The European Union means many different things to its many peoples. In Germany, for example, the European project was conceived mainly as post-national, or even post-sovereign. In France, by contrast, President Emmanuel Macron has pursued the vision of a sovereign Europe; that is, an EU that would become a formidable geopolitical actor. Yet, instead, Europe has struggled to ascertain its values abroad and even domestically, facing a sovereignist rebellion from its newer member states, such as Hungary and Poland, and the departure of Britain. The eurozone crisis has undermined the EU's economic credentials, the refugee crisis its societal cohesion, the failure to stand up to Russia its sense of purpose, and the Covid-19 pandemic its credibility as a protector of European citizens. The key argument of this book is that the multiple crises of the European project are caused by one underlying factor: its bold attempt to overcome the age of nation-states. Left unchecked, supranational institutions tend to become ever more bureaucratic, eluding control of the people they are meant to serve. The logic of technocracy is thus pitted against the democratic impulse, which the European Union is supposed to embody. Democracy in Europe has suffered as a result.

Eurasian Disunion: Russia's Vulnerable Flanks examines the impact of Moscow's neo-imperial project on the security of several regions bordering the Russian Federation, analyses the geopolitical aspects of Kremlin ambitions, and makes recommendations for the future role of NATO, the EU, and the United States in the Wider Europe. Russia's attack on Ukraine and the dismemberment of its territory is not an isolated operation. It constitutes one component of a broader strategic agenda to rebuild a Moscow-centered bloc designed to compete with the West. The acceleration of President Vladimir Putin's neo-imperial project has challenged the security of several regions that border the Russian Federation and focused attention on the geopolitical aspects of Kremlin ambitions. This book is intended to generate a more informed policy debate on the dangers stemming from the restoration of a Russian-centered "pole of power" or "sphere of influence" in Eurasia. It focuses on five vulnerable flanks bordering the Russian Federation--the Baltic and Nordic zones, East Central Europe, Southeast Europe, South Caucasus, and Central Asia. It examines several pivotal questions, including the strategic objectives of Moscow's expansionist ambitions; Kremlin tactics and capabilities; the impact of Russia's assertiveness on the national security of neighbors; the responses of vulnerable states to Russia's geopolitical ambitions; the impact of prolonged regional turmoil on the stability of the Russian Federation and the survival of the Putinist regime; and the repercussions of heightened regional tensions for U.S., NATO, and EU policy toward Russia and toward unstable regions bordering the Russian Federation.

Reflecting more than two decades of research on Yugoslavia’s collapse and based primarily on sources from the region itself, this book consistently challenges commonly-held beliefs about the Balkans wars, and about European integration, international law, human rights, and politics in multi-national societies.

The European Union means many different things to its many peoples. In Germany, for example, the European project was conceived mainly as post-national, or even post-sovereign. In France, by contrast, President Emmanuel Macron has pursued the vision of a sovereign Europe; that is, an EU that would become a formidable geopolitical actor. Yet, instead, Europe has struggled to ascertain its values abroad and even domestically, facing a sovereignist rebellion from its newer member states, such as Hungary and Poland, and the departure of Britain. The eurozone crisis has undermined the EU’s economic credentials, the refugee crisis its societal cohesion, the failure to stand up to Russia its sense of purpose, and the Covid-19 pandemic its credibility as a protector of European citizens. The key argument of this book is that the multiple crises of the European project are caused by one underlying factor: its bold attempt to overcome the age of nation-states. Left unchecked, supranational institutions tend to become ever more bureaucratic, eluding control of the people they are meant to serve. The logic of technocracy is thus pitted against the democratic impulse, which the European Union is supposed to embody. Democracy in Europe has suffered as a result.

