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This introductory chapter starts by summarizing the main conclusions of the earlier companion volume (European Integration and Supranational Governance), and describes the current volume as focusing on the institutionalism of Europe per se, rather than the question of how supranational arenas emerged and were institutionalized. It looks at the sources and consequences of institutionalization, i.e. the process through which European political space – supranational policy arenas or sites of governance, structured by European Union (EU) rules, procedures, and the activities of the EU’s organizations – has evolved. The five main sections of the chapter look at the institutionalist challenge, discuss institutions and institutionalization (institutional change, social and political space, institutions in relation to power, and rule-making and legitimacy), attempt to explain institutional change in the European Union (examining institutional innovation and its assessment), provide a brief overview of the book, and offer conclusions on the dynamics of institutionalization and the future of the European Union. The next nine chapters of the book are described as falling into three groups: the first set addresses the processes of institutionalization (Chs 2–4); the second set explores how specific European policy spaces have emerged, mutated, and stabilized through ‘endogenous’ processes of institutionalization (Chs 5–7); and the third set is concerned with the processes of institutional innovation – the creation of new policy spaces (Chs 8–10). A final chapter concludes by discussing the institutional logic of integration.

This chapter takes issue with the claim that European economic integration necessarily induces neoliberal outcomes. Using an approach that treats economic spaces as socio-discursive constructions, it shows that the character, meaning and personality of the ‘European economy’ continue to be contested within the EU institutions and amongst the component member state political economies. Although the analysis suggests that there is considerable space for the articulation of alternative ‘solidaristic’, ‘sustainable’ and ‘moral’ versions of the European economy within alternative conceptions of globalisation, the paper seeks to show how rationalities (technical and normative; internal and external) associated with neoliberal versions of Europe might become normalised and increasingly difficult to negotiate.

This chapter assesses the current state of European military space capabilities as of 2017. Cooperative programmes have become more prominent, but national concerns are still predominant. While European institutions have acquired some military space interests, intergovernmental policymaking is still critical. Europe has a wide range of technological capabilities, but there are gaps in some security critical areas. The European space industrial base is partially integrated but with some tensions stemming from residual national industrial interests. The chapter examines the leading European national military space capabilities as well as a representative sample of other medium and lesser European powers. Europe is compared with other mid-range space powers such as India and Japan, as well as benchmarking against the United States, Russia, and China. While European military space has made significant progress, it is still impeded by political divisions that reflect wider weaknesses in European security policy.

This chapter analyzes the contributions of space explorations towards science and research. It looks into the phenomena of “civil” spaceflight, which means nonmilitary and noncommercial activities in orbit and in deep space. Space exploration offers the potential for human beings to learn more about why humans are here on Earth, where the building blocks of life might have come from, and to determine the future of humans as a species might be. Understanding outer space better is also critical for beginning to open the option for people to live away from Earth on a permanent basis in the case of the ruination of the planet. Space science encompasses such high-profile activities such as planetary exploration, heliophysics, and Earth observation and monitoring. The chapter examines the scientific research done by major national space agencies such as NASA, Russian Space Agency, European Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and the Indian Space Research Organization.

The fourth chapter, “Science: Doing Research in Space,” traces the shift in the purpose of spaceflight from practical work to laboratory research and the increase of knowledge during the 1980s and 1990s. It presents the rationale for and rapid growth of a new field--microgravity research--in the life and physical sciences, and surveys selected results from shuttle science missions that helped set the stage for research on a space station. In the space station era, spaceflight became synonymous with research.

This chapter studies constitutional review in the Netherlands. It argues that constitutional adjudication in the Netherlands does indeed exist, though not according to European norms. Furthermore, the chapter contends that the study of constitutional review in the Netherlands, viewed in the perspective of the European legal space, makes clear that the concept of ‘constitution’ stands in need of reconsideration. In this respect, the Netherlands’ constitutional order reflects perhaps more than some others the new international context in which the constitutional orders of Europe find themselves. It thus beckons a different view not only of constitutional review in the European legal space but also, consequently, of the place of national constitutions in the European legal space.

This chapter presents a modified version of Stone Sweet’s and Sandholtz’s (1997, 1998) ‘supranational governance’ approach to account for the integration dynamics of the EU. It argues that EU negotiations are conducted within a transnational political space, and that transnational actors are capable of exerting their influence. Divisions within the EU’s political space can be understood as a clash of capitalisms between two broad coalitions - the liberal and regulatory coalitions which are centred on different conceptions of how the EU ought to be governed. The constructed framework can therefore be used to guide the analysis within the following three case studies.

The author worked with the European Space Agency to help plan its first mission to a comet, intended to analyse its thin atmosphere and land on the solid nucleus, and perhaps even to bring a core sample back to Earth. Decades later, the mission eventually flew under the name Rosetta, encountering Comet 67/P Churyumov–Gerasimenko in 2014 and going into orbit around it about thirty kilometres above its curiously shaped, rocky and icy surface. The Oxford group formed part of an international team, led by Italy, which developed the Visible-Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer for the mission. From orbit, VIRTIS was mapping the surface of the comet and its gas emissions to measure their composition, and watching from close by as the Philae lander is deployed.

The author worked with the European Space Agency to define a mission to the innermost planet, Mercury, which was to bring a sample of the planet’s surface back to Earth for analysis. This had to be shelved because of its huge expense, but ESA did approve a dual orbiter mission called BepiColombo. The author proposed, unsuccessfully, to place an Oxford-built instrument on the payload to study the icy polar caps on this hot planet, so close to the Sun, and its apparently liquid interior, but through a reciprocal arrangement became a team member for a similar German experiment instead. The mission was very complicated, even without the landing and sample return, and was much delayed; we were still waiting for the launch and long flight, and looking forward to the scientific results some time after the author’s 80th birthday.