As the new millennium approaches, we realise that we live in a truly 'global' world of dense and ever-increasing inter- and transnational economic, political and cultural interdependence. Yet globalization is a contradictory process. Processes of global integration and interdependence are unfolding together with processes of fragmentation and regionalization. Disintegration and fragmentation of political, economic and cultural structures that spur local and regional conflicts and dislocations are counter-balanced by moves towards unification, integration and co-operation. The empirical analysis of these processes and the emergent local, regional and global structures will become the main challenge to the social sciences in the years to come.This book offers a contribution to this task. Its main focus is the question as to how the state in Europe has been implicated in, and affected by, globalization. It places the interactions between globalization and the European state in a historical perspective, going back to the age of discovery and the formation of the modern state, yet it also addresses the complexities and uncertainties of the current age. Distinguished scholars from political science, international relations, sociology, philosophy and history -- all of whom have been specially commissioned to write a contribution for this book -- approach the unfolding dynamics of this 'age of transition' from a multidisciplinary perspective.
