Europe's Strategic Culture

JCMS 2007 Volume 45. Number 3. pp.
745769
Book Reviews
Democracy in Europe: The EU and National Polities, by V.A. Schmidt (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006, ISBN 9780199266982); xv+317pp., 15.99 pb. Schmidts book is a valuable and well-written contribution to the analysis of the impact of European integration on national democracies. According to the author, democracy has become an issue for Europe and the suspension of the ratication process on the Constitutional Treaty, following the failures of the referendums in France and the Netherlands, shows that it will remain a problematic issue in the near future. The institutional reforms envisaged in the Constitutional Treaty may reduce the problem of EU democracy, but they would not solve the democratic decit at the national level. The problem at stake refers to Europeanization, which means that national conceptions of democratic power and authority, access and inuence, vote and voice remain mostly unchanged. National leaders have failed to initiate ideas and discourse that would engage national publics in the discourse about the EU-related changes to national democracy. Therefore, a key question here is how should national leaders proceed in such a discourse? Firstly, they should decide what the EU is, in order to assess what their countries are becoming. Thus, the fundamental assumption of Schmidts book is the idea of the EU conceived as a regional state. It is a regional union of nation states, where sovereignty is shared with Member States, boundaries are not xed, identity is understood in terms of being and doing, governance is dispersed. Schmidt argues that in such a fragmented democracy, the EUs legitimacy is in question because it is compared to the ideal of the nation state. However, if it is conceived as a regional state, the democratic decit would not be so great. But the problem is much more signicant in relation to national democracy. The author convincingly argues that this is because while the EU makes policy without politics, its Member States realize politics without policy. National citizens have little direct input into the EU policies that affect them. This results in the problems of voter disaffection and political extremism characterizing the EU Member States nowadays. To solve this problem, Member States have to come up with new national ideas and discourse in order to adjust the EU-related changes to the traditional performance of their national democracies. But rstly it is necessary to conceive how institutions affect European democracy at EU and national levels. Thus, Schmidts book is about the nature of the EU governance system and its impact on national democracies. In Chapters 24, the author examines the impact of the EU upon national institutions, taking into account in turn the policy-making processes and the representative politics of the EU and the Member States. A special merit of Schmidts work is that the author illustrates her argument with examples of four countries: Britain and France, as
2007 The Author(s) Journal compilation 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA
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representing simple polities, Germany and Italy, as compound polities. They not only account for over half the population of the EU, but also can be compared and contrasted as matched pairs of cases concerning governance practices. Concluding on the prospects for democracy in Europe, Schmidt argues that today Europe requires greater clarity of purpose and better understanding on the part of its citizens. More democracy needs more avenues for interest consultation with the people as well as further efforts to increase transparency and accountability in governing for the people. National interest and movements focused at the national level need to learn to organize, pressure and protest at the EU level. On the other hand, the EU itself would need to develop a more communicative voice to the European public. Schmidt notices that the task is not so easy. But no one ever said that building Europe would be easy. STANISAW KONOPACKI University of dz The European Union and Party Politics in Central and Eastern Europe, edited by P.G. Lewis and Z. Mansfeldov (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, ISBN 9780230001831); xvi+260pp., 55.00 hb. In January 2007 with the entry of Bulgaria and Romania to the European Union, we witnessed the completion of the eastern enlargement of the EU. Lewis and Mansfeldovs edited volume elaborates on a specic aspect of the accession process: the impact of the integration on central and eastern European (CEE) national party systems throughout the enlargement period and within the rst two years after the accession until 2006. The book combines two branches of political science: comparative politics (in its focus on party systems) and Europeanization theory (which is a bit too briey dened as a top-down EUs impingement on national processes, p. 7). Lewis asks in his introductory chapter the main research question: did the EU reinforce the existing fragmentation of CEE party systems or did it contribute to their consolidation (p. 3)? As a sort of research sub-inquiry, though not directly stated, is the emergence of Eurosceptic political parties in CEE in recent years. As we might currently observe, populist political parties and leaders with somewhat anti-European views and rhetoric are on the rise. Therefore, Lewiss prediction that while there may well be considerable scope for anti-EU activity in party systems overall, there are no strong prospects of it taking root in parties close to the political centre or in those with reasonable chances of taking part in government (p. 13) has, with Czech President Klaus, the Polish ruling Kaczynski twin brothers and the Slovak nationalist govern ment, already been proven wrong. The book consists of ten chapters on new Member States and two chapters on what were, at the time of writing, acceding countries, organized according to a common framework. Each chapter outlines a national party system with references to individual parties, including their overall political programmes and attitudes towards the EU. The chapters then evaluate national referendums on the accession to the EU and elections to the European Parliament (EP) in 2004. In conclusion, the authors
2007 The Author(s) Journal compilation 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
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assess the EUs inuence on a national party system and mark out alignments between the CEE and European parties in the EP. The common framework provides a good structure particularly for readers who are not too familiar with political conditions in the CEE countries. Nevertheless, the authors sometimes tend to overuse abbreviations of political parties in domestic languages (e.g. in the Polish and Latvian chapters) or do not clearly specify the political leanings of national parties (e.g. the Slovenian chapter), which makes the text difcult to follow. It would also be very helpful if the concluding chapter included a chart summarizing, for instance, all eurosceptic/populist parties or, at least, showed overall turnouts and voting results of referendums and the EP elections. The editors could have been more careful in interchanging the word Slovak for Slovakian (pp. 233, 235) whose latter version is nowadays no longer regularly used. So far, the Europeanization literature produced one major hypothesis pertaining to the EUs inuence on (West European) party systems (Mair): the EU has a very low direct impact on both the format (number of parties) and mechanics (polarization) of party systems. However, there has not yet been a similar analysis regarding the CEE party systems. The reviewed book lls this gap (besides, with analogous ndings), which presents its major contribution to the contemporary political science literature. TEREZA NOVOTNA Boston University Democracy in the New Europe, by C. Lord and E. Harris (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, ISBN 9781403913036); ix+222pp., 18.99 pb. This book revisits and re-contextualizes essential principles and various practicsed forms of democracy within and beyond European states. The main argument, building a thread throughout the book, is that the prospects for democracy within and beyond the state are interdependent under the conditions of the new Europe. The twofold dimension beyond the state would include efforts to apply democratic standards to shared institutions at the EU level as well as efforts to promote democracy to countries within the European part of the international system. What appears at rst to be some kind of common sense evolves into a venture of actually bringing these analytical dimensions together in a well-conceptualized and well-formulated way. The authors start by discussing democracy inside the state as a complex of various dimensions before looking at the diversity of democracy within European states and ways of contrasting and comparing these. Two more chapters follow on the above-mentioned two dimensions of democracy beyond the state. Another three chapters relate these various insights analytically while returning in more detail to the argument of their interdependence when seeking to secure democratic standards. The slim appearance of the paperback should not raise low expectations about its content. Lord and Harris wish to address three audiences that are currently talking past each other (p. 13): comparativists, political theorists and students of international relations. While trying to accomplish this major task, they have come up with
