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This article focuses on the music release "Blue Danube Waltz," by Johann Strauss. It evoked the grace of the Danube River with delicate crescendos of strings and brass. Received as a sensation when performed in the concert halls of Europe, the piece contributed to a practically mystical reverence for that greatest of European rivers, which has given life to civilizations and dispensed agricultural nourishment and romance along its route. The Danube, in Strauss's day, ran like a sinuous muscle across 1,700 miles of Central Europe. Today, however, the Danube's waters are among the most harnessed of any river on the planet, straddled by more than thirty dams as the river traverses nine frontiers from its headwaters in Germany's Black Forest to its mouth in the Black Sea.

On paper, the European Monetary System still exists, even if it is barely a shadow of its former self. Until August 2, 1993 the participants in the Exchange Rate Mechanism were so tied together that the variations in their currencies were limited to a maximum of 4.5 percent. Now, except for the mark and the Dutch guilder, they can fluctuate by as much as 30 percent. Whatever face-saving words officials may use, currencies are floating. Euroenthusiasts will object that the arrangement is, in principle, provisional and that this is not the first setback on the road toward Europe's integration.

The article presents information on various social and political developments around the world. British multinationals had apparently opted to join Europe in some form of monetary union, hoping that London would be its financial center. With the power of the labor unions broken, low-wage Britain was to be a bridgehead for foreign, mainly Japanese, investors. For the moment what mattered was to beat inflation and prop up the pound, damning the consequences for output and employment. Moreover, it is reported that, for all their recent celebrations of Clinton's victory as a favorable precedent, Labor politicians are well aware that, after their 1992 disaster, what their party needs is not a coat of paint but an overhaul. The first problem concerns the party's relation with the labor unions.

The article focuses on crisis of legitimacy faced by Europe. Topics discussed include the issues of disintegration also faced by the continent, proposed programs for all European countries, a European New Deal (END) proposed by the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25) and reasons for saving the European Union.

The article looks at refugees from the war in Syria. The author reports on Syrian refugees in Egypt and describes their efforts to travel to Europe, typically on boats arranged by smugglers. Topics include Egypt's policies toward Syrian refugees before and after Egypt's 2013 coup, deaths of refugees at sea, and the number of official resettlement slots for Syrian refugees offered by European countries.

The article presents information on racist nationalism. Europe is cemented by a common language and culture, stands in pleasing contrast to what is going on in the Balkans, where scenes in Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia evoke some of the nastiest chapters of racist nationalism in the twentieth century. The Slovenes themselves have made haste, amid celebrations of newfound nationhood, to declare an amnesty for collaborators with the Axis powers. A few hundred miles north the Slovakians are dusting off their own proud heritage. It's enough to make one yearn for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which did impose upon large portions of Middle Europe some kind of transnational respect for minorities, as did the Communists in the postwar period now concluded.

The article looks at the idea and practice of internationalism, tracing it through the second half of the 20th century and up to 2012, with a focus on Europe. The author cites Altiero Spinelli, an Italian activist and political prisoner in World War II, who with fellow prisoners drafted a proposal for a European federation, the Ventotene Manifesto. He describes the post-war integration of Europe and says the adoption of neoliberal economic policies beginning in the 1970s and the expansion of the European Union (EU) in the 1990s were turning points. Topics include the balance between supranational institutions such as the European Parliament and national governments, the extent of economic redistribution within the EU, and the role of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

The article discusses mortgage crises in euro-zone countries such as Spain and Ireland where collapsed housing markets have caused foreclosures to rise sharply. Spain and Ireland are among nations that do not permit homeowners to engage in "strategic defaults" that rid them of debt. It is noted that bailouts in the euro zone have largely benefited banks rather than homeowners.

Discusses political and social conditions in Europe as of April 4, 2005. Reflections of the author on time spent as a student in France; Impact of economic growth on Europe's role in international relations; Discussion of relations between the U.S. and Europe; Impact of the European Union on political stability in Europe; Comparison between domestic and foreign policies in Europe and the United States; Impact of European political influence on the superpower status of the U.S.

