bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
5. America in the 1990s: searching for purpose
Authors: Dumbrell John
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines U.S. foreign policy debates and policy management under the direction of George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. It first provides an overview of post-Cold War American internationalism before discussing the so-called ‘Kennan sweepstakes’: a conscious effort to find a post-Soviet statement of purpose to rival George Kennan’s early Cold War concept of ‘containment’ of communism. It then considers U.S. foreign policy making in the new order and in the post-Cold War era. Both the Bush and Clinton administrations wrestled with the problem of deciding on a clear, publicly defensible, strategy for U.S. foreign policy in the new era. Clinton’s first term was dominated by free trade agendas and by efforts to operationalize the policy of ‘selective engagement’, while his second term involved a noticeable turn towards unilateralism and remilitarization. The New World Order was Bush’s main contribution to thinking beyond the Cold War.
8. Military power and US foreign policy
Authors: Fischer Beth A.
Published: September 2017

This chapter explores the relationship between American military power and foreign policy. It also considers important debates regarding containment, deterrence, preemption, and the limits of military power. The chapter begins with a discussion of the rise of American military power during the period 1945–91, focusing on the military implications of containment and deterrence as well as the role of deterrence in ending the arms race. It then examines the fundamental questions that the United States had to confront in the post-Cold War era regarding its role in the world and its military power; for example, whether nuclear weapons are still useful, and for what purpose the U.S. military should be deployed. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the U.S. response to terrorism, with particular emphasis on the U.S. involvement in the war in Afghanistan (2001) and the war in Iraq (2003).
10. Media and US foreign policy
Authors: Robinson Piers
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines the influence of media and public opinion on U.S. foreign policy and vice versa. It considers the extent to which the media and public have been manipulated by the government, and the extent to which public opinion and media have shaped foreign policy during tumultuous times such as the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. It also explores the consequences of public opinion and media for U.S. power in the twenty-first century. The chapter describes pluralist and elite models of the public opinion/ media/foreign policy nexus, long with public and media diplomacy. It concludes with a discussion of the extent to which developments in communication technology have empowered U.S. public opinion and media, as well as the impact of this technology on global U.S. power and influence, in particular in the context of the current war on terror.
13. The USA and the EU
Authors: Smith Mike
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines the United States’ involvement in the transatlantic relationship with the European integration project. In particular, it considers the ways in which U.S. foreign policy makers have developed images of the European Community and now the European Union on the challenges posed by European integration for U.S. policy processes and the uses of U.S. power. It also explores how these challenges have been met in the very different conditions of the Cold War and post-Cold War periods. It concludes by raising a number of questions about the capacity of the United States to shape and adapt to European integration, and thus about the future of U.S.–EU relations.
16. US foreign policy in Latin America
Authors: Dunkerley James
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines the historical evolution of U.S. foreign policy in Latin America. It begins with a discussion of the Monroe Doctrine and manifest destiny, which sought to contain European expansion and to justify that of the United States under an ethos of hemispherism. It then considers the projection of U.S. power beyond its frontiers in the early twentieth century, along with the effect of the Cold War on U.S. policy towards Latin America. It also explores American policy towards the left in Central America, where armed conflict prevailed in the 1980s, and that for South America, where the Washington Consensus brought an end to the anti-European aspects of the Monroe Doctrine by promoting globalization.
17. US foreign policy in Africa
Authors: Patman Robert G.
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines the historical evolution of U.S. foreign policy in Africa. It first considers the history of U.S.–Africa relations, particularly during the Cold War era of U.S.–Soviet Union superpower rivalry. It then turns to the immediate post-Cold War era, in which a New World Order — a vision in which the United States and the United Nations could combine to establish freedom and respect for all nations — held out the possibility of positive U.S. involvement in Africa. It also discusses American policy towards Africa after 9/11, focusing on President George W. Bush’s efforts to incorporate Africa into Washington’s global strategic network as part of the new war on terror. The chapter concludes with an assessment of Barack Obama’s peace diplomacy as an approach to the civil war in Sudan.
21. American foreign policy after 9/11
Authors: Kennedy-Pipe Caroline
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines U.S. foreign policy after 9/11 with a view to looking at continuities as well as the disjunctions of Washington’s engagement with the world. It first considers the impact of 9/11 on the United States, particularly its foreign policy, before discussing the influence of neo-conservatism on the making of U.S. foreign policy during the presidency of George W. Bush. It then analyses debates about the nature of U.S. foreign policy over the last few decades and its ability to create antagonisms that can and have returned to haunt the United States both at home and abroad. It also explores how increasing belief in the utility of military power set the parameters of U.S. foreign policy after 9/11, along with the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and concludes with an assessment of Barak Obama’s approach with regards to terrorism and his foreign policy agenda more generally.
