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This paper will address the issue of change in international institutions and governance brought about by the global war on terrorism. It will apply the concept of new multilateralism as an analytical tool in order to map out an emerging qualitatively different approach to international organization. New multilateralism is most obvious and pronounced in Europe whose regional order traditionally has been highly institutionalized. European regional integration unfolding within the institutional domain of EU Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) will serve as a critical case study of the trend towards the establishment of new patterns of governance in the international system. The argument will proceed in the following way. First, the concept of new multilateralism will be discussed in reference to John Ruggie’s original definition of multilateralism as a generic principled institutional form in international life. Second, the paper will explore recent developments in the foreign policy domain of the European Union as an institutionalized intergovernmental political process. It will address the trend towards flexible forms of commitment and participation under the CFSP mechanism as an instance of the new multilateralism in international relations. The new multilateralism of the post-9/11 period, this paper will argue, continues the historical tradition of classical multilateralism by reflecting (in Ruggie’s words) American hegemony rather than American hegemony and by revealing the adaptive and reproductive capacities of international institutions. Similarly to classical multilateralism, it does not necessarily generate formal organizations but continues to respond to a demand for institutionalization of relations in the international system. In contrast to classical multilateralism, new multilateralism is based on a network of bilateral arrangements. In the spirit of multilateralism, it evokes a principled code of conduct, however, outside existing international institutions: it creates coalitions of the willing. New multilateralism is bilateral in approach and multilateral in cooperative action and outcomes. Thus, it accelerates transformation rather than stabilize international relations (which classical multilateralism did). It substitutes governance outcomes resulting from the existing universalist multi-purpose international institutions by single-purpose short-term arrangements in a variable geometry of participating countries. Without substantively changing the standards of international organization, new multilateralism reverses the attained level and patterns of complicated multilateral diplomacy. It is based on straightforward means-ends bilateral relationships resulting in flexible multilateral coalitions. Coalitions of the willing are increasingly being established as a multilateral response to international threats. They have become a source of governance in the international system. From the perspective of European regional integration, the continued institutionalization of a possibility for enhanced foreign policy and defense cooperation under CFSP, in parallel to the consolidation of strategic bilateral relationships and participation in ad hoc international coalitions, exemplifies a new pattern of regional relations produced by new multilateralism. The Convention on the Future of Europe reflects and reinforces that trend by creating new opportunities for variable-geometry coalitions within an otherwise highly structured institutional mechanism. This example indicates that the nature of European and with it, international, governance is changing. Regions no longer represent a formally institutionalized geopolitical environment. They are becoming increasingly defined in terms of threats, vulnerabilities, and capacities for response by flexible ad hoc security arrangements. The paper will conclude that the coalitions of the willing have emerged as a new multilateral source of authority and legitimacy in the international system beyond international organizations. Arguably, this change in the pattern of international governance is essentially deeper than the nature and scope of institutional change brought about by the end of the Cold War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relations between the European Union and Romania have recently deteriorated, posing serious risks for Romania?s aim of obtaining membership in 2007. This paper proposes five partly linked and complementary explanations for this crisis. Each explanation is briefly presented and preliminarily assessed in this draft paper. The intention is to improve our understanding of the current crisis in the larger context of the EU enlargement project and the difficulties of post-communist transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the cases of the European Union (EU) and NAFTA and examines how integration has affected politics, economic structures and economic performance in three countries: Mexico, Portugal and Spain. The paper reviews the relationships between regional integration, economic growth, and democratic consolidation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the Maastricht Treaty of 1993 pledges the European Union to a Common Foreign and Security Policy, the Iraq war bitterly divided the European Union. Tony Blair led England into decisive support for the United States’ military intervention in Iraq, followed by Spain, while the German-French alliance, the heart of the European Union, stood squarely and vehemently in opposition to that intervention. Extra-Europe Russia joined them in this opposition. French analysts argue that France hoped to provide a counterbalance to American power. This hope has been a staple of French foreign policy since DeGaulle. Now, however, France is part of Maastricht Europe. Giving an account of the two sides of