TITLE:
IR Theories Debate of European Integration
AUTHORS:
Jing Xu, Shiyong Shen
KEYWORDS:
Neo-Functionalism, Inter-Governmentalism, Multi-Level Governance
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Political Science,
Vol.4 No.4,
October
16,
2014
ABSTRACT: Since the Peace Treaty of Westphalia, the nation-states have been always important actors in international relations and on the international stage. However with the process of European integration, the traditional attitudes have brought out great challenges to existing theories and generated an academic debate. Deepening and enlargement of European integration have also led to the development of IR theories. Now three competing theories emerged from IR to dominate the debate over the development in European integration and there were the neo-functionalism, the inter-governmentalism and the multi-level governance.