Since its creation in 1974, the European Council has evolved from an informal meeting of presidents and prime ministers, resembling a cross between a society gathering and a diplomatic conclave, to become a full EU institution in its own right and the Union's supreme political authority, driving its strategy and resolving its crises. Nothing of any significance in the Union can now be set in motion without its consent, nor accomplished without its support. This book tells the story of how this came about. Individual chapters describe landmark meetings of the European Council, providing a detailed account of what went on at each summit, evoking the atmosphere and tensions and drawing out the achievements and longer-term significance. As well as high-level politics and the great issues of the European project such as enlargement to the East, treaty reform and the creation of the single currency, the story also involves the clash of strong personalities, sub-plots and moments of high drama. The authors are serving or former senior EU civil servants who have all been closely involved in preparing and attending European Councils. Very few officials have such intimate access. They therefore write as first-hand witnesses of events as they happened, offering new perspectives and insights. 'National Leaders and the Making of Europe is an important book. Written by insiders who also have the bigger picture in mind, it brings selected political moments in Europe's tumultuous history back to life.' Herman Van Rompuy

David Herrmann's work is the most complete study to date of how land-based military power influenced international affairs during the series of diplomatic crises that led up to the First World War. Instead of emphasizing the naval arms race, which has been extensively studied before, Herrmann draws on documentary research in military and state archives in Germany, France, Austria, England, and Italy to show the previously unexplored effects of changes in the strength of the European armies during this period. Herrmann's work provides not only a contribution to debates about the causes of the war but also an account of how the European armies adopted the new weaponry of the twentieth century in the decade before 1914, including quick-firing artillery, machine guns, motor transport, and aircraft. In a narrative account that runs from the beginning of a series of international crises in 1904 until the outbreak of the war, Herrmann points to changes in the balance of military power to explain why the war began in 1914, instead of at some other time. Russia was incapable of waging a European war in the aftermath of its defeat at the hands of Japan in 1904-5, but in 1912, when Russia appeared to be regaining its capacity to fight, an unprecedented land-armaments race began. Consequently, when the July crisis of 1914 developed, the atmosphere of military competition made war a far more likely outcome than it would have been a decade earlier.

The startling economic and political answers behind Europe's historical dominance Between 1492 and 1914, Europeans conquered 84 percent of the globe. But why did Europe establish global dominance, when for centuries the Chinese, Japanese, Ottomans, and South Asians were far more advanced? In Why Did Europe Conquer the World?, Philip Hoffman demonstrates that conventional explanations—such as geography, epidemic disease, and the Industrial Revolution—fail to provide answers. Arguing instead for the pivotal role of economic and political history, Hoffman shows that if certain variables had been different, Europe would have been eclipsed, and another power could have become master of the world. Hoffman sheds light on the two millennia of economic, political, and historical changes that set European states on a distinctive path of development, military rivalry, and war. This resulted in astonishingly rapid growth in Europe's military sector, and produced an insurmountable lead in gunpowder technology. The consequences determined which states established colonial empires or ran the slave trade, and even which economies were the first to industrialize. Debunking traditional arguments, Why Did Europe Conquer the World? reveals the startling reasons behind Europe's historic global supremacy.

Reveals how the nexus of international economics and national politics pushed the monetary union to the brink of extinction, how that disaster was avoided, and why the long-term viability of a common currency challenges politics.

Controversy surrounds the construction of postwar European institutions. Did West European states simply respond to American pressure and Cold-War politics? How important was federalist idealism, as opposed to economic and power political factors to decision-makers? These studies, by an international team of historians, examine the motivations of national political leaders and their officials. Topics covered include British and French officials, European integration and military policies; German, Italian, Belgian and Dutch attitudes; Britain and the first attempt to join the EEC; and the covert relationship between the USA and the European federalists.

Edmund Dell examines the Attlee government's rejection of the Schuman Plan for the establishment of a common market for coal and steel and reassesses Bevan's conduct as foreign secretary. The story is placed in the context of the "big questions" dominating British policy formation: security, the dollar shortage, the American attack on the sterling area, and pressure for European integration.

The challenges that have been facing the European Union in recent years have given rise to the question: who leads the EU? This book offers a systematic analysis of political leadership in the EU. This volume offers a theoretical and conceptual analysis of political leadership in the EU. It deals with questions such as what kind of leadership is there in the different domains (such as climate change or central banking). It also examines how various EU institutions (European Commission, European Parliament) exert or have exerted leadership. Furthermore, it examines the role of the presidents of some of these institutions, such as the European Commission the European Council, the European Central Bank, but also of selected national leaders. Although the book does not advance a single leadership concept, the findings of the individual case studies show that the EU is by no means leaderless. The chapters originally published as a special issue in the Journal of European Integration.