Vol. 40 of IAPSS Politikon contains a special section bringing together three contributions of three members of the IAPSS Academic Think Tank and Academic Committee (ATT & ACOM) 2017/2018, coordinated by Dr. Jamila Glover. Firstly, Lora Hadzhidimova and Aaron Stacey analyse the relationship between populism and the national concerns expressed by citizens in the European Union’s (EU) Eastern and Western member-states. The authors find that the predominant type of populism in the EU does not overlap with the type of concerns on a national level. The article concludes with outlining the implications of their findings. Secondly, in a single-authored piece, Lora Hadzhidimova presents a comprehensive overview of the emergence, evolution and current state of scholarly debate on the contentious issue of integration in the European Union. She argues that the debate has shifted from a paradigm perspective to a problem driven approach. The article further contends that this new approach is optimal because it is pragmatic in solving complex problems that occur within the EU. Thirdly, Rigina Syssoyeva’s research note addresses the growth of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). She conducts s a rigorous qualitative research study that demonstrates that Schimmelfennig’s theoretical concepts can explain the process of enlargement of the EAEU. Vol. 40 concludes with a stand-alone article by Joshua Schwartz who critically examines the argument Joseph Parent presented in his book Uniting States, and claims that it does not provide a satisfactory explanation for the emergence of voluntary mergers of states into one. Surveying the argument in detail, the article offers an in-depth analysis of the case of the United Arab Republic and concludes that there are other possible causes of voluntary unions than the one Parent identified.