The article focuses on the European Union (EU) as a balancing power against the United States. In the capital of the EU, an unprecedented challenge to longstanding practices of American industry is unfolding. It is signaling its determination to unhinge U.S. industry from what remains of regulations limiting the poisons in our water, our bodies and our air. The EU has been steadily transforming itself from a facilitator of trade to a sophisticated geopolitical power. Over the past decade, EU member states have ceded governing and enforcement authority to Brussels in areas ranging from environmental regulation to food safety, accounting standards, telecommunications policy and oversight of corporate mergers. As a result, U.S. companies that do business in Europe--which remains America's largest export market--are quickly learning that "old Europe" is now wielding new world power. Just this year, U.S. manufacturers of such goods as chemicals, cars and cosmetics have been confronted with E.U. regulations that force a choice: Either conform to the EU's standards of pre-emptive screening for toxicity or risk sacrificing the European market.

The article focuses on Europe's resentment against immigrants. Migrants in Greece are prey to prejudiced officials and ruthless employers. But still Greece has its advantages. In Great Britain the asylum seekers have been demonized. As most of the world sinks deeper into poverty and wars flare up more and more people are driven to uproot themselves. Though Europeans complain of being flooded, three-quarters of all refugees remain in their own regions. For the great majority there is no legal avenue to safety. Without new immigrants--many working illegally or semilegally for sub-minimum wages--the continent's economy would grind to a halt.

The condemnation of Austria's new government by its fourteen European partners did force the right-wing coalition to sign a code of good conduct. And it did demonstrate that fifty-five years after its collapse Nazism is still widely execrated. Yet all this will not lead very far. The diplomatic boycott does not hurt and will not last. The European governments will soon be needing Austria's approval of those decisions taken by the Council of Europe that require unanimity. The inclusion of the Freedom Party in the ruling coalition will have a double effect. The fact that a party whose leader told former Waffen SS members that they deserved "honor and respect" could be admitted into government is a terrible precedent.

Fascism as a system of power and terror is dead. The black night is over. It is strange, then, that alter the first lift to the spirit which the news of victory in Europe brings, the mind sinks back into the foreboding that has become its habit for more than a decade. Partly it is the realization that the other war in the Pacific must now be brought to its peak of effort. But perhaps it is also that people are unprepared for victory. In the U.S. with the cities unbombed, the shores untouched, the lights cannot appear so bright as to the citizens of London, of Moscow, of Paris.

When the thinkers of the European New Right point to their main theoretical influences, the politician Antonio Gramsci's name stands out as an anomaly among such figures as conservative Weimar Republic theorists Carl Schmitt and Ernst Junger or the animal behaviorist Konrad Lorenz. Only twenty years later, the assumptions of the New Right are an established part of political discourse throughout Western Europe, championed by political parties that vie for representation at every level of government. The principle that all peoples are biologically unique, and therefore not equal, also legitimizes disparity between First and Third World peoples.

The article focuses on the European Parliament. From Milan to Manchester and from Madrid to Munich, voters do not much care which of the 567 deputies represents them in Strasbourg, so when they do bother to go to the polls, they can express their preference without worrying about wasting their vote. The European elections, held every five years, thus serve as a glorified opinion poll, providing a good snapshot of the political mood of the moment, though not necessarily a guide to future national elections.

Only a handful of President Bill Clinton's nominations requiring Senate confirmation have been women or men of the left. Two of those with histories in the progressive movements of the 1960s and 1970s are Sam Brown and Derek Shearer, appointed ambassadors, respectively, to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe and to Finland. Both appointments were fervently opposed by the usual right-wing watchdogs. And after long delays, only Shearer has been approved; Brown is stuck in Senate filibuster limbo. The Brown debate became another exercise in Vietnam revisionism, with Republicans charging that the nominee-a leader of the antiwar mobilization and the Eugene McCarthy presidential campaigns.

