Over recent years, a series of challenges including Brexit and the rise of Euroscepticism, have manifested in landmark moments for European integration. First published as a special issue of Global Discourse, this edited collection investigates whether these crises are isolated phenomena or symptoms of a deeper malaise across the EU.

The book examines the early history of music theatre in Romania in the nineteenth century and how it was instrumentalised as a vehicle for the overall modernization and Europeanization of the country. It deals with the complex interaction between the aristocrats, who imported the opera, the local public, the foreign power holders in the time of the Russian Protectorate and the opera companies and musicians who came to Romania and shaped the musical life of the country.

Dear All, The International Community should be advised that the Russian government is in dispute. Due to Vladimir Putin's bad governance, Russia is like a lost puppy which needs protection and safeguarding by the NGO community. As things stand, the Putin government is failing to uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in Russia. This includes the murder of lawyers, activists and government critics - such as Anna Politkovskaya, Stanislav Markelov, Boris Nemtsov, Natalia Estemirova, Sergei Yushenkov, Alexander Litvinenko, Boris Berezovsky, Magomed Yevloyev and many more. Survivor of these cowardly killings is Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny; who was sentenced unjustly for over two years in jail - a testament of injustice, cruelty and tyranny by the Putin government. Putin's cruel and unjust war on Ukraine is another focal point in this work; the Putin regime persisting that militarism and war crimes play a legitimate role in international politics. This evidence-based study outlines why such negative policies are not only counterproductive to the global peace movement, but also a very considerable waste of money and effort. Russia, as a Mafia State, is also explored in this volume, as Putin has created a state peopled by oligarchs, ex-KGB and FSB officers who are bent on making money above all. Hence this book contains suggestions for personality development; cutting edge approaches to increase emotional and spiritual intelligence - so that Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin may come to the realization that money, power, vodka and sex is not everything in life. To avoid a power vacuum in Russia - and another violent revolution in Mother Russia - the NGO BTB-Global Peacebuilding will be handling stuff in the meantime; such as domestic policy, foreign policy and human rights issues concerning Russia. The International Community is advised to keep a safe distance from the Putin regime and the Kremlin, until the UDHR has been restored. In the meantime domestic policy, foreign policy and human rights issues concerning the Russian Federation will be handled by the NGO BTB-Global Peacebuilding. NB: It is imperative that all Russian forces withdraw from Ukraine - so that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) can be restored in the International Community. God Bless / Бог благословил / Бог благословить / Love and Light President of Российская Федерация and the US: Mark O'Doherty, BTB-Global Peacebuilding 3. December 2022

Examines the world of humanitarian aid workers and the processes of democratization that they put into effect in Bosnia-Herzegovina

Myths of Europe focuses on the identity of Europe, seeking to re-assess its cultural, literary and political traditions in the context of the 21st century. Over 20 authors – historians, political scientists, literary scholars, art and cultural historians – from five countries here enter into a debate. How far are the myths by which Europe has defined itself for centuries relevant to its role in global politics after 9/11? Can ‘Old Europe’ maintain its traditional identity now that the European Union includes countries previously supposed to be on its periphery? How has Europe handled relations with the non-European Other in the past and how is it reacting now to an influx of immigrants and asylum seekers? It becomes clear that founding myths such as Hamlet and St Nicholas have helped construct the European consciousness but also that these and other European myths have disturbing Eurocentric implications. Are these myths still viable today and, if so, to what extent and for what purpose? This volume sits on the interface between culture and politics and is important reading for all those interested in the transmission of myth and in both the past and the future of Europe.

Europeanization and domestic change: introduction / Thomas Risse, Maria Green Cowles, James Caporaso -- The Europeanization of gender equality policy and domestic structural change / James Caporaso, Joseph Jupille -- Differential Europe: national administrative responses to community policy / Adrienne Héritier -- Institutional reform in telecommunications: the European Union in transnational policy diffusion / Volker Schneider -- Italy pays for Europe: political leadership, political choice, and institutional adaptation / Alberta Sbragia -- Europeanization and the courts: variable patterns of adaptation among national judiciaries / Lisa Conant -- Adjusting to EU environmental policy: change and persistence of domestic administrations / Christoph Knill, Andrea Lenschow -- Europeanization and territorial institutional change: toward cooperative regionalism? / Tanja A. Börzel -- The transatlantic business dialogue and domestic business-government relations / Maria Green Cowles -- The Europeanization of citizenship? / Jeffrey T. Checkel -- A European identity? Europeanization and the evolution of nation-state identities / Thomas Risse -- Transforming Europe: conclusions / Maria Green Cowles, Thomas Risse.

There has been a deliberative, but as yet unsuccessful, attempt by scholars and policy makers to articulate a more meaningful idea of Europe, which would enhance the legitimacy of the European Union and provide the basis for a European identity. Using a detailed analysis of the writings of Nietzsche, Elbe seeks to address this problem and argues that Nietzsche's thinking about Europe can significantly illuminate our understanding. He demonstrates how Nietzsche's critique of nationalism and the notion of the 'good European' can assist contemporary scholars in the quest for a vision of Europe and a definition of what it means to be a European citizen.

Despite a quarter-century of constructivist theorizing in the social sciences and humanities, ethnic groups continue to be conceived as entities and cast as actors. Journalists, policymakers, and researchers routinely frame accounts of ethnic, racial, and national conflict as the struggles of internally homogeneous, externally bounded ethnic groups, races, and nations. In doing so, they unwittingly adopt the language of participants in such struggles, and contribute to the reification of ethnic groups. In this timely and provocative volume, Rogers Brubaker—well known for his work on immigration, citizenship, and nationalism—challenges this pervasive and commonsense “groupism.” But he does not simply revert to standard constructivist tropes about the fluidity and multiplicity of identity. Once a bracing challenge to conventional wisdom, constructivism has grown complacent, even cliched. That ethnicity is constructed is commonplace; this volume provides new insights into how it is constructed. By shifting the analytical focus from identity to identifications, from groups as entities to group-making projects, from shared culture to categorization, from substance to process, Brubaker shows that ethnicity, race, and nation are not things in the world but perspectives on the world: ways of seeing, interpreting, and representing the social world.

This book brings together a diverse range of international voices from academia, policymaking and civil society to address the failure to connect historical dialogue with atrocity prevention discourse and provide insight into how conflict histories and historical memory act as dynamic forces, actively facilitating or deterring current and future conflict. Established on a variety of international case studies combining theoretical and practical points of view, the book envisions an integrated understanding of how historical dialogue can inform policy, education, and the practice of atrocity prevention. In doing so, it provides a vital basis for the development of preventive policies sensitive to the importance of conflict histories and for further academic study on the topic. It will be of interest to all scholars and students of history, psychology, peace studies, international relations and political science.