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This work provides a comprehensive introduction to theories of European integration in the contemporary study of Europe, the European Union and European integration.

In the 1960s, the power plant at Elektrenai, Lithuania, fueled industrialization in the region, but it ceased operations in the 1970s & 1980s. Now as part of European Union development, the plant, under its director since the 1960s, Pranas Noreika, is being redeveloped. It promises to provide some jobs to Lithuanian workers in the short term & the influx of capitalism might also help rejuvenate the town's tourist industry, per the more optimistic residents of the town. However, Elektrenai residents do not appear to live very much differently than they did in the Soviet era & prosperity is a long way off. 8 Photos. M. Pflum

A review essay on books by (1) Richard Collins, Media and Identity in Contemporary Europe: Consequences of Global Governance (Bristol, UK: Intellect, 2002); (2) Paulette Kurzer, Markets and Moral Regulation: Cultural Change in the European Union (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge U Press, 2001); & (3) Chris Shore, Building Europe: The Cultural Politics of European Integration (London: Routledge, 2000). 7 References. Adapted from the source document.

Examines the political strategies that have led to the continuing integration of the European Union (EU) during the 1980s & 1990s. A prerequisite to these efforts is found in a series of institutional & procedural reforms -- eg, the majority voting procedure, the structure of the resource system, & the Court of Justice -- undertaken within EU institutions in the early 1980s. It is suggested that these reforms led to the passage of the Single European Act, in whose success the strategy of equivalence, the return of a majority voting procedure, & the principle of mutual interests played important roles. These successes, however, were only partly reflected in the Treaty of Maastricht, which has been plagued by a crisis of confidence in the concept of multilateralism & a resurgence of renationalization of policy making. Positive & negative assessments of the new process of complex integration in light of this climate are made. Finally, it is asserted that future integration will take the form of one of two scenarios: either a consolidation of Maastricht, or its quick & sharp revision. D. M. Smith

Theories of European Integration by Ben Rosamond is reviewed.

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.