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a discussion of democratic conceptions and performances that should certainly be welcomed by two broader communities of readers. The engagement with existing theoretical literatures, concise review of longstanding as well as recent arguments and ideas on democracy, and the authors strong argument on the interdependence of the democracy within and beyond European states provide valuable reection and abstraction for the more empirically oriented students of European integration, democratic practice and democratization. At the same time, the many illustrative empirical examples and cases may offer interesting food for thought to theorists. However, given that a substantial part of the book is devoted to developments in postcommunist democracies, one wonders whether indeed hardly any scholars within these countries have joined the theoretical debates about democracy promotion and democratization (except perhaps the one on euroscepticism). In this regard, the debates considered here indicate a remaining challenge to the academic discourse in this eld which seems to mirror political practice where, as the authors note, Europeanization often means Westernization from the perspective of the new democracies. DIANA SCHMIDT Research Centre for East European Studies, Bremen Wage Setting, Social Pacts and the Euro: A New Role for the State, by A. Hassel (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2006, ISBN 9789053569191); 334pp., 29.95 pb. My formative experiences of trade unionism occurred in the UK in the 1980s. Successive Conservative governments implemented monetarist economic policies, deregulated the labour market and introduced anti-union legislation which combined to favour the development of business unionism. Anke Hassels book shows how, by a comparative study of 13 EU Member States, this market approach to tackling union power was actually exceptional. For Hassel, the formation of social pacts in many EU Member States since the 1980s is evidence of the rise of a Third Way (p. 237) whose approach to trade union power has been based neither on the discipline of the market nor on strong corporatist institutions. The Third Way involves, as the books sub-title indicates, a new role for the state in a process of negotiation with unions regarded as social partners. The purpose of this dialogue has been to achieve the negotiated adjustment (p. 234) of wage levels deemed as a necessary corollary of the new imperatives of economic internationalization and nancial liberalization (p. 1). Under the new conditions, rather than accommodating to union demands by expansionary policies, which had been the case under previous conditions of political exchange, Hassel hypothesizes that governments have had an incentive to negotiate with unions in order to limit the economic and political damage of deationary policies. Whether specic governments have in fact opted for the negotiated approach has actually depended upon several factors. Hassel argues that governments whose deationary policies have been given credibility by central banks with a conservative reputation have had less of a need to establish greater policy credibility by
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involvement in wage setting. This was proven by a strong correlation between levels of state intervention and central bank independence in the 1980s and 1990s (0.72). Hassel is ever keen to stress the individual cases with Belgium having a high level of state involvement and a less independent central bank while Germany and Austria possessed highly independent central banks and low levels of intervention. Hassel also demonstrates a strong correlation (0.77) between levels of government intervention and measures of consensus democracy. Again Belgium has been a key case with high scores on both counts while the UK experience was the absolute opposite case. The Conservative Party achieved strong majorities in a competitive democracy which insulated it from any signicant union political inuence. Hassel also shows that government intervention in wage setting has been high where unions have been less responsive to the pressures to accommodate themselves to the new realities and have defended real wage levels even at the price of higher unemployment. Here the UK was an outlier as wages were bid up, but the government remained noninterventionist. Such examples highlight the utility of Hassels triangulated methodology which enables her to explore the specic qualities of each case within her overall analysis. Interesting and useful as her book undoubtedly is, her overall analysis is disappointing as it limits the trade union response to neo-liberal globalization to relative acquiescence. The development of social liberalism in EU Member States and at the transnational level has resulted in most unions deploying an insipid political strategy which has embroiled them in mechanisms of negotiation which have made them complicit in making labour pay for the crisis of capital. Yet, as Hassel notes, such mechanisms have been constructed by governments partly because of the continued political power of unions. Fortunately, a different path is possible as dissenting factions (p. 183) to negotiated adjustment have rejected social partnership. These union currents have developed a strategy of social movement unionism which has built on existing union power to engage politically to advance alternatives to both the neo- and social forms of liberalization. ANDY MATHERS University of the West of England Japan and Enlarged Europe: Partners in Global Governance, edited by T. Ueta and R. Remacle (Brussels: PIE Peter Lang, 2005, ISBN 9052012598); 288pp., 27.00 pb. The eld of EUJapan relations is surprisingly thin and this volume adds to a small body of literature on the contemporary relationship. The volume is a collection of 15 contributions to a series of seminars held between 2001 and 2003 and converted into chapters updated to take account of more recent developments. The book is divided into three main parts: the rst examines the security relationship between the EU and Japan; the second looks at the international sustainable development agenda and compares and contrasts the Japanese and EU standpoints; the third part of the volume looks at issues of global governance and the extent to which the EU and Japan are complimentary or competitive actors across a range of issues.
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The authors are evenly drawn from Europe and Japan and, as might be expected of a volume based upon seminar presentations, the contributions are variable in quality. This is a book which is empirically rich but generally does not seek to encumber itself with reections on methodological, epistemological or theoretical issues (an exception being the chapter by Tel on the concept of civilian power). Where the volume is at its most interesting is in the contributions that directly compare and contrast approaches to policy issues in Japan and the EU (the contributions by Onta on environmental foreign policy; Karasinska-Fendler on the global trade agenda; and Seidelmann on the prospects and limits on co-operation in the UN and the G8). The two chapters that examine how the EU and Japan are responding to wider developments within international relations (Van Langenhove and Costea on the new regionalism; and Cameron on a new global order) are particularly insightful. A surprising omission from the book are any chapters examining in depth how the EU and Japan are responding to the contemporary challenge of China. This is of particular surprise as China does represent a signicant challenge to the positions of both the EU and Japan (as the subtitle of the volume suggests) as prospective partners in global governance and both are dened by the editors as sharing the common characteristics of being civilian powers. The volume would have beneted from a stronger introduction setting out a range of issues with which the EU and Japan are grappling and where one might nd accord and dissonance in the relationship. Furthermore the book lacks a conclusion drawing together the parts of the volume and offering reections on the future of EUJapan relations. This does mean that there is still plenty of scope for the scholars contributing to this volume and others to offer further reections on the relationship between the EU and Japan. RICHARD G. WHITMAN University of Bath The European Union at the United Nations: Intersecting Multilateralisms, by K.V. Laatikainen and K.E. Smith (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, ISBN 1403995346); xiii+232pp., 45.00 hb. The book is an edited volume of essays which examine the role of the EU within the UN, the impact of EU co-ordination on Member States as well as the inuence of the EU in various UN policies. Mary Farrell gives a rst evaluation of the EUUN relationship by suggesting that effective participation by the EU in the UN multilateral system remains restricted by the peculiarities of the EU system, its mix of intergovernmentalism and supranationality that variously enhances the power and inuence of individual Member States and at other times places limitations on the supranational institutions, including the European Commission (p. 45). Most authors put this claim to the test by taking into account the division between supranational and intergovernmental elements and by providing an account of the limitations of EU actorness at the United Nations. The second part of the book consists of three case studies on the EU Member States. The rst case study focuses on the behaviour of France and the UK in the UN
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where it is mentioned that due to their size, resources and historic trajectories the two countries have a special national role in the UN that they are still keen to maintain. The two countries therefore do not always nd it easy to co-ordinate their policies with the rest of the EU as they have a special status. In the second case study Laatikainen examines the special inuence of the Nordic states plus the Netherlands in the UN by suggesting that in general this group of states had little problem in co-ordinating its policies with those of the EU. The same conclusion comes from the next study on the Central and Eastern European EU Member States, although for this particular group of states it is claimed that the process of Europeanization is still ongoing. The third part of the book provides a few examples of EU actorness in various UN policy arenas such as collective security, human rights, as well as environmental, economic and social issues. The book is an interesting piece of work because it provides an analysis of the EUUN bilateral relationship that although mentioned often in EU scholarship has not been previously analysed. As such, the book is a valuable contribution to the understanding of the actorness of the EU because it examines its impact on UN policies. There is a logical continuity in the way the arguments are presented and the case studies that are included provide a good account of the limits of Europeanization in terms of both national politics as well as of policy agendas. VASILIS MARGARAS Loughborough University The Eastern Enlargement of the