Without doubt, our contemporary world is marked throughout by the importance of questions of identity, something increasingly reflected in the directions of contemporary social-scientific research. It would be bizarre if the broad field of international relations were to stay untouched by this trend. In fact, no one is surprised any more by the fact that "the discipline of international relations (IR) is witnessing a surge of interest in identity and identity formation" (Neumann, 1999, p. 1). The same applies to the subdiscipline of European Studies — affecting both marginal and mainstream approaches. As Anthony Smith has pointed out, one of the fundamental reasons for the current interest in "European unification" is, undoubtedly, the problem of identity itself, one that has played a major part in European debates over the past 30-40 years. At issue [among others] has been the possibility and legitimacy of a "European identity", as opposed to the existing national identities. (Smith, 1999, p. 226)