The Europeanisation of conflict resolution : regional integration and conflicts in Europe from the 1950s to the twenty-first century / Boyka Stefanova.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stefanova, Boyka, 1960-

Series:

Europe in change

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Conflict management--European Union countries.

Conflict management.

Politics and government.

European Union countries--Foreign relations--21st century.

European Union countries.

International relations.

European Union countries--Politics and government--21st century.

Physical Description:

xv, 237 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Manchester ; New York : Manchester University Press ; New York : distributed in the United States exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Summary:

This book is about the EU's role in conflict resolution and reconciliation in Europe. Ever since it was implemented as a political project of post-World War II Western Europe. European integration has been credited with performing conflict resolution functions. It allegedly transformed the long standing adversarial relationship between France and Germany into a strategic partnership. Conflict in Western Europe became obsolete. The end of the Cold War further reinforced the EU's role as a regional peace project.

While these evolutionary dynamics are uncontested, the deeper meaning of the process - its transformative power - is still to be elucidated. How does European integration restore peace when its equilibrium is broken and conflict or the legacies of enmity persist? This book sets out to explain exactly that. It applies the analytical lens of Europeanisation to explore the conflict resolution role of European integration by testing its somewhat vague, albeit well-established, macro-political rationale as a peace project in the practical settings of conflicts. The central argument of the book is that the evolving policy mix, resources, framing influences and political opportunities, through which European integration affects conflicts and processes of conflict resolution, demonstrate a historical continuity. As a result, the EU has become an indispensable factor of conflict resolution.

The book will be of value to academics and non-expert observers alike with an interest in European integration and peace studies. Book jacket.

Contents:

The Europeanisation of conflict resolution : theory and framework

The early years : European integration as a system of conflict resolution in the Franco-German relationship (1950-63)

Northern Ireland : Europeanisation breakthrough

The case of Cyprus : unmet expectations

Kosovo : Europeanisation in the making.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [203]-226) and index.

ISBN:

0719083397

9780719083396

OCLC:

749456219