Europe vis-a-vis the Iraq war, the proposed paper will focus on the question, Can the European Union survive the Iraq war? Is an integrated political Europe, as opposed to a European Community-style (pre-Maastricht) economic Europe, still possible? The European Union represents the foremost power bloc after the United States. Aside from tending to the internally divisive repercussions of the Iraq war, the European Union will be preoccupied over the next few years with the integration of ten new East European members. Will Europe be able to integrate these members economically (most of whom supported the United States) and integrate itself politically? And provide world Second Power political leadership? Will Turkish membership now be a top agenda item after Iraq and, if so, how would Turkish membership affect Europe’s political self-conception, its identity? While few doubt that the transatlantic alliance will survive, will the alliance be a one-way street toward American world objectives? While the EU has attempted to be a spokesperson for the states of the South in the WTO, especially in achieving a more equitable world economic order, will it have sufficient political clout to pursue this objective in view of American dominance? Will European regionalism be strong enough to support the cultivation of world-wide regionalism, as it has aspired to do? These are the vital questions that will be raised in the proposed paper which is founded on the presupposition that the European Union, as a critical supporter of the values to which the United States also subscribes and thus a crucial ally of the United States, is, at the same time, essential as the only viable democratic opposition to the United States. Together they could forge a more democratic world order. This will,however, require a strong European Union. This leads us back to the initial question of the paper: Can the European Union survive the Iraq war? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relatively high levels of intranational equity in health care, and in health status, among socioeconomic and cultural groups has been a signal achievement of most EU member nations. This has been accomplished through the use of models of health care financing and delivery which incorporate high levels of public sector involvement. With the entry of the former communist-party states of East-Central and Eastern Europe (ECEE) into the EU, a dramatic new element of inter- and intranational inequality will be introduced. Most of the new member states exhibit rapidly increasing intranational inequalities in health status, due in part to their move away from precisely the kinds of structural arrangements for health care financing and delivery that have served most current EU member states so well. It is likely that intergroup and interlocational inequalities within countries in health statuses will represent the most significant element of societal inequity in the EU by 2010. Yet the formal conditions for EU accession give little attention to this issue. This paper contrasts trends in population health, and in the financing and delivery of health care, in existing EU member states as compared with the ECEE countries next in accession. These themes then are elaborated through a closer look at the Hungarian case, using a comprehensive set of health and policy measures for the 20 principal subnational units for the period 1989-2000. The concluding section of the paper considers the implications of this neglect of health-related issues in relation to EU membership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that EMU should be seen as part of a broader strategy to transform the mode of operation of the European economy. The overall aim of this strategy is to revitalise the European economy by creating a strong European base within a broader global regime of finance-led restructuring. The implications of this strategy are discussed in applying the Coxian conceptual triangle of state-civil-society complexes, social relations of production and world orders (transatlantic relations). As the reconfiguration of European state-civil-society complexes is concerned, the paper shows in a first step inasmuch the European Union has built up ? material and organisational ? capacities for a more comprehensive governance of the new European economy, particularly in terms of economic, monetary and financial policies. Secondly, with respect to the social relations of production, it points out that despite overall public support for the Lisbon strategy ? i.e. accelerated financial market integration, technological innovation and structural reform of labour markets and social security systems ? socio-economic transformation is cumbersome and increasingly conflict-ridden. Finally, in terms of transatlantic relations, it will be explained that the material and organisational capacities of the EU are still much too weak to transform the global Dollar Wall Street Regime and challenge the US dollar as the global key currency. Nevertheless, transatlantic co-operation will probably become more problematic, as under conditions of economic recession and trade imbalances European and US-American economic interests seem to diverge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The absence of a common and operational security strategy has been viewed a critical weakness of the European Union as an international actor. This is true in particular when the Union is faced with political and military issues and conflicts where its wide array of non-military instruments may prove insufficient or irrelevant, indicating that the Union is lacking not only in the clarity of its goals but also in the efficiency of its means. A comparison on both accounts is most often made with the United States. Not unexpectedly, in the aftermath of its most recent debacle in the Iraq crisis, the Union has formulated its first