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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. The chapter is concerned with the post-1989 period which marks the beginning of a new era in the history of Europe producing new ideas of Europe and a major shift in modernity towards the inclusion of the post-national dimension. In this shift, cosmopolitan tendencies can be found alongside contrary ones, which include many different shades of nationalism, racism and xenophobia, and neoliberalism. The tremendous transformations took place in the context of a new era of neoliberal capitalism that came with globalization. While many countries in Central and Eastern Europe rediscovered national autonomy, they did so at a time when the nation-state began to under enter into a period of decline. The chapters discuss the formation of a "post-western Europe" in the post-1989 period which also saw the enlargement of the EU to include most of the former Central and Eastern European countries. Europeanization—in the sense of the transnationalization of the European nation-state and the project of European integration—has brought about a major transformation of political community, producing for instance a European public sphere. The three key dynamics that would shape the future of Europe are: pluralization, integration and globalization. The chapter also includes discussion of the notion of European identity and the prospects of cosmopolitanism. It is argued that the question of what is Europe today is not easily answered by reference to the political project of European integration. This project itself is currently at a turning point in its some 50-year history. Many of its older objectives have now been achieved, and it is unlikely the trans-nationalization of the European nation-state will continue its present course. The current situation is one of uncertainity. The reality of Europe is not simply a post-national polity, but a more complex field of practices, memories, narratives, forms of symbolic representation and imaginaries; it is a field of exchange and of dialogue, as it is too of contestation. The result is that Europe is open-up for new definitions. Cosmopolitan trends are part of this multiplicity as is nationalism, but one should not draw the conclusion that the project of European integration leads inexorably to cosmopolitanism. As argued, it may indeed be the case that the EU has fostered anti-cosmopolitanism more than cosmopolitanism. A critical cosmopolitan approach does not assert that Europe is cosmopolitan, but offers a critical angle on how Europe may or may not be cosmopolitanism.

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-95435-6_13

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