With the end of the Cold War, Europe has become the great question mark and most puzzling paradox of the emerging new world order. On one hand, the steamroller drive toward European unity is leveling the political and economic barriers that have separated the member nation-states for centuries. On the other hand, growing regionalism and its attendant strife is splitting the continent into alignments that are new to the modern era but as old as European history.

Making sense of these conflicting currents challenges traditional ideas of what Europe is and can be and demands a fresh appraisal of the changes gathering momentum even as we watch. The New Superregions of Europe answers that challenge with a vision as brilliant as it is bold, and with an analysis that goes far beyond the headlines to illumine and explore the bedrock realities upon which the future of Europe is being built.

Eminent economic expert and renowned journalist Darrell Delamaide allows us to see Europe not as a collection of nation-states with familiar borders. Instead he opens our eyes to regional unities that go back further in time and are now coming to the fore again. He defines eight large "superregions" that cross national borders and span the former ideological divide.

Historical patterns of conquest and trade, of ethnic and linguistic heritage, form the basis of these territories, while current trends in business and economic development determine their boundaries.

The reader is offered a superbly insightful guided tour. We visit the Latin Crescent, along Europe's sunbelt; the Atlantic Coast, the continent's gateway; the Baltic League, with its trading skills; Mitteleuropa, Europe's pulsing and powerful heartland; the Danube Basin, home of past and possibly future empires; the Balkan Peninsula, the powderkeg of passionate pride and entrenched impoverishment; the Slavic Federation, with its pressing problems and awesome potential; the Alpine Arc, fiercely independent against all odds; and privileged power centers like Paris and London, castle-like worlds unto themselves where the political, cultural, and financial strings of the world are manipulated by masters.