Europe at Bay

According to the publisher Lynne Rienner, Europe at Bay is “a salvo in the debate about the prospects of the European Union and its role in the international arena. Challenging prevailing interpretations of EU politics, Cafruny and Ryner argue that current problems are not a result of integration per se, nor of the ‘growing pains’ that are inevitable as governance gradually shifts from the nation-state to supranational institutions, but instead arise from more fundamental sources.

“The authors eschew an idealized narrative as they explore the limits of the EU’s economic and political power in relation to the United States, and of its neoliberal and social and economic policies at home. They also consider the long-term prospects for the transatlantic relationship. Their work is a provocative contribution to a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of Europe’s contemporary predicament.”

 

Reviews

“A brilliant, polemical work of intellectual synthesis. . . . Cafruny and Ryner make a powerful case that Europe’s continuing subordination to the US . . . is undermining both the political foundations of the European project and the future of European welfare states. Anyone who prefers a more optimistic story must overcome the compelling arguments thay have assembled.” Fred Block, University of California, Davis

“In this path-breaking study, Cafruny and Ryner offer a sober assessment of Europe’s prospects. Theirs is an argument with which everyone concerned with the future of Europe will have to engage.”
Andrew Gamble, University of Cambridge

“Europe at Bay is a well focused, incisive, and carefully argued assessment of the current state of EU integration in the Atlantic context.”
Kees van der Pijl, University of Sussex