common security strategy (European Security Strategy, 2003). The paper reviews the ideational, institutional and structural factors that determine the culture, function and power of the Union as a strategic actor. More closely, the paper assesses the construction of strategy and the determinants of strategic behaviour, and the consequent growth of EU actorness. The convergence of strategic cultures among the members, the institutional capability of the Union as the basis of its functional position, and its power to affect the structure of the international order provide elements in the emergence of strategy. In the context of strategic behaviour, the paper looks at the management by the Union of the strategic triangle of idealism, functionalism and realism as guidelines for action. In dealing with the strategic responses of the European Union to the hegemony or pre-eminence of the United States, the paper notes their differing approaches to the relationship between Hobbesian, Lockean and Kantian strategic cultures as the basis for international change. The strategic policy of the Union, based on its institutional strengths in soft power complemented with nascent hard power, is outlined as the combination of engaging the United States in binding multilateralism and pursuing equal partnership in global issues, consequently providing a restrained U.S. power with legitimacy. How the United States will respond to the transformation of power in international security remains a complex and open issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Allegiance to human rights norms is an essential component of the prevailing political discourse in the European Union (EU). This paper examines the limits of this normative commitment in the context of the admission and treatment of third-country immigrants, specifically immigrant women. When considering how human rights norms have influenced the formulation of a common immigration policy in the European Union, this project draws on constructivist scholarship that investigates the diffusion, propagation and policy application of international norms and principled ideas. It contends that not only has immigration legislation in Europe been gendered to the detriment of migrant women, but also that the relevant human rights precepts ? which are touted as the foundation for future EU policy ? are themselves gendered. Feminism contributes to constructivism an understanding of power as integral to the processes of social construction. All international rules, norms, and institutions operate within the context of existing power structures and can reproduce hierarchical and hegemonic understandings and relations. Commonly accepted notions about gendered others and naturalized identities have contributed to the formulation of certain policies and practices, and this is particularly the case with immigration policies. Scholars who look to the principles found in international human rights instruments as a potential or actual foundation for immigration policy formulation need to be more critical about the theoretical and practical foundations of the human rights discourse which they espouse. This paper explores how human rights norms themselves might be conceptualized differently if the experiences of women were taken as foundational for theorizing, codification and implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are several views regarding the European Union?s role in border conflicts. Underlying these perspectives is the belief that the EU, through membership or association, helps to transform the nature of border conflicts from lines of conflict to lines of co-operation. Some analysts highlight the EU?s discursive framework that offers political leaders opportunities for legitimising policies aimed at diminishing conflicts. Others argue that as an economic giant but a political dwarf, any influence the EU as a regional organization may have is limited to financial aid and trade programmes. Those endorsing this view would argue that the EU, in fact, does not have a policy on border conflicts per se. Alternative arguments hold that the EU?s impact on border conflicts pertains to change in people?s identity scripts. Applying the model of EU paths in border conflict transformation developed by Albert, Diez and Stetter (2004), this paper attempts an investigation of the EU perspective on border conflicts. This includes an analysis of the conceptualisations of five conflict cases among core actors in EU institutions, namely the Commission, the Council, the European Parliament (EP) and Member States Representative offices. The border conflicts involved are Cyprus, Russia and the Baltic States (Europe?s North), Northern Ireland (NI), Turkey/Greece and Israel/Palestine. This paper thus seeks to map out patterns in the strategies employed by the EU in its various influences on conflicting parties. In bringing together an actor, structure and process-driven analyses this paper hopes to take the debate on the EU?s impact on border conflicts a step further and to offer some reflections on the EU?s role as a mediator in the transformation of border disputes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to focus on the European Union (EU) level of governance and its impact on the national gender equality politics. More specifically, the paper will be an exploration into the ways in which the EU’s domestic violence agenda shapes the national policies of two EU member states, Britain and Finland. The EU policies are developed in the context of differing conceptions of gender equality in the member states. The paper asks what consequences does the difference between EU discourses and national discourses have for the adoption and implementation of EU policies in the national level. The paper will proceed as follows. It will, first, look into the national discourses on domestic violence in Britain and in