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This article examines neorealist and neofunctionalist theoretical approaches to the issue of defence and European integration, and specifically the prospects of adding a defence component to the European Union. It sets out the difference between the core assumptions on these issues and argues that these theories provide different and contradictory explanations and predictions about the relationship between defence and European integration. However, when these two approaches are set against the historical record, neither neorealism with its notion of high and low politics, nor neofunctionalism with its notion of spillover, provides a parsimonious explanation as to why the defence issue has developed in the way that it has over the last 50 years.

"European Integration has slowed down since the mid-50's, and has stopped or reached a plateau since 1957–58." This is Karl Deutsch's first major conclusion in a recent summary report of findings from a study which he and a number of colleagues have been executing over the past few years. The study appears to be one of the most ambitious and interesting political research projects undertaken in recent years; its findings should be widely useful. In reaching this conclusion, Deutsch's interpretation is not merely that integration has stopped in the relatively narrow realm of formal government decisions; on the contrary, he contends that the process has come to a halt in the "European political environment" as a whole.Deutsch bases his case on an analysis of trade flows and other transactions, content analysis of the elite press, public opinion surveys and elite interviews. An examination of much the same data, in connection with a study of political socialization in Western Europe, has led me to a radically different conclusion. Far from finding a stagnation of integrative processes since 1958, I would argue that, in some respects, European integration may have moved into full gear only since 1958. In this article I will first present some new evidence concerning attitudes among the younger generation in The Netherlands, France, West Germany and Great Britain; I will then review Deutsch's findings in this context.

Since 1945, Germany's role in the project of European integration has been central to the economic and political development of Europe. The fourth volume of the German Yearbook of Contemporary History, edited by Mark Gilbert (Johns Hopkins University), Eva Oberloskamp and Thomas Raithel (both Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History, IfZ), assembles selected articles which have been published previously in the Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, and specially commissioned contributions by international authors. The chapters cover a wide range of topics. The theories and visions of European integration that were articulated in Europe and in the United States after the end of the Nazi regime and of World War II are the starting point for the volume. The period covered by the book stretches to the foundation and earliest stages of European Economic and Monetary Union, which received substantial momentum from German unification in 1989/90.

The 1992 legislation will directly affect a limited number of non-tariff barriers that still exist. These concern the movement of people and capital, controls on the transport of goods, technical standards and state procurement policies. Points to some of the direct effects of completing the internal market. (JLN)

Integrating theories about discourse (Discourse Studies; DS) with social science theories allows to grasp the dynamic and fluid co-construction of European identities, both top-down and bottom-up. Such interdisciplinary approaches systematically deconstruct the everyday workings of European institutions and support our understanding of the impact of traditional and social media in their production and reproduction of pro-European or Eurosceptic sentiments and attitudes. In this chapter, I first present some important characteristics of Discourse Studies and Critical Discourse Studies (CDS), specifically of the Discourse Historical Approach (DHA). I then, secondly, summarize the most relevant discursive research based on a range of theories and methodological approaches on European integration. Thirdly, I illustrate the interdisciplinary nexus of discourse-oriented European studies with a case study on the mediatization and politicization of the refugee crisis in Austria, from 2015-2016. I specifically focus on legitimation strategies and argumentation schemes which accompany the implementation of ever more restrictive policy decisions.

Political Science; European Union - De serie 'Werkdocumenten' omvat stukken die in het kader van de werkzaamheden van de WRR tot stand zijn gekomen en die op aanvraag door de raad beschikbaar worden gesteld. De verantwoordelijkheid voor de inhoud en de ingenomen standpunten berust bij de auteurs.