The Belgian Curtain - Europe after Communism
Vaknin, Sam, 1961-
English
We will print you a perfectly bound paperback of your selected title and send it to you at your nominated address
Below is a summary of The Belgian Curtain - Europe after Communism
Created by: LIDIJA RANGELOVSKA
REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA
C O N T E N T S
I. European Union and NATO - The Competing Alliances
II. The War in Iraq
III. How the West Lost the East
IV. Left and Right in a Divided Europe
V. Forward to the Past - Capitalism in Post-Communist Europe
VI. Transition in Context
VII. Eastern Advantages
VIII. Europe's Four Speeds
IX. Switching Empires
X. Europe's Agricultural Revolution
XI. Winning the European CAP
XII. History of Previous Currency Unions
XIII. The Concert of Europe, Interrupted
XIV. The Eastern Question Revisited
XV. Europe's New Jews
XVI. The Author
XVII. About "After the Rain"
EU and NATO - The Competing Alliances
By: Dr. Sam Vaknin
Also published by United Press International (UPI)
Saturday's vote in Ireland was the second time in 18 months that its
increasingly disillusioned citizenry had to decide the fate of the
European Union by endorsing or rejecting the crucial Treaty of Nice.
The treaty seeks to revamp the union's administration and the hitherto
sacred balance between small and big states prior to the accession of
10 central and east European countries. Enlargement has been the
centerpiece of European thinking ever since the meltdown of the eastern
bloc.
Shifting geopolitical and geo-strategic realities in the wake of the
September 11 atrocities have rendered this project all the more urgent.
NATO - an erstwhile anti-Soviet military alliance is search of purpose
- is gradually acquiring more political hues. Its remit has swelled to
take in peacekeeping, regime change, and nation-building.
Led by the USA, it has expanded aggressively into central and northern
Europe. It has institutionalized its relationships with the countries
of the Balkan through the "Partnership for Peace" and with Russia
through a recently established joint council. The Czech Republic,
Poland, and Hungary - the eternal EU candidates - have full scale
members of NATO for 3 years now.
The EU responded by feebly attempting to counter this worrisome
imbalance of influence with a Common Foreign and Security Policy and a
rapid deployment force. Still, NATO's chances of replacing the EU as
the main continental political alliance are much higher than the EU's
chances of substituting for NATO as the pre-eminent European military
pact. the EU is hobbled by minuscule and decreasing defense spending by
its mostly pacifistic members and by the backwardness of their armed
forces.
That NATO, under America's thumb, and the vaguely anti-American EU are
at cross-purposes emerged during the recent spat over the International
Criminal Court. Countries, such as Romania, were asked to choose
between NATO's position - immunity for American soldiers on
international peacekeeping missions - and the EU's (no such thing).
Finally - and typically - the EU backed down. But it was a close call
and it cast in sharp relief the tensions inside the Atlantic
partnership.
As far as the sole superpower is concerned, the strategic importance of
western Europe has waned together with the threat posed by a
dilapidated Russia. Both south Europe and its northern regions are
emerging as pivotal. Airbases in Bulgaria are more useful in the fight
against Iraq than airbases in Germany.
The affairs of Bosnia - with its al-Qaida's presence - are more
pressing than those of France. Turkey and its borders with central Asia
and the middle east is of far more concern to the USA than
disintegrating Belgium. Russia, a potentially newfound ally, is more
mission-critical than grumpy Germany.
Back