Amazon.com description: Product Description: The end of the Cold War brought the collapse of the Soviet Union and the unification of the two German states. This book sees Germany as the most powerful state in the continent and asks, will Germany inevitably create a Germanized Europe? The answer given by the essays in this volume is that the forces within the EC have created a framework which is too powerful to be overawed by one member, however strong. The essays emphasize the dilution of national sovereignty that EC mechanisms have produced. The areas the essays cover include the relationship between Germany and the European Monetary System, and political networks and European networks.