cover image Inside the New Europe

Inside the New Europe

Axel Krause. HarperCollins Publishers, $27.5 (356pp) ISBN 978-0-06-039101-0

This valuable book by the corporate editor of the International Herald Tribune analyzes Western Europe's determined move toward monetary and political union. Krause reveals how, for the first time since its founding in 1958, the Common Market is challenging the U.S. and Japan for dominance in world trade and high technology. He examines the erosion of American influence and the growing wave of European acquisition of U.S. companies, banks and property. Krause predicts that the 1990s will be recognized as the ``Decade of Europe,'' also that the 12-nation Common Market, headquartered in Brussels (``the Washington, D.C. of Western Europe'') will form the core of a loose federation with a single currency and lowered trade barriers, and is destined to wield tremendous geopolitical clout. A judicious look at the New Europe by an experienced and informed observer. (Dec.)