An Introduction to Political Philosophy
Authors: Wolff Jonathan
Published: September 2017

An Introduction to Political Philosophy provides and introduction to the subject, combining clarity and a conversational style with a thought-provoking account of the central questions of the discipline. The text explores the subject through a series of enduring and timeless questions, jumping centuries and millennia to explore the most influential answers and demonstrate the relevance of political philosophy for an understanding of contemporary issues. This new edition has been updated to include the on-going developments in multiculturalism and global justice, as well as in human rights and deliberative democracy.
1. The state of nature
Authors: Wolff Jonathan
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines whether it is possible for human beings to live in a state of nature. Sometimes it is claimed that not only have human beings always lived under a state, but that it is the only way they possibly could live. On this view, which is often associated with Aristotle, the state exists naturally in the sense of being natural to human beings. In response, some theorists argue that human beings have been able to live without the state. To elucidate the issue further, this chapter analyses the views of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. It also considers the arguments of anarchists and suggests that the gap between rational anarchism and the defence of the state is vanishingly small.
2. Justifying the State
Authors: Wolff Jonathan
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines consent theory and utilitarian theory, along with some other approaches to the moral defence of the state. Before deciding how best to justify the state, the chapter explains what a state is. It considers different types of state, from liberal democracies to dictatorships, benign or tyrannical, based on military rule, a monarchical family line, or party membership. Some states promote the free market, while others attempt collective forms of production and distribution. The chapter proceeds by discussing the goal of justifying the state: to show that there are universal political obligations. It then explores a number of defences of political obligation based on social contract, utilitarianism, and the principle of fairness.
4. Democracy
Authors: Christiano Thomas
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines various conceptions of the normative grounds of democracy. After some preliminaries, it discusses considerations that favour and disfavour democracy from the perspective of instrumentalism. It then reviews some arguments for the intrinsic value of democracy and goes on to analyse one of the most fundamental challenges that a theory of democracy must face: the problem of citizenship. It also explains some of the institutional prerequisites of democratic institutions if they are to meet the challenge of citizenship. Finally, it presents a case study on deliberative polling as a way of realizing democratic ideals, along with Key Thinkers boxes featuring Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Joseph Schumpeter, Robert Dahl, James Buchanan, and Gordon Tullock.
5. Equality and social justice
Authors: Wolff Jonathan
Published: September 2017

This chapter explores the relationship between equality and social justice. The demands of social justice are not always clear. One question that needs to be addressed is whether social justice condemns all inequalities, or whether it is primarily concerned with the provision of equal opportunity or the elimination of extreme poverty. The chapter first provides a historical background on social justice before discussing the political rejection of social justice and its revival. It then considers equality of opportunity, social justice and social relations, and concludes by reflecting on prospects for achieving social justice. A case study on social justice and disability is presented, along with Key Thinkers boxes featuring Friedrich von Hayek, Brian Barry, Richard Henry Tawney, and Iris Marion Young.
9. Global justice
Authors: Brock Gillian
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines different models of global justice, which might consist of diverse components, such as the universal promotion of human rights, global equality of opportunity, a more equal distribution of resources globally, or promoting the autonomy of peoples who stand in relations of equality to one another. There is also debate about how best to realize the desired elements, what principles should govern our interactions at the global level, and how to improve the management of our global affairs. The chapter first considers John Rawls' Law of Peoples and its eight principles, along with some critical responses to this law. It then explores some grounds for scepticism about global justice, focusing on authority in the global domain and global governance. A case study on funding to address global poverty is presented, along with Key Thinkers boxes featuring Rawls and Thomas Pogge.
10. War and intervention
Authors: Frowe Helen
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines the main theoretical approaches to war and the circumstances under which it is permissible to wage war. War is one of the most morally difficult, and morally pressing, aspects of human existence. It nearly always involves killing and maiming on a vast scale. Despite its destructive nature, and despite the rise of rights talk on the international stage and the spread of democracy across large parts of the world, war persists. The chapter first considers the just war tradition and alternatives to just war theory before discussing two theoretical approaches to the ethics of war: collectivism and individualism. It also explores three principles that govern the fighting of war: jus ad bellum, jus in bello, and jus post bellum. A case study on Afghanistan and the ‘war on terror’ is presented, along with Key Thinkers boxes featuring Michael Walzer and Jeff McMahan.
