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Though the fall of the Soviet Union opened the way for states in central and eastern Europe to join the world of market-oriented Western democracies, the expected transitions have not been as easy, common, or smooth as sometimes perceived. Rachel A. Epstein investigates how liberal ideas and practices are embedded in transitioning societies and finds that success or failure depends largely on creating a social context in which incentives held out by international institutions are viewed as symbols of an emerging Western identity in the affected country.Epstein first explains how a liberal worldview and institutions like the European Union, World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization go hand-in-hand and why Western nations assume that a broad and incremental program of incentives to join will encourage formerly authoritarian states to reform their political and economic systems. Using Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Ukraine as case studies, she demonstrates the limits of conditionality in the face of national social perceptions and elucidates the three key points around which a consensus within the state must emerge before international institutions can expect liberalization: domestic officials must be uncertain about how changing policies will affect their interests; the status of international and domestic institutions must not be in jeopardy; and the proposed polices must seem credible. In making her case, Epstein cleverly bridges the gap between the rationalist and constructivist schools of thought.Offering new data on and fresh interpretations of reforming central bank policies, privatizing banks with foreign capital, democratizing civil-military relations, and denationalizing defense policy, In Pursuit of Liberalism extends well beyond the scope of previous book-length studies.

By some measures, the European Union's Eastern enlargement, and the attendant securitization of East Central Europe through membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, have brought significant economic and welfare benefits to the former Soviet satellites or republics that have joined these organizations. All of their economies are considerably larger than in 1989. Foreign investment has helped fuel significant growth in the region, and financial linkages between East and West had a stabilizing influence during and after the US financial crisis of 2008-09. But economic success in absolute terms has not prevented a sense of disappointment from settling over the region, nor has it forestalled an illiberal backlash in a number of countries, which has had economic, political, and in some cases ethno-populist dimensions. This article examines some of the main economic trajectories around growth, consumption, investment, and finance. It explains why, despite numerous positive measures, both economic and political liberalism are under intensifying scrutiny. Growing inequality within countries, as well as continuing inequality – including power disparities between East and West Europe – have fueled discontent with the terms on which many East Central European states have integrated into the EU.

The enlargement of the European Union and the consummation of the second wave of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's expansion in the spring of 2004 would tempt one to believe that the postcommunist transition is com- ing to a close as a kind of normalcy settles over the region. Jeffrey Simon's careful and informative series of books concerning civil-military relations in four Central and Eastern European countries reminds us that in important respects, transition is still under way. Or rather, given the state of civil-military relations across the region, we should hope that it is, for the difficulties that postcommunist states face in democratizing, rationalizing, and strengthening their military-security apparatuses are still manifold.

Long before the cold war and the Iron Curtain's construction, the European continent was marked by a developmental divide in which the east suffered relative economic deprivation compared to the west. This article revisits the sources of 'economic backwardness' in eastern Europe and asks whether post-communist states' membership in the European Union (EU) upends the earlier structural conditions that had traditionally prevented east-west economic convergence. The article finds that while there is more economic opportunity for post-communist states in the EU than outside it, EU membership does not subvert the major drivers of the developmental divide. EU membership does, however, limit economic volatility for the New Member States (NMS), which, in historical perspective, is a boon for eastern populations and stabilizing for democratic politics. Adapted from the source document.

Very high levels of foreign bank ownership in central and eastern Europe (CEE) gave rise to fears that the region would be vulnerable to 'cutting and running' during a financial crisis, whereby western parent banks would repatriate capital and liquidity to their home markets and abandon their CEE clients. Such fears were compounded by the economic nationalism of late 2008 and early 2009 in western Europe, as well as by west European bank bailout programmes that privileged home markets over foreign ones. Although CEE experienced a severe credit crunch in late 2008, compared to other financial and economic crises, western bank behaviour in CEE has not amounted to 'cutting and running'. While many experts credit the 'Vienna Initiative' for maintaining foreign bank exposures in the region, this paper argues instead that it was the deep form of financial integration to which CEE was subject that kept banks committed. Specifically, western banks' 'second home market' business model, in which capital moved east via foreign-owned bank subsidiaries as opposed to primarily via branches or cross-border lending, led to only moderate retrenchment from CEE. Adapted from the source document.