European Union, by J. OBrennan (London: Routledge, 2006, ISBN 0415361265); xv+239pp., 65.00 hb. This book constitutes a valuable contribution to the literature on EU enlargement. From being rather understudied, in particular in theoretical terms, the question of enlargement has in recent years been the subject of several useful and innovative analyses. This is as it should be, not only because enlargement is a critical issue for the future of the EU and European order, but also because it provides us with an important intake into the understanding of the nature of the EU and the processes that govern it. It provides fertile ground for theoretical reection on processes of integration and the emerging European order. Organizing the book in three fairly separate parts, the author presents a comprehensive account of the process of enlargement to central and eastern Europe. In the rst part he provides a historical overview of the enlargement process. In the second part the internal EU decision-making process is in focus, with a chapter on each of the EUs main institutions (the Council, the Commission and the European Parliament). In the third and last part the relevance of geopolitical, economic and normative explanations of Eastern enlargement are assessed. The most important contribution to the existing literature comes in the second part of the book, with the analysis of intra-institutional decision-making. OBrennan stresses in particular the role of the Commission and its dual role in steering the internal EU process and inuencing developments in the candidate states. The Commission frequently found itself the sole policy innovator and the best-placed actor
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within the process. However, he also underlines the role of the European Parliament and, interestingly, the inuence and effectiveness of the Presidencies of the smaller Member States. There is a certain lack, nevertheless, of conceptual nuance and analytical stringency in the book. Symptomatically, concepts like deliberation and bargaining, for example, are used more or less interchangeably, without any apparent concern for the fact that they point to two very different types of decision-making processes. It would also have been helpful to have had more explicit linkages between the different parts of the book and in particular between the second and third parts. In arguing in the third part that eastern enlargement is best understood as a norm-driven phenomenon, the author conrms the ndings of other studies on enlargement. But how, if at all, does this relate to his ndings on the roles of the different institutions? Through a reection on questions such as this one, the author could have strengthened the originality of his contribution even further. The book will be useful reading not only for those with a particular interest in enlargement, but also for those with an interest in EU institutions and decision-making. HELENE SJURSEN University of Oslo Business and the Euro: Business Groups and the Politics of EMU in Germany and the United Kingdom, by M.E. Duckeneld (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, ISBN 1403998639); xiv+257pp., 55.00 hb. European Monetary Union (EMU) has produced many conicts between economists and politicians: improvements in economic convergence and ination expectations compare with stalled growth and political divisions over EMU membership. The single currency is shared by only 13 EU members, excluding the UK with its concerns about electoral impacts, entry criteria and timing. Business and the Euro adds to the understanding of these tensions by examining interactions during the 1990s between policy-makers and leading business associations, in both Germany and the UK. The books premise counters conventional wisdom: instead of politicians supporting EMU under pressure from domestic interest groups, approaches to EMU among business associations depend on their responses to stances taken by governing political parties. The business lobby is seen as relatively passive, neither promoting nor blocking EMU on its own initiative. The book has a symmetrical structure: an introductory chapter that outlines the central question of why business associations in both nations pursued different EMU policies, followed by two chapters each on Germany and the UK covering respectively the politics of EMU and business. The research methodology section is brief with just a passing reference to the choice of associations and interviews and a limited theoretical framework mentioning the economic interest and collective action literatures, emphasizing that business associations are political entities themselves as well as transmitters of members preferences. In Germany the ruling coalition promptly encouraged moves towards EMU while business groups, beneting from the Bundesbanks independence and the D-Marks
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anchor role, engaged later in the debate. While many rms saw relatively few economic advantages, the powerful business associations, such as the Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie (BDI), covering 35 sectors, and the Deutscher Industrie und Handelstag (DIHT) representing the Chambers of Commerce, endorsed the governments EMU commitment, using the lever of adherence to the Maastricht criteria. The book argues three factors inuenced UK business associations attitudes: their focus on specic, technical policies; their decentralized political organization and narrow policy evaluations; and the governing political partys prevailing stance, a factor complicated by deep divisions over Europe among both Conservative and Labour administrations. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) was broadly supportive but reluctant to lead without political support, whereas the Institute of Directors (IOD) and Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) were more openly vociferous against integration. The London Investment Banking Association (LIBA) concentrated on technical issues, while the pro-EMU National Farmers Union (NFU) sought early entry. It is unclear what is the intended audience for Business and the Euro; the main title suggests the business market yet the political, macro-level focus limits references to euro-business issues and to inuential individual companies vociferous in the single currency debates. Hence the assumption is the book is intended for contemporary European historians and students of political and institutional decisionmaking. Nevertheless, whatever the audience, the book offers an informed perspective on the path to EMU, the ramications of which continue. ROGER HENDERSON Leeds Metropolitan University The EUNATO Relationship: A Legal and Political Perspective, by M. Reichard (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006, ISBN 9780754647591); xv+412pp., 65.00 hb. Relations between the EU and NATO have become a topic of increasing discussion in recent years without having as yet generated a substantial scholarly literature. This book represents a notable attempt to remedy the deciency. Martin Reichard gives equal weight to the legal and political dimensions of relations, as suggested by his subtitle. Whilst the discussions on the former may prove to be occasionally rather daunting for readers without specialist legal knowledge, on the whole he conveys his points and develops his arguments crisply and accessibly. The individual chapters also stand alone effectively, so that readers who prefer to focus on either the political or the legal dimension can dip into the book in the knowledge that each chapter contains interesting and worthwhile discussion in its own right. The author facilitates this through effective cross-referencing. The book is not a mere review. Reichard has a case to make: that the balance of European security is shifting from NATO to the EU (p. 21). In making it he focuses on the peacekeeping and related operations which the EU has conducted since 2003, in particular those in Macedonia and Bosnia where it took over from in situ NATO operations. Underpinning this argument is the contention that, contrary to widespread perception, there is no underlying legal or political imbalance in security relations
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between the two institutions. In a particularly provocative Chapter 5, Reichard denies that NATO has ever asserted a right of rst refusal over peacekeeping operations. Later, in Chapter 8 he develops a persuasive argument that, whilst NATOs so-called Berlin Plus agreement (setting out principles on when and how the EU can call upon NATO military assets and resources) is not a formal treaty in international law, it nevertheless has come to be seen as being de facto binding on both parties. In general, Reichard makes his case clearly, vigorously and effectively. Naturally elements of it are open to challenge. For example, his argument about the shifting balance does not really take into account NATOs continuing core role in Kosovo, where it still maintains over 16,000 troops. Further, there is a suspicion that Reichard is aware that Kosovo detracts from his case. He does not serve it well, however, by appearing to gloss over the Kosovo situation (less than two substantive pages are devoted to the question of whether the EU could take over peacekeeping duties there). It is or should be in the nature of effective scholarship to challenge preconceptions and provoke debate. For readers with an interest in the EUs ESDP and CFSP, and for those interested in contemporary European security more generally, this book will very likely do both these things. It is therefore, warmly recommended. MARTIN A. SMITH Royal Military Academy Sandhurst Global Security Governance: Competing Perceptions of Security in the 21st Century, edited by E.J. Kirchner and J. Sperling (London: Routledge, 2007, ISBN 9780415391627); xviii+290pp., 22.00. The present volume a collection of thoroughly researched essays empirically grounded on national surveys is a most welcome and distinct contribution to the study of international security co-operation. Global Security Governance not only presents a novel and intellectually stimulating approach to security studies in general and security governance in particular, but also expands our knowledge of contemporary security relations on a global scale. Setting out to demarcate the hindrances and pathways to enhanced security co-operation among nine great and middle-ranking powers (plus the European Union), the book deserves to be widely read by both scholars and students of security studies as well as by decision-makers. The study is divided into three main parts, each focusing on countries in three different regional contexts (Europe, North America and Eurasia). Two principal puzzles provide the platform for the common analytical framework guiding the individual country studies: what factors facilitate or bar regional security cooperation? Should the major powers seek the ambitious goal of global security co-operation or must they settle instead for the less ambitious task of regional security co-operation? The rst chapter identies the key areas of divergent and convergent interests among the most important powers that may facilitate or impede international security co-operation. Based on a critical assessment of the current state of security studies, Kirchner nds that three elements are of particular importance when analysing the prospects for increased collaboration between the contemporary worlds strongest
