Across Europe, jubilant celebrations clash with glum moods in individual states. Low voter turnout and sparse understanding of institutions belie efforts toward transparency and engagement. The face of Europe is changing, and the emergent entity faces a new set of challenges. The European Union welcomed 10 new member states in May 2004, and in mid-June all 25 EU members agreed on a draft constitutional treaty for Europe. Not to be overlooked as a driving force, NATO underwent enlargement and also held the first NATO-Russia Council in 2002. The definition of Europe is rapidly expanding to include countries previously relegated to hinterlands and hidden behind Iron Curtains. At the risk of over-exuberance, we can declare that Europe is in the middle of a major historical moment.

An article in the second volume of the Harvard International Review, published in 1979, combated the notion of “Europe in Disarray” at a time of growing concern about the seeming decline of Western democracies. Europe’s detractors bemoaned its lack of ability to exercise willpower, make decisions, deal with economic downturn, and defend itself. Today, whatever the issues European states are currently facing, it is difficult to conceptualize the utter paralysis of Europe that was so earnestly discussed at that time. In the 25 years since, even the conception of what constitutes “Europe” has changed quite dramatically.

The trajectory of a united Europe can be traced back to the various empires that have spread across that continent over the past centuries and millennia, but recent history has markedly changed the European bond. Since the mid-20th century, the countries of Europe have joined together in various associations to assure stability and security. NATO was founded under the Washington Treaty in 1949 to continue the alliance of the Allied powers of World War II. The first small step toward the current European order was the Council of Europe formed in the wake of the war, which in turn was closely followed by the idea of a European Community championed by visionary Jean Monnet and the resulting creation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1951. European integration went even further when the ECSC countries signed the Treaty of Rome in 1957 and merged into a single Commission, Council of Ministers, and European Parliament one decade later. In subsequent years, the Community enlarged and internal trade grew. The 1992 Treaty of the European Union signed at Maastricht introduced new layers of intergovernmental cooperation and formally created the Union as it is known today. Throughout the 1990s, barriers to trade and travel within Europe further decreased, and the decision to pursue economic and monetary union came to fruition with the introduction of a circulating Euro currency in 2002. In this issue’s symposium, we seek to understand the characteristics of the current Europe to which these earlier associations have evolved.

But in this atmosphere of progress, it is equally if not more important to keep sight of the obstacles that remain on the horizon. As Europe seeks to widen through expanded memberships and relationships, the countries of Europe will have to work hard to achieve mutually acceptable positions. And as the European Union and other alliances deepen through measures for integration and cooperation, these bodies must simultaneously assure some preservation of state sovereignty, clarify the competences of the newly empowered associations, and create mechanisms for transparency and accountability within the organizations. Increased cooperation also demands that Europe present a more united front; thus, the European states must work together to address their common internal problems and take care when dealing with increasingly tricky external relations. Questions of social policy, religious tolerance, and state sovereignty do not remain static as the ranks of Europe open to far-flung neighbors. Political scientists increasingly speak of a “new Europe” as they consider the progress of the region. Instead of creating divisions by juxtaposing the nascent European states with the more established members of regional alliances, we should think of this new Europe as the next step in the development of the entire expanded region.

Our symposium on Europe opens with reflections from Lord George Robertson, in which the former NATO Secretary General describes how the alliance has adapted itself to address new challenges and new needs. We consider an external facet of Europe, as the Center for Defense Information’s Nikolai Zlobin makes sense of Russia’s relationship with and behavior toward Europe. Addressing an internal issue of concern to many European states, Paul Statham of the University of Leeds describes the revival of Islam as an exceptional case of resilience in the face of political liberalism. Our focus narrows to the European Union itself, as Andreas Føllesdal of the University of Oslo assesses the EU draft Constitutional Treaty as a mechanism for balancing the power of European states and institutions and for strengthening European federalism. James Rosapepe, the former US Ambassador to Romania, considers another major institutional shift, the widening of the region to include the states of new Europe. Former US Representative to the European Union Richard Morningstar and Coit Blacker of Stanford University conclude our symposium with broader considerations of multilateralism and unilateralism in their explanation of European behavior compared to the US model.

Europe as an entity is becoming more important and influential as its constitutent states cede increasing amounts of sovereignty to supranational organizations. But the transition is not always smooth, and the transformation requires a certain leap of faith on the part of all involved. To avoid getting mired in a bureaucratic bind, the people of Europe will have to remember the joy of union and rediscover the inspiration that brought the new Europe into being.