Finland. Second, it will focus upon the EU policies, legislation and recommendations on violence against women. Finally, it will compare the EU discourses to the two differing sets of national discourses, and analyse the problems and possibilities that emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a critical review of an interdisciplinary body of research on Islam and democracy and develops theory in order to explain the emergence of Turkey?s ruling AKP (Justice and Development Party) and to interpret to what extent this contributes to Turkey?s liberal-democratic consolidation. The paper shows that the AKP has so far featured a significantly more liberal-democratic and pro-West discourse and program than its predecessors have. It identifies the political-economic and institutional conditions that appear to have facilitated the AKP?s emergence, and places special emphasis on the EU as an external anchor and on the intended and unintended consequences of past secularist pressures. Political and theoretical implications of the case of Turkey are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To what extent do the processes of European integration lead to policy convergence among Member States? While numerous scholars have explored this issue by examining the domestic impacts of formal EU legislation, the role that soft law norms and informal diffusion processes play in policy convergence remains under-studied. This paper addresses these latter issues by examining the role that European institutions have played in the decision by several Member State governments to legally recognize same-sex unions over the past ten years. Although the EU has not introduced or threatened to introduce such legislation itself, it did incorporate sexual orientation into the Amsterdam Treaty’s non-discrimination clause for the first time in 1997. I argue that the reframing of the issue by the European Union and, perhaps more importantly, the creation of a European network of activists promoting the rights of sexual minorities are essential for explaining the wave of domestic partner legislation adopted by Member State governments in the late 1990s. The importance of these European norms and networks is reflected not only in the timing of the recent legislation but also by the fact that no non-European national government recognizes same-sex unions. While essential, the European influences have not been determinative. The paper ends by exploring how these transnational norms interact with domestic political processes. The latter determines whether legislation will be adopted as well as the nature of that legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The peaceful resolution of border conflicts is an important component of the hegemonic order that the EU seeks to construct in its near abroad. This paper draws on newspaper reviews and preliminary elite interviews to analyze how the various forms of EU influence directed at the Turkish elite have influenced their decision-making with respect to Turkey?s relations with Greece. I am specifically interested in how coercive, inductive, and persuasive forms of EU influence have interacted in shaping elite decision-making in Turkey. This paper also uses the specific case of EU influence on Greek/Turkish relations to further our understanding of the microprocesses of hegemonic influence at a more general level. While the literature routinely underlines that material and ideational/normative hegemonic influences mutually reinforce one another, there are not detailed analyses of how various hegemonic influences are perceived, acted upon, and manipulated by different elites, and how, through these micro-processes, make an impact in the target states/societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper conducts an initial exploration of the links between European Union (EU) social exclusion policy and economic integration. The paper outlines the historical development of the social exclusion concept, and locates the EU interpretation of social exclusion in that historical context. Understanding that the EU’s interpretation is a moving target, the paper nonetheless identifies current core principles of EU social exclusion policy, including in particular the exchange of best practice. Finally, the paper conducts a preliminary analysis of EU-sponsored projects that attempt to combat social exclusion. Based on this outline and analysis, the paper argues that while EU social exclusion policy involves a broad variety of non-state, state, and sub-state actors, those actors are encouraged to a narrowly delimited model of social inclusion, thereby discouraging some salient forms of social inclusion. In other words, the EU legitimizes a particular definition of inclusion amongst social actors. EU social exclusion policy therefore augurs a new dynamic of cultural hegemony: hegemony through regional economic integration. As such, the paper links to current discussion of transnational norms and their potential to influence, inspire, or reproduce domestic power dynamics. Yet the paper takes a critical stance toward such norms, for example by revealing that the principles anchoring EU social exclusion policy hold close affinities to corporate management principles of competitiveness. Thus, the paper questions the supposed limits of regional economic integration, and suggests that such integration involves a larger cultural and ideological project that produces hegemonic definitions of social practices. Of particular importance is EU encouragement of the culture-ideology of consumerism. At the same time, the EU-sponsored projects illustrate that the broad array of social actors implementing EU social exclusion policy have some agency relative to the Commission and other Brussels-based institutions. As a result, they possess some power to influence the cultural impact and ideological content of EU social