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powers: threat perceptions, the institutional and instrumental preferences shaping national security policies, and national security cultures. If these aspects are synchronized between the major powers Kirchner and Sperling argue convincingly the prospects of solid security co-operation are good; and vice versa. Based on the easily comparable and high standard country studies, Kirchner and Sperling conclude that the prospects for effective and institutionalized global security co-operation are poor. Although the great powers share a common interest in avoiding war, it is unlikely that a more mature and global system of co-operation a world-wide post-Westphalian system will materialize any time soon. The major powers do to a great extent share a common understanding of what constitutes the major threats in todays security environment, but they differ widely with regard to the origins of those threats and the preferred responses and ways in which security challenges should be mastered. In sum, the volume presents a convincing and thought-provoking account of the global security landscape, as well as a persuasive picture of the barriers and facilitators of future security co-operation on a regional and global scale. JENS RINGSMOSE Danish Institute for Military Studies Adjusting to EU Enlargement: Recurring Issues in a New Setting, edited by C. Stephanou (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2006, ISBN 9781845426040); xiii+232pp., 47.96 hb. The 12 chapters of the volume evaluate the impact of the eastern enlargements of 2004 and 2007 from the point of view of the European Unions economic setting, internal governance and cohesion and external relations. The economics part concentrates, not surprisingly, on the key areas of EU integration, namely trade and investment, competitiveness, location, the CAP and monetary integration. These are exactly the issues on which economics-oriented literature on enlargement concentrate. Generally, this part contains a lot of basic statistical facts but only the chapters on location and monetary integration make an attempt to have a closer look behind the cold numbers. Especially in the trade chapter, the level of analysis could have gone much deeper whereas the EMU chapter contains a thorough discussion of the most relevant aspects of enlargement with respect to monetary union. Part II of the volume deals with governance and cohesion. To put these two into the same part is somewhat articial, especially as cohesion is closely linked with the CAP via the EU budget and location using typical winners and losers of (deeper) integration arguments. An additional burden of both the CAP and cohesion chapters, especially the latter, is that they are mostly based on summarizing Commission documents. In these chapters, it is impossible to nd any links to the wide critical discussion on the future of the EU budget after enlargement. This would have made a linkage to adjustment, which is a part of the title of the volume. The chapter on political dynamics is a detailed description of the issues involved in enlargement. I would have liked a little deeper discussion about the reactions to the increasing heterogeneity and expanding membership. As an example, the extended
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role of QMV is a partial solution to avoid paralysis in decision-making but QMV in the EU of 27 members is completely different from QMV in the EU-15 as far as relative majority quotas are concerned. Moreover, when reading the chapter, I at rst missed the discussion on enhanced co-operation understood as functional federalism. The last part covers the external relations of an enlarged EU. Four of the ve chapters in this part concentrate on the EUs neighbouring regions either in the east or south. They all provide detailed summaries of the problems and also offer solutions. The nal chapter discusses the CEE countries different approaches to transatlantic relations. In sum, I nd that the volume raises many points that are relevant for the future EU after the 2004 and 2007 enlargements and also before the next expansions. In many parts of the volume, however, I would have expected a more analytical approach and overall greater internal homogeneity between the chapters. In edited volumes, though, this is a common problem. MIKA WIDGRN Turku School of Economics Policy Coherence for Development in the EU Council: Strategies for the Way Forward, edited by C. Egenhofer (Brussels: Centre for European Policy Studies, 2006, ISBN 9290796537); x+202pp., 17.00 pb. Policy coherence for development (PCD) is not a new concept for the international donor community nor is it for the European Union. The principle of coherence of EU policies with development-co-operation objectives was introduced in the Maastricht Treaty which entered into force in 1993. However, only in 2005 was PDC rmly established on the EU agenda, with the Commission adopting a Communication focused on PCD and with the EU Council adopting Conclusions on PCD (May 2005). The study conducted by the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) examines whether EU policy-making processes in non-development policy areas accommodate development-related priorities and assesses whether they undermine the European development objectives. The analysis concentrates on the 12 thematic areas identied in the 2005 Council Conclusions: trade, environment, climate change, security, agriculture, sheries, the social dimension of globalization, employment and decent work, migration, research and innovation, information society, transport and energy. The book is divided into two sections. Part I the main report presents a general overview of the concept of PCD and the principal initiatives taken by the EU and other donors to promote coherence for development. It also provides an investigation of EU policy-making and the key EU institutions. While the focus of the study is the EU Council, the role of the Commission and its various Directorate Generals (DGs) are also analysed in depth. In the main report the authors identify key drivers for enhancing PCD in EU policy-making and outline six proposals for structural reforms and a series of short and long term recommendations for improving PCD in both the Council and the Commission. Part II of the study is a collection of 12 policy areas, one for each of the thematic areas identied in the EU Council Conclusions and six specic case-studies (on the Economic Partnership Agreements; Climate Change; the EU Code of Conduct on Arms Export; the Reform of the Sugar Regime; the Fisheries
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Partnership Agreements; and the EU Strategy for Action on the Crisis in Human Resources for Health in Developing Countries). The strength of the collection of studies is the empirically nuanced account of the extent to which the EU has so far taken development concerns into account in policy areas with development dimensions. The detailed ches and case studies provide extremely useful insights into the EU policy-making system and the complex interactions between institutions and their subordinate bodies. What is missing is a dedicated section on the EU development policy outlining overarching priorities and principles driving the EUs relations with the developing world. Despite this, the focus on the EU decision-making processes and the broad range of policies covered make the book highly recommended reading not only for practitioners and policymakers, to which it seems to be mainly addressed, but also to EU scholars. GIULIA PIETRANGELI London School of Economics and Political Science The Struggle for a Social Europe: Trade Unions and EMU in Times of Global Restructuring, by A. Bieler (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006, ISBN 9780719072529); xvi+254pp., 55 hb. Bielers work investigates the position of trade unions on EMU, from the negotiations to the implementation, and their willingness to co-operate at the European level, in ve countries: Britain, Sweden, France, Germany and Austria. The rst two do not belong to the euro area, but are in any case affected by EMU. This is an original work, which attempts to analyse systematically a topic to which so far little attention has been paid. Previous analysis of the processes that resulted in EMU examined only marginally the role of trade unions and their possible impact. Thus Bielers analysis is complete and exhaustive. The underlying hypothesis is that trade union support for EMU varies according to the type of workers they represent. When the latter belong to transnational production sectors, then trade unions are not only more likely to support EMU, as they are close to the companies which enjoy monetary stability, but also more keen on co-operation at European level with other unions. On the other hand, those unions that still signicantly inuence national policy-making will not support EMU, nor will they be interested in co-operation with other unions, as the sectors they represent will be threatened by EMU itself. Bieler offers an in-depth analysis of the theoretical approaches used to explain the conceptualization of labour as an international actor. In his view the best one is the neo-Gramscian theory on social relations of production, as it accounts for the formation of transnational classes. He also examines the inuence of globalization in the restructuring process of nance and production, towards an increasing internationalization of labour relations. The authors hypotheses are proved from Chapter 5 onward, with the analysis of the different models of capitalism of the ve case studies as determinants of the reaction to EMU. His conclusions are that the attitude of trade unions towards EMU changes according to whether they are confederations, transnational sector unions or national ones. Bieler nds that union confederations clearly