11. Environment
Authors: Jamieson Dale
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines the role of the environment in the history of political theory. The philosophy of nature is an ancient subject. From the pre-Socratics to the present, philosophers have sketched diverse pictures of nature and held various views about nature's relationships to human flourishing. For Aristotle, nature and goodness were closely allied. For Thomas Hobbes, the state of nature was something to be overcome, but the laws of nature directed us how to do it. Jean-Jacques Rousseau idealized the state of nature and thought that it was required for human flourishing. The chapter first considers the doom and gloom that pervaded academic writing about the environment in the late 1960s and early 1970s before discussing themes such as democracy and environmental crisis, global environmental change, climate change, environmentalism, liberalism, and justice. A case study on managing climate change is presented, along with a Key Thinkers box featuring Anil Agarwal.
14. Power
Authors: Owen David
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines the roles that the concept of power play in the understanding of politics as well as the different modes of power. Recent political theory has seen a variety of views of power proposed, and these views have significantly different implications for conceptualizing the scope and form of political activity. Two main views concerning power are the locus of contemporary debate. The first, ‘agency-centred’ view, emerges in the Anglo-American debate that follows discussions of community power in American democracy. The second, ‘non-agency-centred’ view, emerges from the post-structuralist work of Michel Foucault. At stake, in the debate between them, are how we distinguish between injustice and misfortune, as well as how we approach the issues of freedom and responsibility. The chapter explores this debate and presents a case study on racialized inequality in America, along with Key Thinkers boxes featuring Foucault and Steven Lukes.
2. How Did We Get Here?
Authors: Dinan Desmond
Published: September 2017

This chapter focuses on the historical development of the European Union. The history of the EU began when European governments responded to a series of domestic, regional, and global challenges after the Second World War by establishing new transnational institutions in order to accelerate political and economic integration. These challenges ranged from post-war reconstruction, to the Cold War, and then to globalization. Driven largely by mutually compatible national interests, Franco-German bargains, and American influence, politicians responded by establishing the European communities in the 1950s and the EU in the 1990s. The chapter examines the Schuman Plan, the European Defence Community, the European Community, the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), enlargement, constitution building, and the Eurozone crisis.
3. The EU’s Institutions
Authors: Corbett Richard , Peterson John , Kenealy Daniel
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines five of the European Union's key institutions: the European Commission, the Council of Ministers, the European Council, the European Parliament, and the European Court of Justice. It draws analogies to these institutions' counterparts at the national level while also highlighting their distinct and unique features. It discusses the structures and formal powers of the five EU institutions and how they ‘squeeze’ influence out of their limited Treaty prerogatives. It concludes by explaining why these institutions matter in determining EU politics and policy more generally, focusing on three central themes: the extent to which the EU is an experiment in motion; the importance of power sharing and consensus; and the capacity of the EU structures to cope with the Union's expanding size and scope.
4. Member States
Authors: Laffan Brigid
Published: September 2017

This chapter focuses on the member states of the European Union. It first considers six factors that determine how a state engages with the EU: the date of entry, size, wealth, state structure, economic ideology, and integration preference. It then examines how member states behave in the EU's institutions and seek to influence the outcome of negotiations in Brussels. It also discusses the informal and formal activities of the member states before concluding with an overview of the insights offered by theory in analysing the relationship between the EU and its member states. The chapter clarifies some key concepts and terms such as Europeanization, acquis communautaire, and flexible integration, and explains how the EU's Intergovernmental Conferences work.
5. Key Policies
Authors: Sbragia Alberta , Stolfi Francesco
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines some of the most important areas of policy-making in the European Union. It first explains how EU policy-making differs from national policy-making before discussing the most important policies aimed at building the internal market and limiting its potentially negative impact on individuals, society, and the environment. The EU's ‘market-building’ policies include competition policy, trade policy, and the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), while ‘market-correcting’ and ‘cushioning’ policies include the common agricultural policy, the cohesion policy, and environmental and social regulation. The chapter shows how these policies are made and also why and how they matter. It also compares policy types in the EU.
7. Democracy in the European Union
Authors: Corbett Richard
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines the democratic credentials of the European Union by asking whether it matches some key features common to many modern democratic systems: representation (whether legislation is adopted by representative assemblies); separation of powers; the executive's democratic accountability; respect for fundamental rights; and whether competing political parties offer voters genuine choice. The chapter also clarifies some key concepts and terms such as bicameralism, democratic deficit, the European Convention on Human Rights, and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Furthermore, it considers an alternative to representative democracy: the organizing of referenda to settle issues. Finally, it discusses the EU's provisions for helping national parliaments scrutinize the participation of their government in EU institutions.