exclusion policy and European integration more generally. While EU social exclusion policy encourages a culture-ideology of consumerism, the agents involved in policy implementation may stem this tide. Students of international organization(s) and of cultural politics can find dynamics of great interest in contemporary European societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to explore foreign and defense policy-making in the Baltic Sea regional context. Exploring the utility of prevailing international relations theories, I take an empirical, policy-making perspective to analyse the interactions among four issue areas and their implications for policy-making. The goal of the paper is to explain how Sweden, Finland and the three Baltic States have coped with strategic (in a regional context) uncertainty, made decisions to exercise control over their security environment, and incorporated domestic and external feedback into decision-making processes. The four issue areas serving as organizational guide to policymaking include (1) membership in the European Union and Nato; (2) building sustainable domestic coalitions and constituencies; (3) managing/resolving external and domestic obstacles; (4) independent versus regional bilateral/multilateral policy focus. This analytical framework provides the context for a theoretical evaluation of the evolution, stability, and sustainability of security policies within the region. Specifically, it offers a unique perspective on the interaction and reconciliation of region-external and region-internal policy constraints/opportunities at the policymaking levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is argued that the US and the EU are conducting their foreign policies in very different ways, indeed Robert Kagan has suggested that they could be shaping two different world orders. This paper is interested in examining how far these apparently divergent conceptual approaches translate into clearly dissimilar policy practices. Beyond the much discussed US-EU positions on Iraq, does the EU have something qualitatively and quantitatively different to offer to the concept and practice of transnational governance? This paper analyses these issues through an investigation of the different elements of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership programme, to explore how far the EU is offering a new approach to transnational governance and how far it might be considered to be re-branding old approaches to north-south cooperation. The Euro-Mediterranean partnership offers a good practical example of what EU countries are doing at the regional level. Essentially, the Euro-Mediterranean partnership is an ambitious regional cooperation programme covering all aspects of the social, economic and political relations between the EU and the states of the southern shores of the Mediterranean. But what does the partnership imply in practice? Can the various programmes that the EU proposes to implement ensure economic development, manage social tensions and strengthen political and security institutions in a way that is beneficial for both parties, and for citizens as well as for states? Conceptually, there are obvious tensions between the strategic aims of EU engagement with Mediterranean partners. On the one hand the EU is attempting to strengthen existing illiberal state institutions in North African and Middle Eastern countries, in order to gain more effective cooperation with the EU on emigration control and anti-terrorist policies. On the other hand it is keen to promote power-sharing and good governance in countries which are essentially run on a non-democratic basis. In practice it is not at all certain that even if these conceptual difficulties can be solved, the various national and sub- or supra-national institutions involved in this programme can address the momentous technical challenges of multi-layered transnational governance that are intrinsic to this type of endeavour. Hence, this paper investigates how far this alleged partnership embodies new and effectives means of trans-national governance, and how far it merely repackages old realist principles and tools of north-south cooption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the first of May 2004 ten new member states will join the EU. Yet, another enlargement process has passed largely unnoticed. For the first time in the history of international organization an international institution seeks to formally adhere to another international body. Indeed, the EU is preparing itself to adhere to the European Convention on Human Rights, the Council of Europe?s main human rights protection instrument. How does it come that an international body seeks accession to another one, especially while large pans of international relations theory assume that international institutions, at the most, provide for increasing cooperation and interdependence between their contracting parties, and refuse to consider international institutions as actors of international relations and, more precisely, of the configuration of European (supranational) governance? If the Draft Constitutional Treaty elaborated by the Convention for the Future of Europe states that: ?the Union shall seek accession to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedom?, this paper argues that the Member states have been pushed to proceed to such an EC accession to the ECHR as a result of the rather turbulent interaction between the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights. EU member states merely follow the way paved by the European Courts. The interaction between supranational courts has progressively entangled their respective organizations and their member states in a jurisprudential cobweb via both courts? case law politics. Put differently, this paper argues that supranational actors are able to influence norms, have