ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of th key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explaines how to conceptualize the growth of the states system and how to think of the state memory that, in each case, was created to give the backdrop to entry. It focuses on the 'expansion' of international society, by which was meant that something given – an international society – was supposed simply to subsume other givens – new member states. The book aims to transcend the dichotomy between Europe and non-Europe. It explores the international dimension of state- and nation-building in Bulgaria. The book draws a parallel with Bulgaria's integration into Western clubs such as NATO and the EU following the end of the Cold War. It examines how the idea of translatio imperii informed the 19th-century nation-building project in the Romanian principalities.