8. EU Expansion and Wider Europe
Authors: Avery Graham
Published: September 2017

This chapter focuses on the expansion of the European Union and the widening of Europe. Enlargement is often seen as the EU's most successful foreign policy. It has extended prosperity, stability, and good governance to neighbouring countries by means of its membership criteria. However, enlargement is much more than foreign policy: it is the process whereby the external becomes internal. It is about how non-member countries become members, and shape the development of the EU itself. The chapter first compares widening and deepening before discussing enlargement as soft power. It then explains how the EU has expanded and why countries want to join. It also looks at prospective member states: the Balkan countries, Turkey, Norway, Switzerland, and Iceland. Finally, it examines the European Neighbourhood Policy.
9. The EU as a Security Actor
Authors: Peterson John , Geddes Andrew
Published: September 2017

This chapter focuses on the European Union's security policy. At fist glance, EU security policy seems limited by three powerful constraints. Firstly, it is exclusively concerned with ‘soft’ security issues, such as immigration, transnational crime, and drug traffiking. Secondly, policy-making is dominated by sovereignty-conscious EU member states and national capitals. Thirdly, security is not a major driver of European integration. The chapter challenges all three of these assumptions, arguing that firstly, the EU is now involved in ‘hard’ security, especially counterterrorism but also military operations. Secondly, security policy-making is increasingly Brussels-centred. Thirdly, while European integration has been driven primarily by economic cooperation, the safeguarding of Europe's (especially internal) security has emerged as a major raison d'être of the integration project. The chapter also considers the EU's role in international security, along with its Common Security and Defence Policy and internal security.
11. Conclusion
Authors: Kenealy Daniel , Peterson John , Corbett Richard
Published: September 2017

This chapter revisits the three key themes that guide understanding of the European Union: experimentation and change, power sharing and consensus, and scope and capacity. It also reconsiders some earlier discussed leading theoretical approaches to understanding the EU: international relations approaches, comparative politics approach, sociological/cultural approach, and public policy approach. Finally, it reflects on where the EU may evolve in the years to come and describes three models or visions of how the EU should work: the intergovernmental model, the federal model, and the functional model. Intergovernmentalism denotes both a school of theory in the study of European integration and a descriptive term to describe an EU that is dominated by its member states.
1. Theories of European Integration
Authors: Bache Ian , Bulmer Simon , George Stephen , Parker Owen
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines a number of theories of European integration. It first considers the intellectual predecessors of the first attempts to theorize European integration, focusing in particular on the functionalism of David Mitrany, the federalism of Altiero Spinelli, and the ‘federal-functionalism’ of Jean Monnet. It then discusses neofunctionalism and intergovernmentalism, along with liberal intergovernmentalism and supranational governance. It also explores international relations theories of European integration. The chapter shows that the study of integration was dominated by the competing approaches of neofunctionalism and intergovernmentalism, and that the debate about whether the European Union is characterized by intergovernmentalism or supranationalism still informs much of the academic work on the subject.
4. Critical Perspectives
Authors: Bache Ian , Bulmer Simon , George Stephen , Parker Owen
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines the range of critical perspectives now applied to the European Union, including social constructivism, critical political economy, critical social theory, critical feminism, and post-structuralism. These critical — often termed ‘post-positivist’ — approaches emphasize the constructed and changeable nature of the social and political world. Many such approaches reject the notion that social reality can be objectively observed and argue that various agents, including policy actors and scholars themselves, are involved in its construction. They highlight the less obvious manifestations of power that pervade the interrelated worlds of political action and political theorizing. It is important to consider why these more critical perspectives have been absent for so long within mainstream studies of the EU. Both their exclusion and their gradual (re-)admittance to the mainstream can be accounted for by factors internal to political studies scholarship and factors related to the politics of European integration and the EU.
8. The Revival of European Integration (the Mid-1970s to the Late 1980s)
Authors: Bache Ian , Bulmer Simon , George Stephen , Parker Owen
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines the revival of European integration from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s. It first considers leadership changes in the European Commission before turning to the European Council and the European Monetary System (EMS), the Commission’s Southern enlargements, and the British budget rebate. It then discusses leadership changes in the Commission from 1981 to 1982, the Single European Act (SEA), and the European Council meeting at Fontainebleau in June 1984. It also looks at the initiatives of various Commission presidents such as Roy Jenkins, Gaston Thorn, and Jacques Delors. Finally, it describes the implementation of the SEA, widely seen as the big breakthrough in the revival of European integration.
