The European Union And The Challenges Of The New Global Context

The European Union and the Challenges of the New Global Context

This book investigates the new challenges confronted by the EU as an international actor within the context of recent economic and political developments, with particular attention to common foreign and security policies; the appraisal of development-aid policies; EU sanctions in the post-Soviet space, as harder instruments complementing the toolbox of the EU “soft power” polity; preferential trade agreements as a key element of EU external trade policy; external relations of the EU; international aspects of the monetary policy of the ECB in the context of the financial and sovereign debt crisis; massive capital flows and the boom-bust cycle in the emerging Europe; and the macroeconomic modelling of the relationship between the EU and the rest of the world. Thoroughly up-to-date, the contributions to this volume offer analyses of recent, tense global events, including EU responses to the uprising in Arab countries and the Ukrainian conflict. The book concludes with the proposal of a unique macroeconomic model in which the EU is conceptualised as constituting a block “against” the rest of the world, but also a two country model in itself, made up of Eurozone and non-Eurozone members.

The European Union and the Challenges of the New Global Context

European Union in the Global Context

European Union in the Global Context explores the interplay between the state and state sovereignty, nationalism, European integration and globalisation. It provides essential foundations in these areas, while using stimulating arguments to prompt discussion and provoke interest in the relationships between these processes. It critically analyses the challenges faced by the EU from the contemporary political and economic dynamics of globalisation (IPE), including trading relationships set through the WTO and bilateral relations with emerging markets, especially the BRICS economies. Likewise, pressures from within, such as a resurgence of nationalism, localisation, anti-austerity politics, and Euroscepticism, are examined. While the Union is fundamentally challenged by pressures from above and below, and by its own internal dysfunction, it remains central to the effective management of the international political economy. European Union in the Global Context is a lively, focused and engaging text, incorporating anecdotes and contemporary arguments, and presenting different perspectives on European integration and globalisation. It will be of key interest to students of European Politics, European Studies, European Union Studies, and more broadly, global political economy, foreign and security policy and international relations.