Jacek Wieclawski (LSCL): The Eastern Enlargement of the European Union. From Time, an article on the incredible shrinking Europe. A review of Europe's Promise: Why the European Way Is the Best Hope in an Insecure Age by Steven Hill (and more). Europe's Parliament takes a stand: Long a backwater, the institution has begun to flex its muscles on issues central to the transatlantic relationship. SWIFT and American Espionage: Europe’s newly empowered Parliament’s first muscle flex involves privacy and tracking terrorist finances. Juggling Europe's stars: Herman Van Rompuy, the new president of the European Council, will be worth watching. From FT, why Europe needs its own IMF: Historical flaws in the continent’s single currency are threats to stability and need to be fixed; the twin imperatives of sound money and European integration are clashing — ironically, Germany must become less German if the eurozone is to become more so; and the euro is the second most important reserve and investment currency, largely because financial markets trust the ECB — to maintain this, the crisis must be surmounted rapidly. Greece limps, Germany simmers: A “United States of Europe” was never going to be easy. Who is a European? The deeper response is still evolving. More on The New Old World by Perry Anderson. A review of Barbarism and Civilization: A History of Europe in Our Time by Bernard Wasserstein. John Lichfield reviews In Europe: Travels Through the Twentieth Century by Geert Mak. A review of Geographies of Empire: European Empires and Colonies c. 1880-1960 by R. A. Butlin. A review of War in European History by Michael Howard. A review of A History of Murder: Personal Violence in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Present by Pieter Spierenburg.