12. The Institutional Architecture
Authors: Bache Ian , Bulmer Simon , George Stephen , Parker Owen
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines the pattern of European Union institutions and the formal rules that govern them. It first considers the Treaties that form the founding ‘constitutional’ documents of the EU, from the Treaty of Paris to the Treaty on Stability, Co-ordination and Governance in EMU, before turning to the main institutions involved in the processes of decision making, namely: the European Commission, the Council of Ministers, and the European Parliament, plus two consultative committees, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. The chapter proceeds by analysing the Union method of decision making, focusing on the budgetary and legislative procedures, as well as the process on the Common Foreign and Security Policy. It also discusses the implementation of EU decisions once they have been made and concludes with some reflections on the post-Lisbon institutional architecture of the EU, including differentiated integration.
16. The European Court of Justice
Authors: Bache Ian , Bulmer Simon , George Stephen , Parker Owen
Published: September 2017

This chapter focuses on the European Court of Justice (ECJ), one of the three courts that make up the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU); the others are the General Court and the EU Civil Service Tribunal. It first provides an overview of the ECJ’s structure and functions before discussing some of its main rulings and their significance. It then considers rulings on the powers of the institutions, some key legal judgments made in response to questions referred to the ECJ by national courts, the impact of ECJ rulings on EU policy, and post-Maastricht trends in the ECJ and EU law. It also assesses the evolving political reactions towards the judgments of the Court, along with the debate over whether the member states have lost control of the process of European integration because of the ECJ’s radical jurisprudence.
17. Organized Interests
Authors: Bache Ian , Bulmer Simon , George Stephen , Parker Owen
Published: September 2017

This chapter focuses on the so-called organized interests, whose interaction with the formal European Union institutions is a central component of the EU’s decision-making process. The term ‘interest group’ refers to a range of organizations outside of the formal institutions that seek to influence decision making. They provide a link between state actors and the rest of society, also known as ‘civil society’. The chapter first considers the general growth of interest-group activity at the European level before discussing the types of group that try to influence EU policy making and the forms of representation open to interests. It then explores the strategies and tactics that interest groups use to try to influence the different institutions. Finally, it analyses the issue of regulating interest-group access to the EU institutions.
20. The Single Market
Authors: Bache Ian , Bulmer Simon , George Stephen , Parker Owen
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines the European Union’s original decision to create a single market and the moves to complete the internal market — what became known as the single market programme — in the 1980s. The economic ideal of a common or single European market lies at the core of the EU. The decision to institute a drive to achieve a single internal market by the end of 1992 played a key role in the revival of European integration. The chapter first traces the development of internal-market policy before discussing the record of implementation beyond 1992. It then considers recent policy developments in relation to the single market in the context of the eurozone crisis which began in 2009. It also reviews the academic literature on the single market, focusing on the main explanations for its development and some key ideological or normative perspectives on its consequences.
22. Cohesion Policy
Authors: Bache Ian , Bulmer Simon , George Stephen , Parker Owen
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines the European Union’s cohesion policy, which had its origins in the European Community’s regional policy. Despite evidence of wide disparities between Europe’s regions, the Treaty of Rome made no specific commitment to the creation of a Community regional policy. It was only in 1975 that a European regional fund was created, and a coherent supranational policy emerged only in 1988. The chapter traces key developments in cohesion policy, focusing on reforms made between 1988 and 2013. Enlargement and the single market programme provided the context for a major reform of the structural funds in 1988. In the 2013 reform, the Commission’s subsequent proposals linked cohesion policy to the goals of the Europe 2020 growth strategy. The chapter also considers shifts in the intergovernmental–supranational nature of policy control in the sector that first gave rise to the notion of multi-level governance.
23. Environmental Policy
Authors: Leontitsis Vasilis
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines the historical evolution of the European Union’s environmental policy. The environment is a relatively new policy area of the EU. It was not officially created until 1973 and acquired a sound legal basis in the Treaties only with the passage of the Single European Act (SEA) in 1987. When the European Communities were established, environmental issues were low on the political agenda. However, they increasingly became more prominent at both national and European levels, and there is now a comprehensive environmental policy at the EU level. The chapter first provides a historical overview of the EU’s environmental policy, from the SEA to the Maastricht Treaty and the Treaty of Lisbon, before discussing recent developments and some of the major issues of current concern. It also explores the policy’s evolution by drawing on intergovernmentalism, neofunctionalism, and governance theories.
