Rethinking Europe's Future. By David P. Calleo. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001. 381p. $24.95. From the Nation State to Europe?: Essays in Honor of Jack Hayward. Edited by Anand Menon and Vincent Wright. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. 261p. $65.00 cloth, $24.95 paper.

Extract

Rethinking Europe's Future and From the Nation State to Europe? belong to two different genres of European studies. From the Nation State to Europe? is a collection of academic essays about the transformation of the nation-state in the European Union's context and its implications for social scientific theoretical concepts. Rethinking Europe's Future is by contrast aimed at politicians and policymakers. Its major objective is to discourage policies designed to push Europe and NATO to expand eastward, perhaps to embrace Russia, and instead to encourage Western Europe to assert itself as a major independent, even if not fully united, force in the world. Despite this disciplinary difference, however, the two books complement each other well. The former is about the present state of affairs in Europe; the latter concerns the future and, for that purpose, a good deal of the past. Both involve excellent scholarship and thoughtful arguments, though organizationally they share some weaknesses. They should prove interesting to any student of European affairs.