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supported EMU, and so did transnational sectors unions, whereas the willingness to co-operate at European level appears to be stronger in union confederations than in transnational sector unions. When national sector unions are examined, outsiders like Sweden and Britain obviously opposed EMU, while France, Austria and Germany accepted it. In all the cases considered, co-operation at European level was not welcomed, due to the diversity in the national industrial relation systems (p. 176). Overall, Bieler addresses his hypotheses well and his work opens the way to further investigations in the eld of social policy and wider debate on the impact of EMU. MONIKA MURA University of Bristol EU Foreign and Interior Policies: Cross-Pillar Politics and the Social Constructions of Sovereignty, by S. Stetter (London: Routledge, 2007, ISBN 9780415414913); xxi+238pp., 65 hb. In scientic terms, but also by policy standards, justice and home affairs (JHA) and the common foreign and security policy (CFSP) have become the most dynamic elds of EU policies. The problem, according to Stephan Stetter, is that the formal endurance of the pillar design by which these policies are typically characterized neglects the mechanisms of integration that substantially (re)congure foreign and interior policies. Indeed, traditionally, the literature on foreign and interior policies is premised around the claim that the processes and weaknesses of these elds result from either supranational or intergovernmental logics. On the face of it, the book shows that students of EU politics who adopt this posture often hold that no instructive comparison could be drawn on the dynamics of integration in EU foreign and interior policies. To circumvent these problems, the book pursues three objectives. First, detect cross-pillar intersections which underpin developments in both JHA and CFSP. Second, on a more holistic level, assess the impact of cross-pillarization on the political system of the EU. The analytical setting is then brought to bear on two powerful case studies: the European Mediterranean Partnership and migration policies, from Maastricht to Nice. What the book does extremely well is to challenge the pillar approach to EU foreign and interior policies by tracing the functional unity that brings both policies together. The basic idea here is that, in many ways, despite obvious technical and legal differences, there are functional, substantive and institutional overlaps between the two policy areas. Thus, Stetter argues, addressing the functional unity across the pillars offers a unique opportunity to grasp the emergence of what he calls a distinct sovereignty dimension of the EU (p. 15). It is precisely the constitutive mechanisms of this sovereignty that enables Stetter to bring to light, beyond the seemingly institutional fragmentations, the construction of the EU as a Self which is fundamentally distinct from Others. The inside/outside distinction thus forms the backbone of the EUs internal and external sovereignty dimension. Further, the construction of an EU sovereignty dimension coincides, by accident or by design, with the steady increase in the dominance of executive actors i.e. the Commission, the Council, and the Council Secretariat. Moreover, in stark contrast to what is
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usually held, the book shows that the delegation of extra-powers to supranational executive powers is severely constrained by subtle mechanisms of control established by Member States on the Treaty level. This explains, in part, the meagre outcomes of EU actions in the Palestine peace process, for instance. In this light, what matters in the case studies is not so much the results day-to-day policy-making achieves as its impact on the functional structure of the EU. One of the weaknesses of the monograph rests with the underdevelopment of what is arguably the theoretical framework which gives meaning to the case studies. Indeed, given the centrality of the inside/outside distinction, readers will expect more on this; but, I am afraid, they will be disappointed. I think there is more to that distinction than cross-pillarization might explain. The architecture of the European Neighbourhood Policies, for example, teaches us that the inside/outside distinction is a variable geometry scheme that should be handled with care. In this context, the inside/outside distinction varies both in its purposes and in its mode of governance, depending on where one crosses the external limits of the EU. The immediate implications are, rst, that the functional unity of the EU foreign and interior policies cannot gravitate around one unique conceptual couple; and, second, that this conceptual couple leads to two questions at least, identity and borders. The former is underspecied and the latter is glossed-over. In sum, however, the book remains theoretically sound and empirically strong. By focusing on cross-pillarization, Stetter adds texture to the literature on EU integration theory. Further, by offering an innovative reading of the EU sovereignty dimension, the book claries certain important aspects of the emergence of EU internal identity. Finally, by exploring the mechanisms of control which limit the delegation of authority to supranational actors, Stetter is able to excavate the deep meaning of the communitarization of EU policies. This is where, I believe, the book could spark a debate. THIERRY BALZACQ University of Namur The Quest for a European Strategic Culture: Changing Norms on Security and Defence in the European Union, by C.O. Meyer (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, ISBN: 9781403992802); xii+211pp., 45.00 hb. Are Europes national strategic cultures gradually becoming more similar? Christoph Meyers new book examines this possibility, and suggests that national strategic cultures in Europe, although still distinct, have converged substantially enough to provide an ideational and normative space for the emergence of a European strategic culture. This in turn could contribute positively to the future development of the European security and defence policy (ESDP). Meyers project is ambitious because it attempts four goals at once. He tackles the origins of normative change on the question of strategy. His comparative research design then identies four key strategic norms in four large Member States: Britain, France, Germany and Poland. Having assessed both stasis and shifts in these norms, Meyer indicates the contours of an existing European strategic culture, from which he then assesses the potential for the ESDP.
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Closet historians will certainly nd appealing his in-depth look at deep-seated norms, beliefs and ideas about French self-perception, German ideas of legitimacy of force, British concepts of means and ends as well as Polish perceptions about the future of the ESDP. Social scientists will be impressed by the layered approach of constructivist, realist and sociological institutionalist theories marshalled to explore his four goals. Meyer uses four key norms to unpack the troublesome area of strategic culture, allowing him to identify historical and contemporary attitudes that have arisen in these four countries on the legitimacy, authorization, application and alliances involved in the use of force. Meyer provides a timely and well researched picture of European strategic culture and ESDP potential, and is to be commended for his attempts at analysing the innitely tougher connection between the two. The data gathered from a comprehensive round of interviews of various levels of national and EU political elites and a thorough assessment of public discourses (via newspapers and public opinion surveys) suggests that strategic cultures in Europe are indeed becoming more similar. Crisis learning from Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq has triggered broad support among elites and publics for a more robust European defence policy. This normative convergence, however, is visibly uneven across the four national strategic norms. In some cases especially where Britain is concerned this translates into downright incompatibility over the legitimate role of the EU as a security actor. Divergence is apparent over why and how European defence should be used, suggesting that the space for a European strategic culture is not yet sufciently populated by broad agreement across all four key national strategic norms. AMELIA HADFIELD University of Kent Policy Transfer in European Union Governance: Regulating the Utilities, by S. Bulmer, D. Dolowitz, P. Humphreys and S. Padgett (London: Routledge, 2007, ISBN 9780415374880); xvi+221pp., 70 hb. Policy transfer is increasingly observed in public policy and increasingly deployed as a methodology for analysing policy change. International organizations often feature in policy transfer but have seldom been the main subject of analysis. This substantial study brings to the forefront the role of a key international organization, the European Union, in policy transfer. It draws on three sectoral cases, telecommunications, air transport and electricity, all of which have undergone dramatic change in the past two decades. Traditionally organized as national monopolies across Europe, they have been subject to the single market programme and become liberalized and internationalized with regulatory principles set at EU level. The book provides a thorough account of how the EU has operated as a dynamic institutional environment for policy learning and transfer from policy leaders, such as the UK, the rst mover in major utility reform in Europe, to other Member States. Cross-sectoral comparative analysis of policy transfer is sustained and systematic. Comparison is undertaken via the conceptual prisms of hierarchical, negotiated and facilitated policy transfer combined with an institutionalist analysis of the EU.
