1. Introduction: uses of 'the West' Benjamin Herborth and Gunther Hellmann; Part I. Theorizing 'the West': 2. Foreign policy identity crises and the uses of 'the West' Stefano Guzzini; 3. 'The West' versus other Western 'we's': a discourse analysis in reverse Ole Wæver; 4. Between polarization and appeasement: democracy and its 'other' Harald Müller; 5. After 'the clash': uses of 'the West' after the Cold War Patrick Thaddeus Jackson; Part II. 'The West' in Use: 6. Aesthetics, power and insecurity: self-interrogative imaging in 'the West' Brent Steele; 7. Everyday exceptions: the paradox of a perpetual state of emergency Benjamin Herborth; 8. Reconstituting the North Atlantic Alliance: a reconstruction of NATO's strategic discourse since 1949 Gabi Schlag; 9. Transatlantic policies towards China and Russia: self-conceptions and contradictions of a universalizing West Christian Weber; 10. Russia becoming Russia: a semi-periphery in splendid isolation Ted Hopf; Part III. Transformations of the Western Institutional Order: 11. Defending 'the West'? The transformation of national security in the European Union Gunther Hellmann; 12. How the 'end of the Cold War' ended Matthew Evangelista; 13. Conclusion: the ways of 'the West' and the road ahead Lene Hansen.

'The grand simplifier of 'the West' perniciously pervades scholarship as often as the daily news. The editors of this book have performed a great service to all of us in theorizing this concept, examining its use and inquiring into its transformative potential. The complexity that the concept of the West blankets reminds the reader of Jacob Burckhardt's dictum: 'beware of the terrible simplifiers.' Peter J. Katzenstein, Walter S. Carpenter, Jr Professor of International Studies, Cornell University