interests and seek for power. Remarkably, the protection of human rights did not get lost over institutional rivalries, There are now two courts at a supranational level that protect human rights and they both play a major role in the process of European integration. Their interaction has progressively lead to a dynamic of convergence that has transformed two separate legal orders into one single, but highly fragmented supranational constitutional space of multiple hierarchies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transatlantic defense industrial relations have become increasingly competitive in recent years. Fearing American domination, and stressing the necessity of an independent European defense technology and industrial base, EU policymakers and national representatives have been calling for closer European defense industry integration and a buy-European bias in arms procurement. These calls, in combination with industrial consolidation, institutional changes, (the merger of the WEU and the EU), and the creation of a European arms procurement organization, have been taken as evidence of a move towards a defense industrial fortress Europe capable of competing with the U.S. The European defense industry is, however, simultaneoulsy busily engaged in transatlantic joint ventures, mergers, and acquisitions. This paper examines the transatlantic relationships of the defense industry with a focus on the actors and forces driving these developments. The paper focuses on two alternative explanations for the development of a transatlantic defense industry: 1) the first draws on systemic theories in IR and sees power balancing as driving European defense industry policymaking, while 2) the second relies on theories of domestic- and bureaucratic politics and sees the struggle between economic and bureaucratic actors with different interest in the defense industry as the explanation. This paper also examines how the development of a transatlantic defense industry relates to existing transatlantic economic and security arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the widely-held assumptions in the prevailing political economy literature, national and international monetary governance structures are currently undergoing a process of fundamental and revolutionary change. Developments such as the introduction of the euro in the European Union, increasing dollarization in various parts of the world, or the evolution of electronic money seem to call into question the conventional relationship between nation state and territorial monetary governance. The new monetary geography appears to be globalized or deterritorialized and governance of money is radically changing. This paper seeks to develop an alternative conceptualization of these monetary transformation processes. While the empirical facts of a shifting monetary landscape are not in dispute, I argue that the current developments of globalization and deterritorialization are quite consistent and comparable with other historical processes of change in monetary governance. The often assumed distinction between a national and a post-national monetary landscape is exaggerated. Starting from a definition of money as a social relation ? instead of a material or economic category ? the paper adopts a macro-historical perspective and compares four historical episodes of monetary transformation: the shift from a barter to a money economy, the development of financial capitalism during the early stages of modernity, the process of national monetary unification during the nineteenth century and the current deterritorialization processes. Applying an agency-structure framework, the paper uncovers similarities across these cases in the way the interaction between politics and markets has repeatedly molded monetary governance. In particular, the paper interprets current transformation processes as part of a modernization process that resulted in greater levels of abstraction in all spheres of society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the applicability of foreign policy analysis (FPA) to studying the European Union’s global policy. It argues that problem-based globalism (PBG) can bridge the concerns of FPA and the study of the EU’s external relations. The two basic theses of PBG are: the structuration and course of international politics already predominantly is and in the future will decisively be determined by the aggravation of global problems, and that the IR discipline is developing towards new cohesion, resulting from the increasing attraction of the globalist problem orientation. Based on constructivism the paper emphasizes that the foreign policy does not exist independently of human action and cognition but, rather, the world of IR is a social world whose rules and practices are made and reproduced by human interactions. Thus, ideas and knowledge play a significant role in explaining the evolution of global policy. Global threats are giving rise to a new kind of mental orientation to life and politics. This new thinking culture is generally characterised by high attention and priority given to global problems and action, as contrasted with traditional nationalist and regional ways of thinking. This paper challenges the state-centricity assumption of foreign policy analysis. While recognizing the multiplicity of global actors, this paper pays special attention to the globalization of the foreign policies of states, groupings of states and integration communities (EU) as presumably the main precondition for essential improvement of global policy-making. The EU seems to be even more capable of acting in world politics than most states ? at least some issue areas. Rationality assumption is also challenged, because the EU does not always know how they should act. Under the conditions of aggravated global problems, it is especially receptive to learn why we are