Focuses on political and military conditions in Europe in 1983. Strategy adopted by Europe towards North Atlantic Treaty Organization's modernized weapons; Relations between Europe and the U.S. in 1983; Policies adopted by Europe towards developing countries; Difficulties faced by European nations in participating in the Assembly for Peace convention to be held in Prague, Czech Republic as of June 1983.

Focuses on relations between Europe and America as of January 24, 1981. Information on policies adopted by various European countries regarding nuclear weapons; Statement made by Michael Foot, leader of Great Britain's Labor Party to oppose the introduction of cruise missiles; Criticism of the winter 1981 issue of the journal "Daedalus" which talked about U.S. defense policies in the 1980s.

Analyzes possible outcomes from the decision of the U.S. to deploy nuclear weapons in Europe. Assertion of the author that deployment of nuclear weapons in Europe would contribute to an increase in arms race and probability of a nuclear war; Details of discussions on the strategic arms limitation treaty II (SALT II) held by the author with scholars in the Soviet Union on the issue; Discussion of anxiety and worry expressed by Western European countries on the issue of theater nuclear weapons.

Focuses on political problems faced by the Federal Republic of Germany. Overview of the politics in the country; Relations of Germany with Western Europe; Economic crisis prevailing in the country.

Describes the culture and economic status of Europe. Division of Europe into two areas; Organization of political census in relation to consumption; Management of capitalism; Reflection of tradition in novels, films and journalism.

Explains the evolution of socialism in the America. Possible reasons cited for socialism being a taboo for America and prospering in Europe; Difference between socialism and individualism; Tension between basic American values and the capitalist economic system.

This article presents information regarding the political situation in Eastern Europe. With Boris Yeltsin triumphantly defying the establishment in Moscow, Lech Walesa guiding the Polish opposition into Parliament and Imre Pozsgay, a member of the Hungarian Politburo, arguing in Budapest that his party should drop its "dogmatic wing" and strike an alliance with the country's social democrats, it can be said that the era of Communist Party rule by divine right is over in Eastern Europe. The three countries setting the pace on this journey toward democracy are not following exactly the same road or advancing at quite the same speed.

The article focuses on the free-for-all concept of European privately owned television. When its economic borders disappear in 1992, Europe will become one of the largest television marketplaces in the world. Robert Maxwell, Rupert Murdoch, Leo Kirch, and Silvio Berlusconi have been jostling for position around Europe's soon-to-be-deregulated television industry. In Europe, how ever, television has traditionally been run by state-owned national monopolies. Though quality varies widely from country to country, these networks have shared at least the attribute of being a public service. INSET: The American connection..

The article discusses the battle over French television. France is both the laggard and the leader in this movement to privatize. Three years ago its television was still entirely public. France may not have enough advertising to support so much private television. The expensive stars not having carried with them a captive audience, La Cinq, a television channel, is in real financial trouble. A television, reflects a social system, and Europe will not be able to escape its future unless it forges a radically different society.

The article comments on the banking and debt crises in Europe. In the author's view the crises stem from excessive borrowing followed by a recession, rather than profligate government spending. He further argues that Europe has been hindered in its ability to address the crises by a lack of government institutions capable of responding quickly and forcefully to them. In his opinion austerity measures adopted by some nations including Greece are counterproductive and serve to diminish economic growth.

In this article the author discusses aspects of the 2010 financial debt crisis in Europe. The central focus of the article is an examination of tax cuts that have been made in a variety of European nations. These personal and corporate tax reductions are at the root of the crisis and have caused a great deal of inequality in the countries where they have been enacted. Among other issues the article examines the impact of tax cuts in Germany, the support for tax reductions by the center-left political parties, and the benefits accruing to the wealthy.