24. Freedom, Security, and Justice
Authors: Bache Ian , Bulmer Simon , George Stephen , Parker Owen
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines the European Union’s policy activity in the area of freedom, security, and justice (AFSJ). Introduced mainly by the Maastricht Treaty of 1992, the AFSJ was initially given the name, Justice and Home Affairs (JHA). The AFSJ was greatly enhanced by the Treaty of Lisbon and has matured over time despite the controversy surrounding the way in which it strikes at national sovereignty. A key characteristic of JHA, later AFSJ, has been the use of differentiated integration. The chapter first provides a historical background on the AFSJ, focusing on the policy dynamics and JHA structures under the Treaty on European Union as well as the reforms of the Treaty of Amsterdam. It then considers the AFSJ’s institutional character and policy content and concludes with an assessment of key explanations and debates relating to the AFSJ.
26. Common Foreign and Security Policy
Authors: Bache Ian , Bulmer Simon , George Stephen , Parker Owen
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines the European Union’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). From 1993 to 2009, external political relations formed the second pillar of the EU, on CFSP. Although CFSP was officially an intergovernmental pillar, the European Commission came to play an important role. There were serious attempts to strengthen the security and defence aspects of the CFSP in the face of the threats that faced the EU from instability in its neighbouring territories. However, the EU remains far from having a truly supranational foreign policy and its status as a ‘power’ in international relations is debatable. The chapter first provides a historical background on the CFSP, focusing on the creation of the European Political Co-operation (EPC), before discussing the CFSP and the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). It concludes with an assessment of EU power and its impact on world politics.
1. An Overview
Authors: Wallace Helen , Pollack Mark A. , Young Alasdair R.
Published: September 2017

This text examines the processes that produce policies in the European Union — that is, the decisions (or non-decisions) by EU public authorities facing choices between alternative courses of public action. It considers the broad contours of the EU policy-making process and relevant analytical approaches for understanding that process. It includes case studies dealing with the main policy domains in which the EU dimension is significant, including competition policy, the common agricultural policy (CAP), the economic and monetary union (EMU), enlargement, common foreign and security policy (CFSP), justice and home affairs (JHA), and energy and social policy. This chapter discusses the significant developments that have impacted EU policy-making since the sixth edition, summarizes the text’s collective approach to understanding policy-making in the EU, and provides an overview of the chapters that follow.
4. An Institutional Anatomy and Five Policy Modes
Authors: Wallace Helen , Reh Christine
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines the European Union’s institutional design and how its institutions interact with national institutions in five different policy modes. It first considers the evolving role and internal functioning of the European Commission, Council of the EU, European Council, European Parliament, and Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). It also discusses quasi-autonomous agencies, in particular the European Central Bank (ECB), institutionalized control and scrutiny, and non-state actors. It concludes with an analysis of five EU policy modes that capture the different patterns of interaction between EU and national institutions: the classical Community method, the regulatory mode, the distributional mode, the policy coordination mode, and intensive transgovernmentalism.
6. Competition Policy Defending the Economic Constitution
Authors: Wilks Stephen
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines the European Union’s competition policy and how its effectiveness has steadily increased in terms of controlling restrictive practices, abuse of dominant position, mergers, state aid, and the liberalization of utilities. It considers how the central dominance of the Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP) in the European Commission has been perpetuated and how competition policy has become a supranational policy competence which can be regarded as an ‘economic constitution’ for Europe. The chapter also discusses the decentralization of antitrust enforcement to the national agencies and courts through the ‘Modernization Regulation’ of 2003, as well as a ‘turn to economics’ in which economic analysis has been substituted for legal tests to move towards an ‘effects-based’ (effect on competition) interpretation of the law.
8. The Common Agricultural Policy The Fortress Challenged
Authors: Roederer-Rynning Christilla
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines the processes that make up the European Union’s common agricultural policy (CAP), with particular emphasis on how the Community method functions in agriculture and how it upheld for decades the walls of fortress CAP. Today’s CAP bears little resemblance to the system of the 1960s, except for comparatively high tariff protection. The controversial device of price support has largely been replaced by direct payments to producers. The chapter first provides an overview of the origins of CAP before discussing two variants of the Community method in agriculture: hegemonic intergovernmentalism and competitive intergovernmentalism. It argues that the challenge for CAP regulators today is not to prevent a hypothetical comeback to the price-support system or generalized market intervention, but to prevent the fragmentation of the single market through a muddled implementation of greening and the consolidation of uneven regimes of support among member states.
