Introduction

Abstract

The essays in this collection range widely. All, of course, are concerned with implications of European enlargement in the post-communist accession states. However, they approach these from a large variety of viewpoints and disciplinary approaches, and with a variety of particular questions in mind. This is apt because so many domains are affected and intertwined in the process of enlargement. The story of enlargement is indeed in a profound sense a story of multiple interactions: between nations, states, economies, regions, social structures, political systems, and all of the above with all of the above. And just as borders are becoming blurred on the ground of Europe, so too, any appreciation of what is happening and likely to happen will tend to overrun the boundaries of established disciplines. The chapters speak for themselves. Rather than attempt the invidious and somewhat pointless task of summarising in brief scope what each of them has to say, it seems more useful, by way of introduction, to suggest a few underlying and interwoven themes or questions to which all the chapters, in their own different ways, respond. I would suggest four. In practice answers to them will overlap, but analytically at least they can be distinguished. First, what are the goals and underlying values of enlargement? Second, what are the major challenges it has faced and continues to face? Third, what is the character of the process, in particular what characterises the means employed to achieve it? Fourth, what are the likely prospects? In relation to any and all of these questions, of course, neither the chapters nor this introduction makes any pretence to definitiveness, a pretence that, even if we had been tempted to it, is absurd in relation to this subject. No one knows what Europe will be in even ten years, still less over a longer term. All we can offer at this stage is our best-informed guesswork. © 2006 Springer.