in trouble and what would be an appropriate strategy to manage the global problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, there has been a spate of interest in the developments of human rights policy of the European Union in the context of its Eastern enlargement. Inclusion of human rights issues in the political conditionality for the enlargement in the so-called Copenhagen Criteria was accompanied by the strong interest on the side of the EU in human rights problems in the post-communist countries. The developments signified possible emergence of the ‘new human rights approach’ of the EU, which would be characterized by (i) a high degree of ‘conditionality’, and (ii) the proliferation and complexity of requirements. This paper studies the transformative effect of international norms on the domestic structures in the context of the 5th enlargement of the EU. It focuses not only on the legal and institutional alterations, but tries to establish a casual linkage between the EU human rights policies and the de facto improvements. As an analytical tool it introduces the concept of ‘post-communism’ and tries to define what ‘the post-communist context of human rights’ means. The aim of this paper is thus to contextualize the compound issue of human rights within the wider framework of the post-communist transformational order, and, subsequently, to investigate the suitability of the EU ‘new human rights approach’ when addressing these problems. This paper employs a comparative method of analysis. It first identifies the core characteristics of this ‘new approach’ of the EU, and than it juxtaposes it other human rights evaluations developed by three regional and sub-regional organizations. Through demonstrating resemblances and dissimilarities between them and the EU criteria, it points at possible deficiencies in the EU approach. Hence, it puts forth a tentative hypothesis that the EU policy is rather ambiguous and might be highly consequential for human rights developments in Central and Eastern Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will outline the major critiques of the EU’s development policy performance and the recent EU administrative responses to these critiques. It will argue that the European Union’s focus upon administrative reform and organisational structures is obscuring the failure to reconcile the underlying, conflicting views of the objectives of EU development policy amongst the Union’s Member States. The paper will also also consdier the relationship of development policy to the wider question of the emergence of a common EU ‘foreign policy’. foreign policy’ [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to examine the implications of the growing internationalisation of renewable electricity issues, with particular reference to the transatlantic (or European Union - United States) relationship. The paper begins by identifying future trends on the internationalisation of electricity issues, the contribution of renewables and the importance of the transatlantic relationship. The potential for conflict and cooperation between the European Union and the United States on renewable electricity issues ? and the accompanying costs and benefits ? is then investigated. The paper concludes by highlighting the importance of having an international institution with broad participation take a lead in investigating this issue further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The international role that could be played by such a controversial polity as the EU has been hotly debated. From now, the debate has been mainly articulated between three main roles, which are, the Civilian power , Military power and normative power . To handle such a critical issue, this paper will draw on Ole Waever’s work on security, and from this perspective study the EU’s international identity through the link between security, integration and identity. Instead of having different kind of roles, Waevers proposes a distinction between three levels where the EU plays three different roles as a security actor. Based on the constructivist claim, that identity and action are inextricably related, and an approach to the construction of identity that is one which stresses the role of narrative structures within the process, this paper will try to identify a ‘constitutive story’ told for ‘Europe’ about EU’s international identity. In this framework, the first part will establish that EU’s identity is recognized by others, and identified as an actor by acting. It gains identity from without. Thus, the two next sections will focus on EU foreign policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the World Trade Organization (WTO) affects the trade policies of signatories. The paper concentrates on one of the ‘Big Four’ members of the WTO ? the European Union (EU). Specifically, we examine the impact of WTO regulations on EU antidumping (AD) regulation and consequently, on the choices and actions of EU trade policy makers and on the strategies of firms engaged in AD actions. As the dramatic anti-globalization riots in Seattle, Gothenburg, Genoa and Washington show, the WTO has become a focus for protests about the nature of ‘governance’ in the international economy. There is concern about the degree to which WTO agreements impinge on national sovereignty by proscribing certain types of government regulation. Recognition of this risk can be found in the truncated nature of most-favoured-nation (MFN) treatment under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). MFN is a cornerstone of the multilateral system: in its original GATT formulation, it proscribes discrimination among trading partners. However, the GATS MFN clause is much more conditional: states offer schedules of their liberalising measures and the degree of MFN treatment they are prepared to offer. ‘Governments wanted the option of adopting a more