European Integration and International Relations Theory

Abstract

One of the most significant developments in the twenty-century world politics has been the foundation of European Community (EC), and its evolution into the European Union (EU). Now, the EU is a supranational entity that is composed of twenty-five member states while it will be twenty-seven with the membership of Bulgaria and Romania in January 2007. The EU poses great challenges for both the policy and academic world. On one hand, the EU has become a powerful international actor in the current international politics. On the other hand, the academic world needs to explain the genesis and development of European integration. Is the European Union a unique case in world politics? What are the causes of integration? Why and how did Europeans achieve to establish such an institution that facilitates international cooperation? To what extent do European nation states have power vis-a-vis the EU, in other words, what is the relative power of the EU vis-a-vis the member states? These are some of the major questions concerning the EU. Theories of European integration such as intergovernmentalism and supranationalism deal with these questions. Moreover, theories of International Relations (IR) are also concerned with these issues.