer unique and discreet events facing the EU, but rather, they are better understood as sustained conditions that have changed the relationships between member states, the functioning of institutions, the nature of public engagement and the prospects for integration. Chapters broach institutional issues as well as specific policy challenges, covering questions of legitimacy and leadership and offering a full chapter on democracy and Euroscepticism. Working within both historical and theoretical frameworks, this is the perfect companion for those studying and researching contemporary challenges facing the EU, European integration, political crisis management and transboundary crises more broadly.

The book addresses security threats and challenges to the European Union emanating from its eastern neighbourhood. The volume includes the expertise of policy and scholarly contributors coming from North America, Russia and Central Asia, and from across the EU. Themes and issues include the EU’s capacities and actorness, support from the United States, challenges from Russia, and a range of case studies including Ukraine, other post-Soviet conflicts, the Kurdish question, Central Asia, and terrorism and counter-terrorism. Authors identify current threats and place these challenges into necessary historical context. They offer long-term recommendations for actionable goals to achieve greater stability in this complex and volatile region. This work is explanatory and long-lasting, and will engage readers in the limits and possibilities of the EU in a challenging era and in its most vital and demanding geographic arena.

Ten years after the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, has executive predominance in EU-related matters disappeared? How have executive-legislative relations in the EU evolved over a crisis-ridden decade, from the financial and migration crises, to Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic? The Lisbon Treaty could be expected to lead to the re-balancing of powers in favour of parliaments, for it significantly enhanced the roles of both the European Parliament and national parliaments. A decade later the contributions to this edited volume examine – for the first time in such an extensive breadth and from a multi-level and cross-policy perspective – whether this has actually materialised. They highlight that diverging tendencies may be observed, and that important variations over time have occurred, depending particularly on the occurrence of crises. As stated in the fascinating epilogue by Peter Lindseth (University of Connecticut School of Law), this is an 'admirably coherent collective volume, whose contributions provide an excellent overview of key aspects of executive-legislative relations in the European system since the Treaty of Lisbon'. This edited volume will hence be of interest to both academics and practitioners interested in future reforms designed at the European and national levels to improve the EU's democratic quality.

This text critically examines the belief that the EU not only has an impact on the international system but also a ‘normative’, ‘civilian’ and ‘civilizing’ power. The contributors question whether this assertion fits with the empirical record or is merely based on anecdotal evidence and whether there is a theoretical basis for the expectation of a ‘normative’ or ‘civilizing’ power. Moving the research agenda forward, the book establishes criteria and assessment standards for examining the EU’s international role and its putative normative dimension. Such an endeavour is particularly important against the backdrop of recent developments in European security and defence. The acquisition of military means, or the EU’s ambition to acquire such means, might weaken at least the argument that the EU is a ‘civilian’ power and could provoke a shift towards a policy more akin to traditional ‘great powers.' This book was previously published as a special issue of the Journal of European Public Policy.