Economic and political integration has been a basic fact of European life for more than fifty years and will probably remain so in times to come. Its importance as a formative influence in the history of this period compares only to that of the Cold War and may loom even larger now that the Soviet Union has collapsed. The movement toward transnational regional cooperation in Europe has not only contributed to the revival, transformation, and rejuvenation of a battered civilization but remains as well a source of hope for the future. The integration process has not always been smooth, neat, pretty, or economically and politically costless, yet it has helped bring Europe to the cusp of a new era. The ancient but renewed civilization is leaving behind the slowly collapsing world system of the first half of the twentieth century, which it largely created – a system centering on national megastates and industrial economies wrenched into shape by the requirements and dislocations of total war. Europe is now advancing into a new, politically contested yet generally peaceful competitive world order whose broad contours are slowly becoming visible beneath the surface of events. The economic and political integration of this civilization has served as a mechanism for adjusting to international change and has also shaped global institutions and markets through a process of competitive emulation, reciprocal adjustment, and mutual adaptation.