11. Social Policy Left to the Judges and the Markets?
Authors: Leibfried Stephan
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines the European Union’s social policy. In the 1980s and 1990s, the EU accumulated significant regulatory mandates in social policy, reaching out more recently to anti-discrimination politics. Yet due to pressures from integrated markets, member governments have lost more control over national welfare policies than the EU has gained in transferred authority, although this development may have stopped, affected by the EU’s responses to the economic crises since 2008. The chapter first considers the limited success of activist social policy before discussing European integration and market compatibility requirements, focusing on the freedom of movement for workers and freedom to provide services and their implications for European competition policy. It also explores how European integration affects national welfare states and concludes with an assessment of Europe’s multi-tiered social policy.
17. Enlargement
Authors: Sedelmeier Ulrich
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines the main phases of the European Union’s enlargement policy process — association, pre-accession, and accession — and the key decisions involved in each of these stages, how they are made, and how policy practice has evolved over time. It first considers the EU rules, procedures, and policy for the accession of new members before discussing association agreements, a long-standing instrument for the EU’s external relations: these include the European Economic Area agreement, Europe agreements, and stabilization and association agreements. It then explores enlargement as a tool of foreign policy and external governance as well as the development of the EU’s accession conditionality. It concludes with an assessment of the EU’s ‘enlargement fatigue’ after the 2007 enlargement and the limits of the success of accession conditionality, both temporal and geographical.
3. Empire, Cold War, and Decolonization, 1945–53
Authors: Young John W. , Kent John
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines decolonization and the changes that took place within the European empires during the early years of the Cold War. Decolonization constituted a crucial element of the new international order after the Second World War and formed part of the broader shift in the global balance of power. The war marked the end of the European-dominated system of nation states and was followed by the decline of the major European powers, with international dominance lying for a quarter of a century with the United States, challenged only by the Soviet Union. The chapter considers the challenges to colonial rule that were evident in both Africa and Asia during the inter-war years. It also discusses the imperialism and the struggles against it that have formed part of a post-war landscape in the Middle East.
4. The Cold War Intensifies: Containment Superseded, 1948–53
Authors: Young John W. , Kent John
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines the intensification of the Cold War and the United States’s decision to abandon ‘containment’ in favour of ‘liberation’ during the period 1948–1953. By 1948 the dominant relationship between the Soviet Union, the United States, and Britain had moved from one of cooperation to confrontation, and then to hostility and conflict. In this situation, the Cold War required a clearly defined strategy for fighting it. Western interpretations of this strategy have largely been based on the idea of containment and especially about the form of containment that should be adopted. The chapter discusses the origins of Cold War fighting; armaments and militarization; the Cold War and European integration; the NSC 68 memorandum, rearmament, and the Cold War offensive controversy; and the growing importance of communist China and the conflict in Korea.
6. Maintaining the Spheres of Influence
Authors: Young John W. , Kent John
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines how the United States and the Soviet Union tried to main their respective spheres of influence during the Cold War, especially in three regions: Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Latin America. The death of Joseph Stalin and the assumption of power by the triumvirate of Lavrenti Beria, Nikita Khrushchev, and Georgi Malenkov resulted in a fresh approach to domestic issues and to the nature of Soviet control over its European satellites. The apparent change produced a new Soviet approach to East–West relations. The chapter first considers how the new Soviet leadership addressed the crisis in East Germany before analysing American influence in Western Europe and US relations with Latin America. The discussion covers themes and events such as the Soviet policy on Hungary and Poland, the Messina Conference and the Spaak Committee, nuclear cooperation and multilateral force, and the US response to the Cuban Revolution.
9. The Eastern and Western Blocs in the 1960s
Authors: Young John W. , Kent John
Published: September 2017

This chapter provides an overview of the Eastern and Western blocs in the 1960s. It first considers US–Soviet relations from the Cuban missile crisis to détente spanning the period 1963–1971, focusing on the talks between Nikita Khrushchev and John F. Kennedy regarding the Test Ban Treaty, before discussing the superpowers’ relations with China. It then explores unity and division in Eastern Europe and in the Western bloc, taking into account the European Economic Community, NATO, and the Western economies in the 1960s. It also analyses the rise of European détente, covering topics such as progress on pan-European contacts and the emergence of Ostpolitik.