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The authors observed multifarious forms of transfer and found more evidence of hierarchical and negotiated transfer than of facilitated transfer (horizontal transfer between Member States), a consequence of the EUs institutionalization. A recurring theme is a competitive process of uploading policies from Member States to the EU and then downloading them back to all Member States. A distinct manifestation of this, in a process substantially mediated by EU and national institutions, is the uploading and downloading of UK reforms. Critics of policy transfer have doubted whether it adds value in policy analysis. Although the authors seek to justify its value, their arguments are not entirely compelling. It is not clear, for example, whether the hierarchical and negotiated transfer concepts add signicant value over established techniques in European integration and policy-making in the supranational and intergovernmental traditions. The preoccupation with policy transfer has left little space for critical analysis and explanation of the neo-liberal shift. Despite distancing themselves from determinism and rational institutionalism, the authors underlying assumption appears to be that policy transfer is primarily a rational response to global economic imperatives and technological change. However, these exogenous forces are weaker in one of the sectors, electricity, yet all three sectors have experienced a long run shift to liberalized markets (albeit with distinct differences in pace and timing). The authors ascribe the shift in electricity to greater Commission activism, but other factors, such as wider international political forces and ideologies, might provide more compelling explanations. This is particularly possible given that another strong global imperative the need to mitigate climate change which impacts substantially on air transport and electricity, has not led to a policy transformation of comparable magnitude. IAN BARTLE University of Bath Reforming the Common Agricultural Policy: History of a Paradigm Change, by I. Garzon (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, ISBN 9780230001848); viii+215pp., 45.00 hb. Isabelle Garzon has a background in the European Commission where she has worked for 12 years. She was an adviser to former Trade Commissioner Lamy for ve years. The book draws on her insider knowledge of common agricultural policy (CAP) reform processes, but also draws strongly on the academic literature on the CAP and engages in the academic discussion on the driving forces behind its reform. This anchoring of insider knowledge within the academic literature makes the book an important contribution to this debate. In the introduction, Garzon presents the topic of the book which is to explain why and how the CAP, after more than 30 years of stability, changed three times between 1992 and 2003 and to account for how far the changes went. In chapter 2 she outlines the theoretical framework which she describes as a multi-level, multi-issue and multi-lateral bargaining framework, complemented by policy network analysis (p. 2). Chapters 38 describe the institutional context of EU agricultural policy and policy development since the late 1950s. The last part of the book (chapters 911) is
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concerned with explaining the way in which the CAP has evolved since the early 1990s, applying discourse analysis, policy feedback process analysis and policy network analysis. The history of CAP reform requires more than one theory to be fully understood. Garzon applies a set of theories but omits to combine them into a coherent theoretical framework. This leaves the reader with unanswered questions on the way in which new discourses, change in policy networks and policy feedback processes combined to bring about CAP reforms. The concluding chapter (chapter 13) attempts to link the theories but this is done in a loose way and occurs too late in the book. Chapter 12 is devoted to establishing whether the underlying paradigm of the CAP has changed. Garzon argues that there has been a change from the dependent to the multifunctional agriculture paradigm. This interpretation is questionable. Like the dependent agriculture paradigm, the multifunctional paradigm is based on the view that agriculture is an exceptional industry because of unique market and production conditions and therefore requires special treatment. Thus, rather than being a new paradigm, the multifunctional paradigm can be seen as an attempt to disguise the dependent agriculture paradigm as the true foundation of the CAP. Nevertheless, the book is very useful for teaching purposes because it accounts very well for the development of the CAP, and by applying different theories on policy change it triggers debate on the driving forces behind CAP reforms. CARSTEN DAUGBJERG University of Aarhus Supranational Citizenship, by L. Dobson (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006, ISBN 9780719065929); vii+194pp., 55 hb. Although part of the Europe in Change series, the author declaims this work as not being an EU-specic text. Rather she posits that it is a theoretical consideration, written with the direct aim of being a normative theory of supranational citizenship linked intrinsically to the justication of political authority. While it most certainly is, it is also nonetheless a work which clearly focuses on the EU as a case study for this enlarged idea of citizenship. This is a positive move because, as Dobson points out, such a concept can be (and indeed is) efciently applied to the EU as it has developed as a social and political experiment over the past 50 years. In terms of content the work marries two distinct theoretical areas; the rst a focus on the works involved with the EU and citizenship, and the other a consideration of the works of the philosopher Alan Gewirth. Dobson provides a succinct introduction, consideration and development of Gewirths works, employing them to build her argument and support her assertions. More than simply employing them as a lens to consider the EU, she adds to them, asserting that citizenship is a moral necessity and thus a core addition to those employing Gewirth or similar approaches. The scholarship employs a clear and open normative approach to the core concept of citizenship, enlarging it beyond any national, or even international, borders. It dismisses the need for distinct organizational structures with which to associate the citizenship in question (hence the supra aspect of that citizenship) but nonetheless argues that the
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concept remains a project of political justication. In this Dobsons consideration of the EU is quite strong, and she provides an insightful and arguable consideration of the development of citizenship as a necessity within the EU. One aspect of the work that is quite contentious is where Dobson dismisses both the idea that citizenship and identity are the same, or that the latter is a constituent part of the former. Her dismissal of existing identities within the EU is not cavalier and she does recognize that her conception of citizenship is not currently widespread among the people of the EU. Yet her claim that supranational citizenship need not threaten and may nurture other identities is stretching her normative credentials to the maximum in light of both the current and historical tendencies within Europe and the EU. Notwithstanding this particular criticism, the work remains a solid addition to the literature, in both the EU eld and political philosophy. Dobson makes her case in a well written and well argued manner, bringing her arguments together into a coherent and original work. MURRAY STEWART LEITH University of Paisley Comparative Federalism: The European Union and the United States in Comparative Perspective, edited by A. Menon and M. Schain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006, ISBN 9780199291106); x+373pp., 50 hb. Anand Menon and Martin Schains edited volume, Comparative Federalism is a welcome addition to the growing literature on comparative federalism, linking European integration with broader studies of political institutions and comparative politics. Starting from the premise that federalism is a system of shared sovereignty and not merely a system of delegated authority, the various chapters focus on the implications in terms of policy, politics and outcomes. The rst four essays in the volume cover some broad conceptual comparisons drawn from comparative politics and international relations, discussing the political and historical considerations that have led them to reappraise European developments in light of the American experience. This is then followed by six essays addressing how these changes in institutions and processes have played out in both polities. The nal section of the volume is a series of case studies examining the role of federalism in shaping scal, monetary, immigration and biotechnology policy. Several chapters draw attention to the constitutional process, institutional design and governance dilemmas faced in consolidating diverse sets of territorial interests, plural identities, and vested interests. The authors divide over the lessons that can be drawn from the American experience with some authors focusing on the developments in the formative periods of American politics to provide a reminder of how signicant constitutional design has been, and how different the European constitutional experience has been, whereas others point to the similarities and constraints that both polities face in tackling the vertical and horizontal allocation of competences, decentralized implementation, and managing the market against its dysfunctional tendencies (Jabko). Shapiro provides an excellent analysis of commonalities in patterns of judicial
