Old Europe, new Europe and the US. Renegotiating transatlantic security in the post 9/11 era

Abstract:

This book explores the recent split between ‘Atlanticist’ and ‘Europeanist’ states and seeks to determine whether it constitutes a short term aberration or a sign of the long-term transformation of the security system in the Euro-Atlantic space.

The book is divided into two parts. The first part explores the ‘old’ states of Europe as determined by length of service as members of the transatlantic community – France, Germany, Britain, Russia, Italy and the Benelux countries. The second deals with ‘new’ Europe and includes those new Member States which have recently joined NATO and the EU or who seek to join the EU in the near future - Bulgaria, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania. The chapters in each part are built around a set of core questions relating to security priorities, attitudes to closer collaboration with the US or with emerging European structures, the extent of contributions that each state might make, the role of existing security structures such as NATO and the emerging European defence and security structure and finally, what should be the role of the US in transatlantic security. Attitudes towards the 2003 Iraq War are also teased out by a set of appropriate secondary questions in each chapter seeking to identify any differences in approach to the US-European relations post-Iraq between old Europe and new Europe.

The work will interest scholars, students and policy makers engaged in transatlantic studies, International relations and European enlargement.

Tom Lansford is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Southern Mississippi-Gulf Coast.

Blagovest Tashev is Director of the Security Studies Programme at the George C. Marshall Association, Bulgaria.