11. Other Regional Conflicts
Authors: Young John W. , Kent John
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines conflicts in Latin America, South-East Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East during the Cold War in which the United States and the Soviet Union were involved. Lyndon B. Johnson’s decision to escalate the war in Vietnam may have been encouraged in the spring of 1965 by events in the Caribbean, where armed intervention by US Marines put a quick end to a supposed communist menace in the Dominican Republic. Arguably, this action reflected a change of priorities from the Eisenhower and Kennedy presidencies, when there were hopes of the US stimulating Latin American economic development. The chapter first considers US intervention in the Dominican Republic before discussing the Malaysia–Indonesia ‘confrontation’ of 1963–1966, the Indo–Pakistan wars of 1965 and 1971, and the Six Day War in 1967 between Arabs and Israel.
12. An Era of Negotiations, 1972–3
Authors: Young John W. , Kent John
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines the negotiations pursued by the United States and the Soviet Union in the early 1970s. The most dramatic change in international diplomacy in the early 1970s was the rapprochement between Beijing and Washington. After two decades of enmity, it was announced on 15 July 1971 that Richard Nixon was to visit China. The ‘Opening to China’ was in accord with the Nixon–Kissinger hope of maintaining a favourable position vis-à-vis the Soviets despite America’s problems in Vietnam. The chapter first considers the so-called ‘triangular diplomacy’ involving the US, USSR, and China as well as the East Asian balance before discussing the Moscow Summit and Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I). It concludes with an assessment of the Nixon administration’s Vietnam settlement in 1972–1973 via the the Paris peace accords.
13. ‘Stagflation’ and the Trials of Détente, 1973–6
Authors: Young John W. , Kent John
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines the onset of the so-called stagflation and the problems that beset détente during the period 1973–1976. In the aftermath of Israel’s victories in the Six Day War, a situation of ‘no peace, no war’ prevailed in the Middle East. Attempts in 1970 and 1971 by the United Nations and the United States to make progress on a peace settlement proved futile. The chapter first considers the Middle East war of October 1973, which sparked a confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union, before discussing the impact of stagflation, especially on the Bretton Woods system. It then explores political problems in Europe and how European détente reached a high point in the Helsinki conference of 1975. It concludes with an analysis of détente and crises in less developed countries such as Chile, South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Angola.
14. Détente in Decline, 1977–9
Authors: Young John W. , Kent John
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines the decline of détente during the period 1977–1979. Détente suffered in part from being identified with Richard Nixon. After 1973, conservatives increasingly questioned détente, felt that the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I) benefited the Soviet Union most, and were disturbed by an apparent pattern of communist adventurism abroad, in the 1973 Middle East War, Angola, and South-East Asia. The chapter first considers détente and policy-making during the time of Jimmy Carter before discussing the conflict in the Middle East, in particular the Lebanon Civil War, and the Camp David summit of 1978 that resulted in an Egyptian–Israel peace treaty. It then analyses the Ogaden conflict of 1977–1978), the ‘normalization’ of Sino-American relations, and the Sino–Vietnamese War. It concludes with an assessment of the SALT II treaty.
18. Instability in Latin America
Authors: Young John W. , Kent John
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines the reasons for the instability in Latin America during the Cold War. The oil crisis of 1973–1974, followed by trade deficits, depression, and high inflation, helped promote revolutionary ideas among the landless peasants and urban poor of many Latin American countries. Under Jimmy Carter, with his interest in promoting human rights, a more active and enlightened US policy towards Latin America might have been expected. However, his aims were inconsistent, as the moral cause of human rights clashed with local realities and other American interests. The chapter first considers the Reagan Doctrine and Ronald Reagan’s meddling in El Salvador before discussing the United States’s involvement in Nicaragua and the ‘Contragate’ scandal. It concludes with an assessment of the US invasions of Grenada and Panama.
20. Europe and the Former Soviet Union
Authors: Young John W. , Kent John
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines important developments in Europe and the former Soviet Union. The collapse of communism paved the way for the greatest changes in Europe since 1919, with the political disintegration of three Eurasian countries: the then USSR with localized outbreaks of violence; Yugoslavia with several years of bloody civil war; and Czechoslovakia where the Czechs and Slovaks peacefully agreed to go their own way as of January 1993, in the so-called ‘velvet divorce’. Communism’s demise also brought reunification to a divided nation: Germany. The chapter first considers the German reunification before discussing the break-up of the USSR and the Wars of Succession, Yugoslavia’s break-up and the Bosnian War, NATO and European security, and the emergence of the European Union that replaced the European Community.