Zakić Katarina, Demirtaş Birgül (eds.) Europe in Changes: The Old Continent at the Crossroads

Novi Sad: NS Mala Knjiga+, 2021. — 484 p.The global political, economic and security environment changed dramatically in 2020. The CoVID-19 pandemic has put humankind in a difficult position. while fighting daily with this terrible disease, governments are doing their best, so their countries can survive the challenges ahead of them. one year after the pandemic started, it is obvious that the global political and economic situation is worse than it was before and that the divide between the East and the west is even wider. Escalation of problems at the political, economic, security and health level is decreasing the global stability. Protectionism, self-reliance, and even self-centredness are processes that are shaping today’s global environment. we are witnessing discussions about the winners and losers of the pandemic, although, at the start of 2021, more than 2 million people worldwide died because of the pandemic. Because of that, we need to ask ourselves – where are we going and what are we going to change?
In these circumstances, the Institute of International Politics and Economics and the Faculty of Security Studies, University of Belgrade, were persistent to keep their tradition and publish their yearly book with a thematic collection of papers. This is the fourth year in a row in which these two institutions are issuing a book. This year with a new current topic – Europe in Changes: The Old Continent at a New Crossroads. Katarina Zakić, from the Institute of International Politics and Economics, Serbia and Birgül Demirtaş, from the Turkish-German University, Turkey, edited the Collection of Papers. The review board consists of the distinguishing scientists from Brazil, Russia, Austria, Italy, China, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and North Macedonia. Scientific papers were written by the authors from Serbia, the United Kingdom, Slovakia, Russia, Turkey, the US, China, Slovenia, Romania, and the Czech Republic. While making plans for this book, we kept in mind the current changes in today’s Europe, but at the same time, we also wanted to emphasise old problems that still exist. we also wanted to give the opportunity to the authors from all over the world to share their ideas and views on the perspective and vision of old/new Europe.
According to the topics and research questions covered in this book, the papers were divided into four thematic units. The first one is named European Relations and European Security in the 21st Century: Trend and Transformation. The authors covered a variety of topics such as issues regarding national security versus EU security, national legal systems versus the EU laws, energy security, digital sovereignty, the refugee crisis and NATO role in European security.
The second part of the book is titled Global Europe: the Position of European Countries in World Politics. In this chapter, the authors shared their opinion on the European Union‘s present struggles and interest in international politics. The authors explained major issues and relations that are influencing the EU’s foreign politics with the Indo-Pacific, Russia, the US and China. On the other hand, some papers were dedicated to the internal struggles within individual countries such as Germany, Slovenia and Belarus.
In the third part of the book, called Two Faces of Europe: Unity or Division, the papers are highlighting the problem of division within the EU, whether those problems are related to ideology, religion, separatism, or the problems regarding the escalation of right-wing parties in Europe.
In the end, the fourth part is named New Trends on the Economic Horizon in Europe. This chapter is dedicated to the economic issues within the EU, connected to protectionism, funding of the world Trade organisation, economic cooperation with China during the pandemic and the EU cooperation with the Latin American countries.
In total, 23 papers written by 29 authors are indicating the main crossroads that Europe is facing. Some of them are old, and some are new. In that constant pursuit of the right road, it is difficult to say in advance whether it will be a good one or bad. It is, therefore, necessary to persistently analyse, learn and understand. we hope that this book will be a road to a better understanding of Europe for the readers.