Europe since 1989: Nationalism, Cosmopolitanism and Globalization

Abstract

The revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe and the subsequent transformation of those countries occurred at much the same time as the project of European integration entered into a new phase with the Maastricht Treaty in 1992. On the one side, the countries of the Warsaw Pact underwent a transition to capitalism and to democracy, as well as in many cases a transition to national autonomy, while on the other side in Western Europe the EU was emharking on a major project of enhanced integration (see Offe 1997). Alongside these processes, other changes took place all of which had implications for the making of political community: German unification in 1991, which led to a shift in the balance of power in Europe towards Germany; the emergence of a global multi-polar world; changes resulting in major technological developments in information technology; the steady rise of the new centres of economic and political power, most notably China and India and later Brazil; the growing significance of global civil society; the end of apartheid in South Africa by 1994.