nwhyte's review against another edition
4.0
http://nhw.livejournal.com/922824.html[return][return]Leonard's short book is a positive polemic - an assertion that the EU model is not only stable and viable, but that it will prove infectious and beneficial to the rest of the world. He tackles the economics as well, arguing that the demographic crisis is much less grave than some fear, and that the euro will prove a magnet. He writes of the "Eurosphere", the European, Middles Eastern and African states which he believes will naturally look to the EU as their geopolitical centre of gravity, especially as US influence recedes. It's an attractive vision, the kind of thing I always chide Commission officials for failing to produce. One can quibble with the details (eg on Macedonia, where in one brief paragraph he doesn't quite get the sequence of events straight) but the overall thrust of the argument is attractive. Since writing the book, Leonard has been made the head of a new think-tank promoting precisely these ideas.
jasonlknoll's review against another edition
4.0
Interesting to read now, fifteen years after publication. A lot has happened since then- notably the global financial crisis and the Lisbon Treaty- but I think his overall premise still stands.
More...