Introduction

Abstract

Since the end of the Cold War, Europe has been the stage of a large-scale project of international socialization. When Soviet communism collapsed, European international organizations proclaimed liberal democracy as the standard of legitimacy for the entire New Europe. They assumed the task of inducting the ex-communist Central and East European countries (CEECs) to this standard and devised a plethora of programmes and institutional arrangements to assist and advance their liberal-democratic transformation and consolidation, thereby to expand the Western international community. The purpose of this book is to analyze this process of international socialization and to explain its results. How and when have Western organizations had an impact on the transformation of Europe?