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review, balancing standards and delegated implementation to lower courts through similar reference procedures. The chapters on comparing constitutional change, by Magnette and Nicolaidis respectively, are extremely good at providing both normative and historical benchmarks for comparison. In common with other edited volumes, the chapters contain many original contributions about the nature of federalism, as well as some familiar arguments drawn from prior work. The volume essentially revolves around two themes. The rst one is that many institutional arrangements have enduring but unintended consequences, and that both polities have faced transformations of state structures as a result. The emphasis by Lowi and Sbragia in particular, highlights that the political process is not simply about comparing the functional differentiation and competences among different levels of government, but to recognize the contest over the form of the state. The second theme is the issue of representation and rights. This is manifest in efforts in the US and EU to manage both functional and territorial politics by way of delegation, control and oversight mechanisms, the territorial dispersion of power between central governments and subunits, and the differentiation in political and social rights that have evolved. Two issues deserve further attention in the volume. One is the different models of federalism that have evolved across different policy areas, which speaks not only to the different policy challenges in dealing with policy externalities or public goods, but also to the fact that different models have evolved as a result of both exogenous and endogenous pressures, and perhaps unintended consequences. Secondly, given the focus on institutions in this volume, it would also be useful to consider the emergent patterns of citizen behaviour and organization, given that crucial transformations in the American polity came about as a result of political mobilization, expanding participation, ethnic voting and social movements. The politics of mass parties and the patronage state (Lowi) are clearly important in understanding how the state transformation process unfolded and shifted towards the modern regulatory state in the US. Such work on civic engagement in the American context might be fruitful to discuss in light of discussions about democracy in the European polity (Nicolaidis). This book has a great deal to offer empirically, as well as theoretically, to the debates on comparative federalism. MICHELLE EGAN American University Enlarging the Euro Area: External Empowerment and Domestic Transformation in East Central Europe, edited by K. Dyson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006, ISBN 0199277672); xix+376pp., 50 hb. Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) membership, while not linked to a specic date, was made obligatory in the accession treaties. Enlargement of the European Union (EU) to central and eastern Europe (CEE) has been extensively covered including the transformation in CEE countries, the response by the EU, as well as the way we can understand these processes theoretically. Missing, however, was an analysis of the implications of future EMU membership for CEE countries. This book
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lls this gap. The strength of the volume lies in the comprehensiveness of its analysis. Part I covers the location of EMU within the wider developments of the global economy. Part II deals with many of the new EU members including the Baltic States, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania. Only the exclusion of Slovenia, the rst country to join EMU in January 2007, is surprising. The book is then completed with an investigation of several patterns of sectoral governance including nancial markets, scal policy and welfare state adjustment. Nevertheless, while highly important, this book also demonstrates a core weakness characteristic of so much current scholarship on European integration. Neoliberal restructuring, which has driven the integration process since the mid-1980s around the Internal Market and EMU, is taken for granted. Since the early 1990s, inequality has increased in CEE, unemployment levels remain high and employment rates are lower than in the EU-15. Nevertheless, a critical dimension, analysing who in CEE loses out in neo-liberal restructuring, is missing in this volume. The neoliberal purpose of EMU is clearly recognized. Jim Rollo in Chapter 2, for example, outlines how the EU and EMU have become part and parcel of the neo-liberal, so-called Washington Consensus in the 1990s and how EU membership pushed CEE countries along this road (p. 48). With the exception of the chapter on Hungary by Bla Greskovits, however, there is hardly any engagement with domestic conicts over monetary politics. Instead, the focus is on elites and how they negotiate the t between external pressures and domestic constraints. Those countries which move quickest towards EMU membership are described as pacesetters, those who are behind are called laggards. Speedy compliance with neo-liberal restructuring is, thus, understood as a positive step, reluctance as backwards. The lack of critical engagement with neo-liberalism is even more surprising when considering recent challenges of restructuring within the EU. The no to the EU constitution in the Dutch and French referendums in 2005 was also due to the Constitutional Treatys neo-liberal contents. Moreover, around the European Social Forums, the meetings of anti-neo-liberal globalization groups in Europe since 2002, alliances have formed with the objective of resisting further neo-liberal restructuring. It would be important to investigate how these struggles over the future EU model of capitalism are played out in CEE in view of pending EMU membership. A look beyond governing elites is, therefore, highly important. By not engaging with these issues, this book constitutes neo-liberal statecraft thereby normalizing restructuring as common sense. ANDREAS BIELER University of Nottingham The European Unions Roles in International Politics: Concepts and Analysis, by O. Elgstrm and M. Smith (London: Routledge, 2006, ISBN 0415390931); xix+261pp., 65 hb. The puzzle of the European Union in international politics is once more under scrutiny in this volume, as the contributors seek to explain how the EU interacts with the other actors (mainly sovereign states, with a sprinkling of international
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organizations) in the international system. Well-known for its self-declared intent to export EU values, and even more widely recognized as a global economic power, the question of how far the European Union can exercise inuence, change behaviour and shape outcomes remains tantalizingly unanswered. It is more difcult to provide answers about the EUs capacity in international politics, the impact of European policies on global actors and international regulatory systems, or the effectiveness of human rights and democracy promotion across the globe than it is to judge the impact of internal integration, or indeed external economic integration. In a well-edited and largely coherent set of contributions, this volume attempts to provide an analytical framework to study the roles of the European Union, ranging across the following dimensions: role conception (self-image and others image); origins of roles (strategy design, choice, contingency or incrementalism); role institutionalization; role performance (how a role is played); role impact (desired effects, effectiveness, efciency and legitimacy). Taking account of the extent to which context and agency determine roles, the assumption is that obligations and commitments go beyond considerations of maximizing material interests, while foreign policy is purposeful and shaped by institutions and structures. Though the contributions largely follow the editorial frame of reference, there is some variety in the individual approaches and a degree of scepticism towards the impact and effectiveness of the EU role in certain issue areas. Jrgensen argues that the EU has long pursued a differentiated multilateralism, a conclusion that is supported, if somewhat indirectly, by the other chapters. Kerremans examines the European Commissions risk-minimizing strategy to manage the Doha Development Agenda by getting the WTO members to accept the principle of a linkage between agriculture and other issues (the aim being to eventually negotiate a deal to compensate the EU losers); Young suggests that how the EU role in trade policy was originally conceived had a direct impact upon the subsequent role performance and role impact Member States accepted the EU role in the WTO, and there was a high degree of delegation to the European Commission, while Member States tended not to challenge each others trade policy preferences unless there were countervailing interests. In the area of human rights and democracy promotion (Sedelmeier), the export of values to the Mediterranean (Panebianco), or policies towards Burma, Cuba and Zimbabwe, the impact and effectiveness of the EU role is less noteworthy, and the deliberate attempt to create consensus about values and behaviour among diverse communities is dogged by the lack of conviction both at home and abroad. A lack of coherence between self-image and behaviour can go part of the way to explain why the expansion of values is not an EU crusade (Lucarelli), though Manners urges a greater focus upon the symbolic manifestation of the EUs international identity. Sjursen develops the case for communicative rationality in the selection and promotion of norms, and offers two alternatives to the civilian/normative role: EU foreign policy as value-based or rights-based, reecting a more communitarian and a liberal conception. The volume is an informative and thought-provoking contribution to the academic literature, and provides much scope for debate across the relevant policy
