Alarums and Excursions: Improvising Politics on the European Stage

Crisis after crisis has beset the European Union: the financial chaos of the euro and Greek sovereign debt; the conflicts with Russia over Crimea and Ukraine; unprecedented levels of refugees and migrants from across the Mediterranean; not to mention the turmoil created by Brexit and the threat of a trade war with Trump's America. A Europe, originally designed to regulate and enforce rules about fishing, wheat quotas, or product standards has found itself flung onto the global stage to grapple with problems of identity, sovereignty and solidarity without a script or prompt. From Paris to Berlin and London to Athens, European leaders have had to improvise on issues threatening to engulf their unique political entity. In a candid portrayal of a Europe improvising its way through a politics of events and not rules, Luuk van Middelaar gives us the insider's view of the EU's political metamorphosis.

Improvising : the euro crisis -- Negotiating : the Ukraine crisis -- Setting boundaries : the refugee crisis -- Uprising : the Atlantic crisis -- Entr'acte : acting in time -- Two foundations -- Directors and actors -- The opposition takes the stage -- Epilogue.