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Currently, the EU is at the crossroads of its existence as a political union: The war in and around Syria, the main cause of the refugee question, asks for a coherent European position and action. The financial crises in the Euro-zone have not yet been fully settled and Russia´s actions in Ukraine together with its anti-Western foreign policy put into question the European security order. The book aims at analyzing the risks the EU is facing as well as searching for political and institutional responses and ways out of the crisis.

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Dr. oec. Janis Berzins is Director of the Research Department, Military Academy, Riga, Latvia. Prof. Dr. phil. Sven Bernhard Gareis is Deputy Dean of the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

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