Fear in international relations and in European integration

This contribution aims at introducing this special issue collected papers from a critical point of view and analizyng their speech. This article focus is the “fear” factor in political and international relations, specifically the role that fear played in the development of the European idea before, during and after the Second World War. It intends to present the path the concept of fear has taken during Europe’s process of regional integration over the last century, viewed from the broader perspective of international relations and globalization. From this debate, in accordance with the submitted articles, is possible provide a grasp of the extent to which fear has played an active, and often decisive, role in recent European history, where it continues in both the long and the short term to exert a two-fold and conflicting influence: as a force that unites and as a force that divides.