At a time when neo-Fascist ministers are returning to government in Europe, when creeping revisionism is gaining ground, when items from Soviet archives are cleverly selected to blur the past and convince people that Communist and Nazi, resister and collaborator, victim and executioner were all the same, it is important both to say "No, it wasn't so," and to ponder the purpose of such manipulations. The reactions to D-day in Occupied Europe were, naturally enough, contrasting. At one extreme, among the resisters and the victims, the Allied invasion buoyed hopes and strengthened the conviction that, whatever cruel damage the enemy might still inflict, it was the beginning of the end.

The article examines the causes of Russia's weakness and of Europe's abject abdication, and to seek behind these failures the political and social forces that may be capable of challenging U.S. President George Bush's "new world order," which is as old as capitalism and as modern as a laser-guided missile. While the warmongers gloat, the struggle must go on, with its hours of hope and moments of despair. This time around the U.S. establishment had an easier task, since it confronted not a revolutionary people in arms but an allegedly mighty regular army, driven to disaster by a madman.

The article discusses the drug policy of some European countries including Great Britain, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. It is said that behind whatever policies are being adopted and implemented by Western Europe, there is less moral fundamentalism about drug taking and less demonization of drug takers than in the U.S. Driven by an awareness that many users of illicit drugs don't want to stop and by a concern that the stigma attached to drug use keeps people from getting medical care and information, public health agencies are taking their clients as they find them, helping them become drug-free if they wish and, if they don't, guiding them to drug use that is safer for them and for society as a whole.

The article comments on political and social developments all round the world. A tentative response to labor's pressure was made last fall by Jacques Delors, the European Commission's socialist president, backed by Vasso Papandreou, its socialist Commissioner of Social Affairs. Delors called on the European Community to enact a social charter that would mandate Europewide minimum standards of employment protection, workplace health and safety, unemployment benefits, pensions and social security. In auto and machine tool factories, at chemical and construction sites and in union headquarters across Europe, the proposal for a unified market has not been given so bland a reception.

The author discusses results of May 2012 elections in European countries including France and Greece. She argues that voters sent a strong message opposing economic austerity policies through their support for both left-wing and right-wing political parties and discusses reasons for the electoral success of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party in Greece.

The article comments on a wave of anti-semitism spreading throughout Europe. The author reacts to a statement that the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were linked to U.S. support of Israel. He presents historical perspective on the issue. Then, he tackles how the majority of anti-semitic thought seems to originate from Great Britain. He reports the number of anti-Semitic incidents from 2000 to 2001. The impact of such incidents is addressed, and the issue of anti-Zionism is also discussed.

The article presents information on the book "Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey," by Isabel Fonseca. Sometime in the tenth century, the Gypsies began their thousand-year migration from India into Europe. Their history is marked by cycles of persecution and debasement, including the vicious 400-year enslavement in Romania, and extermination as "social deviants" under the Third Reich. The book by Isabel Fonseca, comes in between these two poles and provides an intimate look at the contemporary Roma community, while examining it in relation to the world beyond.

This article presents information on the book "The Lives of Lee Miller," by Antony Penrose. Lee Miller, one of the great beauties of the 1920's and 1930's, was not content to be the object of others' lenses. She became a photographer herself, shooting some of the grimmest sights ever recorded in Dachau and Buchenwald just after the war. American born, she spent most of her life in Europe. Driven by a need for excitement, she explored corners of the continent rarely visited. She learned to charm snakes in the desert and had her back massaged by a dancing bear in Rumania.

This article focuses on the distortion of civil liberties in Europe. Three years from now, however, the twelve-nation European Community plans to abolish all such cross-border checks, allowing its citizens total freedom of movement from one nation to the next. The community is working to achieve economic unity in 1992, thus fulfilling the original intentions of the Treaty of Rome, which was signed in 1957. The object of this effort is to allow Europe's 320 million consumers to benefit from economic integration among the member states by allowing the free flow of goods, services, capital and labor.