With contributions from leading scholars including Richard G. Whitman, Meltem Mÿftÿler-Baç, Gÿlnur Aybet, Leila Simona Talani and Gareth Dale, this theoretically informed and empirically grounded volume provides scholars, practitioners, experts and students with a comprehensive account of the state of the European Union today.

Yannis A. Stivachtis is Director of the International Studies Program, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA.

I: The European Union as an International Actor; 1: The European Union and 2 nd Pillar Integration: The Common Foreign and Security Policy; 2: The European Security and Defence Policy: Capabilities and Institutions; 3: The EU as an International Actor: 'Civilian', 'Normative' or 'Military' Power?; 4: Presidency as Leadership? Assessing the EU Presidency through the 2005 UK EU Presidency; 5: European Union International Strategy Against Proliferation Threats; II: Enlargement; 6: A Union of Disenchantment: The New Politics of post-Enlargement Europe; 7: Turkey's Accession to the European Union: Dilemmas, Opportunities, and Constraints; 8: Judicialization: The Key to European Unification and EU Expansion; III: Socialization, Democracy and Legitimacy; 9: Democratizing and Socializing Candidate States: The Case of the EU Conditionality; 10: Political Representation in the Central and Eastern European Democracies; 11: Democratization and the Diffusion of Human Rights Norms in Central and Eastern Europe: The Case of Domestic Violence Policies; 12: Modelling Democratic Transition in Southern and Central Europe: Did East Germany Experience 'Transición' or 'Ruptura'?; IV: Convergence and Cohesion; 13: Public Support for the EU and the Regional Level Effect; 14: Regional Development in the European Union: Implications for Austria's Viticulture; 15: Towards a Post-Communist Welfare State?; V: Economic and Monetary Issues; 16: The Future of EMU: Towards the Disruption of the European Integration Process?; 17: The Race to the Bottom: Tax Reform and Economic Development in the European Union; 18: Common Misconceptions of Germany and the EMU