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communities, though, as the editors themselves acknowledge in the conclusion, there remain many unanswered questions concerning the impact of the EUs role on international activities and indeed uncertainties about the relationship between the internal generation of role conceptions and their pursuit in institutional and political arenas. MARY FARRELL School of Advanced Study, University of London The Changing Politics of European Security: Europe Alone?, edited by S. Gnzle and A.G. Sens (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2007, ISBN 1403995117); xv+242pp., 50.00 hb. Reactions to the question of who should provide for the security of Europe traditionally diverge between Atlanticist and Europeanist responses. Revitalizing this halfcentury old debate, the editors of this volume argue that European states will increasingly act independently of the United States on matters of European security. The authors illustrate this phenomenon through examinations of the EUs institutional development as a security actor, its rising inuence in EUNATO collaboration, and its disagreements with the US over security policy. In demonstrating Europes empowered role in the post-Cold War security architecture, the editors draw from a spectrum of perspectives to colour what is habitually a black and white debate. The authors fully explore the divisions and linkages that constitute the complex relationship between NATO and the EUs ESDP. Drawing on constructivist perspectives, the rst three chapters explore contrasting security perceptions and shared views of new threats, such as terrorism, whereas the last three chapters discuss changes and challenges to the dynamic relationship. In the middle section, the authors highlight some of the features of European security that are too often left in the dark. For example, Gnzles chapter argues for increased attention to the European Neighbourhood Policy as a testing ground for security initiatives such as conict prevention and management, whereas Danilov looks farther east, arguing that Russia and the ESDP should bolster their latent partnership. The editors of the volume cautiously depict the Iraq debacle as driving Europe toward independence in security and defence by pointing to the transatlantic rift over the decision to go to war and scholars ominous predictions of severed EUUS ties. Although they cite the counterargument that the Iraq war evidenced the lack of a common security policy amongst EU Member States, the editors shy away from pursuing it further. Shepherd and others, for example, cautioned that the intra-EU discord could herald the demise of the ESDP. Aside from Andersons chapter on internal and external security, the volume remains within the comfort zone of traditional state-centred notions of security despite a prevailing consensus that a broader interpretation is required. Although the authors reference soft security, this notion offers little value as an analytical tool since it encompasses all non-military security issues. A more useful paradigm for analysing the European security environment might be human security, which focuses on the individual rather than the state and which enjoys growing transatlantic support from academics and civil society, as well as UN backing.
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This volume ultimately succeeds in unpacking the prevalent political transformations in contemporary European security by expanding beyond studies of the ESDP NATO dichotomy. It sets an example for future scholars by rising above the urry over Kagans provocative portrayal of the US and Europe as Mars and Venus. HEIDI HARDT Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva European Security in the Twenty-First Century: the Challenge of Multipolarity, by A. Hyde-Price (London: Routledge, 2007, ISBN 9780415392179); xvii+241pp., 65.00 hb. In this book, Hyde-Price revives realism to explain the dynamics of the post-cold war European security system. Faithful to the analytical core of structural realism as developed by Waltz and Mearsheimer, the author challenges the current liberalidealist hegemony in European security research. In contrast to liberal expectations of democratic peace, the existence of a European security community and the conict-mitigating role of multilateral institutions, the book starts from the assumption that states are both security and power maximizers. In this perspective, the logic of anarchy, the structural distribution of relative power capabilities and a states geopolitical situation are the primary factors inuencing the development of the European security order. Following two brief chapters outlining liberal (chapter 2) and realist (chapter 3) theories of international relations, the main part of the book (chapters 48) assesses the prospects for peace and security co-operation in Europe. Considerably more pessimistic than other studies in the eld, Hyde-Price highlights the re-emerging dynamics of power politics in a European order characterized by balanced multipolarity. He argues that Europe faces Russia as a potential security competitor and additionally expects a steady process of continental drift in its transatlantic relations. Moreover, the newly-assertive Grossmacht Germany - the lynchpin of the European balance of power - will be the decisive factor in shaping the future of the EU. In sharp contrast to the literature on European integration and governance, the study adds that since the EU is essentially a product of bipolarity, its future in todays multipolar European order is uncertain at best. While the EU has some value as a pragmatic instrument for its Member States economic and political aims, its strategic importance is marginal and the dream of an ever closer Union over. The book provides a concise and coherent application of structural realism to the question of European security integration. It certainly fulls its aim of adding dissonant tones to current debates, and it makes the timely point that issues of power, interests and the use of force have been neglected in research on European security. Yet, since the author consciously limits the theoretical debate to the two traditional positions of realism and a straw man-like version of liberalism, the analysis foregoes a more nuanced assessment of the current state of the European Union and leaves the reader with little more than the conviction that the heyday of European integration has passed. Moreover, the decision to assess the EUs security role exclusively in terms of its still marginal military capabilities leads to the omission of
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its potentially stronger impact as a regional security provider through its enlargement and external relations policies. Nevertheless, the book is a welcome addition to the research eld and it will doubtlessly provoke interesting discussions. URSULA C. SCHROEDER European University Institute, Florence Taxes and Exchange Rates in the EU, by J. Lori (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, ISBN 9780230004727); xix+466, 70.00 hb. The EU liberalized nancial capital markets in July 1990 but this did not integrate capital markets. With Member States retaining discretion over taxation and monetary policy, barriers to the movement of capital remained. Wide differences persisted among EU members on the taxable base and tax rates on income from nancial assets. This is familiar, but where John Loris book diverges from the literature on tax harmonization is in his consideration of changes in real exchange rates. These exchange rate changes can cause both changes in taxation and uncertainty over income. Three issues in particular are considered. First, how the liberalization of capital movements affects welfare and its distribution among countries. Second, the way in which these effects are inuenced by tax differences and real exchange rate changes. Third, an assessment of the impact of EU tax harmonization policies and EMU policies. The majority of the book is devoted to developing a model to test these issues. After an introductory chapter, the classical comparative static model of international capital ows is developed. Further chapters extend the model to: multi periods and retained earnings; taxes on income from shares; bonds and personal taxes on income from bonds; and the effect of real exchange rates changes. The penultimate chapter applies the theoretical analysis to the EU and the concluding chapter discusses a range of propositions, assumptions and recommendations. Important conclusions ow from this analysis, particularly, that the benets of tax harmonization are limited (0.25 per cent of EU GDP) and the effects of real exchange rate changes are larger (0.83 per cent). However, the results are difcult to unearth and it is not easy to identify within the complex model employed the effects of the assumptions employed on the results. Overall a book only for the economist with a specialist interest in this area. BRIAN ARDY London South Bank University

Europe's Strategic Culture

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JCMS 2007 Volume 45. Number 3. pp.

2007 The Author(s) Journal compilation 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

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Europe&#39;s Strategic Culture

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JCMS 2007 Volume 45. Number 3. pp.

2007 The Author(s) Journal compilation 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi

Europe's Strategic Culture

Europe's Strategic Culture