Between 1772 and 1795, Russia, Prussia, and Austria concluded agreements to annex and eradicate the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania. With the partitioning of Poland, the dioceses of the Uniate Church (later known as the Greek Catholic Church) were fractured by the borders of three regional hegemons. Larry Wolff's deeply engaging account of these events delves into the politics of the Episcopal elite, the Vatican, and the three rulers behind the partitions: Catherine II of Russia, Frederick II of Prussia, and Joseph II of Austria. Wolff uses correspondence with bishops in the Uniate Church and ministerial communiquŽs to reveal the nature of state policy as it unfolded. Disunion within the Union adopts methodologies from the history of popular culture pioneered by Natalie Zemon Davis (The Return of Martin Guerre) and Carlo Ginzburg (The Cheese and the Worms) to explore religious experience on a popular level, especially questions of confessional identity and practices of piety. This detailed study of the responses of common Uniate parishioners, as well as of their bishops and hierarchs, to the pressure of the partitions paints a vivid portrait of conflict, accommodation, and survival in a church subject to the grand designs of the late eighteenth century's premier absolutist powers.

"Azerbaijan and the New Energy Geopolitics of Southeastern Europe" comes at a critical time when concerns about energy security are growing in the midst of military, economic, and energy conflicts in East and Southeast Europe. As the construction of the Southern Gas Corridor from Azerbaijan to Europe is advancing, natural gas from the Caspian region will challenge the gas monopoly of any single supplier in Southeast Europe, thus changing the geopolitical landscape in the region.An edited volume with ten chapters, this study enhances our understanding of Southeast Europe's energy security and the potential impact of the Southern Gas Corridor. The book focuses attention on Azerbaijan's aspiring role as an energy supplier and contributor to energy security in Southeast Europe, its evolving relations with countries in the region, and, consequently, Baku's expanding relations with the European Union and the United States.

The first book to weave Eurasia together through the perspective of the oceans and seas Eurasia’s emerging powers—India, China, and Russia—have increasingly embraced their maritime geographies as they have expanded and strengthened their economies, military capabilities, and global influence. Maritime Eurasia, a region that facilitates international commerce and contains some of the world’s most strategic maritime chokepoints, has already caused a shift in the global political economy and challenged the dominance of the Atlantic world and the United States. Climate change is set to further affect global politics. With meticulous and comprehensive field research, Geoffrey Gresh considers how the melting of the Arctic ice cap will create new shipping lanes and exacerbate a contest for the control of Arctic natural resources. He explores as well the strategic maritime shifts under way from Europe to the Indian Ocean and Pacific Asia. The race for great power status and the earth’s changing landscape, Gresh shows, are rapidly transforming Eurasia and thus creating a new world order.

This book advances our understanding of security and its intricate interactions with geopolitics and the environment in Eurasia. Norman A. Graham and Şuhnaz Yılmaz focus on Eurasia, where the energy-water-food nexus has emerged as a vital aspect of political economy and increasinglyas a decisive factor for human security. As clearly revealed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this nexus rests on a precarious balance. Graham and Yilmaz argue that Central Eurasia is currently “Running on Empty” and highlight the key environmental challenges, including water quantity and quality and food security. The authors draw on their extensive fieldwork in countries including Azerbaijan, China, Georgia, Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation, Turkey, and Uzbekistan to assess the interests and impact of pivotal actors and evaluate the competition and complementarities of these actors regarding water, energy, food security, and foreign policy imperatives. They also examine the broader interaction and implications of security at multiple levels by analyzing the local, national, and international factors in light of geopolitical and environmental challenges. Taking a novel and highly interdisciplinary approach, this book will be an important resource for students and scholars of energy and food security, political economy, international conflict and cooperation, and natural resource politics.

The European Union in a Reconnecting Eurasia examines the full scope of EU interests in the South Caucasus and Central Asia and analyzes the broad outlines of EU engagement over the coming years. It is part of a six-part CSIS series, “Eurasia from the Outside In,” which includes studies focusing on Turkey, the European Union, Iran, India, Russia, and China.

This book sets out a concrete analytical and empirical framework to understand the Euro-zone crisis and the deep disintegrative tendencies of Euro-Atlantic neo-imperialism. It explores how the authoritarianism and austerity led from above in the transatlantic world cultivate right-wing populism and racist hysteria from below, especially in relation to the global power-shift to China and other emerging economies. The authors argue that ordoliberal/neo-liberal austerity cannot reverse the decline of western economies; if anything, it precipitates their downfall and the re-launching of globalization under Asian primacy. The book will appeal to students, scholars and policymakers across the fields of International Political Economy, European Politics and Critical Social and Political Theory.