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Challenges conventional writings on European intergration by situating the analysis of the EU in the context of changing patterns of political and econimic order. The authors conclude that the union is not evolving towards a federal superstate, but rather, is an arena of deep economic intergration governed by a prismatic polity characterised by innovation, experimentation, pragmatis, decentralisation and devolution. Although it may seem unsettled, this book reveals that in fact the experimental nature of the the EU enables it to respond to multiple agendas and Europe's diversity in a flexible manner -- ‡c Publisher description.

"East Asia is now experiencing significant economic growth and social change. Integration of East Asia seems an irresistible trend, as East Asian countries are closely interdependent with each other and share many common interests in economic development. This book analyzes the cooperation and challenges of East Asian countries in the process of integration. It includes 15 chapters in four sections. The first section discusses the impact of East Asia cooperation and economic integration. The second section emphasizes the election of political leadership in East Asia. The third section covers the topics of East Asian cultural identity, history and norms. The fourth section studies the relationship between East Asia and the World. The chapters are selected from two Trilateral symposia held in Seoul and Shanghai in 2013 and 2014, respectively. The Symposia offer comprehensive and diversified views of scholars from China, Korea and Japan."--Publisher's website.

In the late 1980s regional integration emerged as one of the most important developments in world politics. It is not a new phenomenon, however, and this 1999 book presents an analysis of integration across time, and across regions. Walter Mattli examines projects in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Europe, but also in Latin America, North America and Asia since the 1950s. Using the tools of political economy, he considers why some integration schemes have succeeded while many others have failed; what forces drive the process of integration; and under what circumstances outside countries seek to join. Unlike traditional political science approaches, the book stresses the importance of market forces in determining the outcome of integration; but unlike purely economic analyses, it also highlights the impact of institutional factors. The book will provide students of political science, economics, and European studies with a framework for the study of international cooperation

The European nation state is now placed between the interconnected processes of globalization and European integration. This new book examines these evolving relationships, showing how the conventional territorial basis of the state is being reappraised. Bringing together leading thinkers on the nation state, this volume tackles key questions about how we should conceptualize and discuss the political significance of territory in today's world. For example, does the era of Europeanization and globalization herald the end of citizens' traditional attachment to their nati.

This report reviews the status of Maghreb countries' economic integration with the world, with the Arab world, and within the Maghreb itself. It focuses on trade in goods and services, labor and capital flows, financial integration and cross-border infrastructure integration. It discusses the potential benefits of and key constraints to greater integration. The focus on trade liberalization with the European Union (EU) provides an opportunity for individual Maghreb countries to lock in policies that would eventually help them harmonize policies within their own region. The same argument can be made regarding accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). The Maghreb countries would reap significant additional benefits if, in parallel to reforms undertaken to improve trade liberalization with Europe, they improved conditions for streamlined trade among themselves. There is significant potential for trade in services in the financial sector, transportation and logistics, and communications and information, among other sectors. According to some studies, comprehensive services reforms that involve increased competition and regulatory streamlining would yield benefits that are at least twice the magnitude of those achieved through tariff removal alone.

The three essays of this dissertation contribute to the measurement of European economic integration and investigate the welfare effects of the European countries. The first study presents a newly developed index – the EU Index – which measures the extent of economic integration into the European Union for the EU-15 member states over the period 1999–2010. The principal component analysis assigns accurate weights to the 25 indicators used in the index. Large heterogeneities are found between the member states with respect to overall integration and to various sub-indices. By using cluster analysis, it is also shown that the prevailing economic heterogeneities have produced a 'core group' of countries and a 'multi-speed Europe', which challenges the present and future steps of European integration. The second study uses the EU Index for an empirical assessment and analyzes whether European citizens have become more or less satisfied with life due to increased economic integration. With more than 180,000 observations, ordered logit estimations as well as a two-stage OLS procedure reveal significant positive impacts on reported well-being. Especially increased economic activity in the EU single market and increased economic homogeneity among the member states show the largest marginal effects. The 'love-of-variety' approach and the existence of a high inequality aversion among the European citizens are some possible explanations, which imply that the EU should take further action in that regard. The effect of the size of a country on economic growth is investigated in the third study. By analyzing panel data of the EU-27 countries over the period 1993–2012, the first regressions suggest that the size effect seems negligible and that mostly the standard neoclassical growth variables are important in determining economic growth. However, size does matter when the old and new member states are explored separately, though, the effect of country size decreases as market integration increases. Particularly in the light of the large and increasing number of small member states, further completion of the EU single market should stay at the forefront of the future European integration process.