gradual and conditioned approach to opening up their markets, by making national treatment something to be granted, denied or qualified, depending on the sector and signatory concerned’ (Low and Mattoo, 1998, p. 4). Relatively little work has been done on whether goods trade regulation under GATT constrains states in similar ways, though some states, such as Canada, have suggested that GATT rules can influence national trade policymaking (DFAIT, 2002). Some current international business and international political economy literature expresses reservations about the WTO as a supranational organization (Rugman and Verbeke 1998; Rugman 2000), but we currently face a dearth of empirical work to assess the precise reach of WTO regulation. Moreover, to the extent that this question is addressed, the literature looks at the developing states and frames the issue as one of cost, rather than policymaking constraints (Hoekman, 2002). One way to assess the real impact of the WTO is to look at its influence on a powerful member of the international trading system ? and to look at that impact in goods trade. This would provide the stiffest test for those seeking to demonstrate the impact of the WTO. That is the purpose of this paper. We aim to interrogate the WTO and European Commission Trade Directorate data sets on AD negotiations (annual reports are produced by both organisations) with the aim of obtaining first, an absolute number of AD investigations; second, a breakdown by industrial sector; and third, evidence of the change over time in the number and target of AD action. In addition, we will undertake a set of interviews with key EU and WTO officials to substantiate and further develop our initial findings. In pursuing this methodology we are looking for the following: first, changes in industry profile for AD action; and second, a European Commission change of approach in the selection of trade instruments. On the first point, we are interested in assessing the changing industry profile of AD action to see if it is associated with changing EU trade strategy and to assess the implications for the competitive environment and industry dynamics. On the second point, a firm or industry association petitions the EU for action in response to perceived predatory or anticompetitive behaviour by competitors. The EU first takes the decision whether to act or not. If action is chosen, the Commission then selects the policy instrument or method for action. Our question is: ‘in recent years, have these options been constrained in any way by WTO regulation?’ Put another way, do we notice any change, pre and post-WTO, in the way in which the EU AD regime operates? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Community/European Union (EC/EU) has been on the brink of falling apart several times, or at least at times this appeared to be so. Obstreperous member states have from time to time torpedoed or otherwise undone intra-community cooperation; the European Commission has at times boldly overstepped its relegated authority; publics within member states have from time to time smarted at the democratic deficit and shut down integration by rejecting instruments that would push it forward. French President Charles de Gaulle’s inflexible opposition to creeping supranationalism in 1965-66, for example, blocked the development of the European common market at a rather crucial time and cast the community into crisis. In the 1970s failures to find consensus regarding energy issues and monetary affairs caused crises that threw the European Communities into what some saw as fatal disarray. Similarly the British-instigated battle of the budget that took center stage in intra-European diplomacy during the 1980s caused another crisis that some thought might be fatal, and in fact did seriously challenge the future of the EC. In 1992, the Danes rejected the Maastricht Treaty at least partially out of concern that the design of the new treaty, if institutionalized, would move centers of European decision making ever so much farther away from European people. Even today a potential crisis of integration surrounds the related issues of the eastward enlargement and institutional reform. Some proponents of the uniting of Europe might look upon integration since the 1950s as a rather smooth progression of positive steps in the direction of economic and political amalgamation. But a more sober, realistic, assessment suggests that European integration has been in considerable measure the product of a succession of political life-threatening crises that have been constructively resolved. Crises have been numerous and have in their time appeared grave indeed. But none have greatly damaged the functioning of the EC/EU or seriously affected ultimate movement toward greater European integration. This paper examines these periodic crises such as the Empty Chair Crisis in 1965-1966, the Oil Crisis in 1970s, the British Budget Crisis in 1980s and the Ratification Crisis in 1992 within the EC. Admittedly, this is a less than original research concern, since a good deal of work has already been done on crises of European integration. Yet, this paper is not so much in the conventional question of how the crises got resolved, but rather in the deeper and theoretically more important question of why the crises got resolved. That is, the fact of successful crisis resolution is not the issue of this paper; explaining successful crisis resolution is what the project is all about. Why was the crises successfully and constructively resolved? And in particular, theoretically, why? The problem of explanation of answering the why questions, is actually a good deal thornier that it might at first appear, because there are actually two major steps involved. Answering the why questions requires explanatory theory; that is why the search for an appropriate explanatory theory must precede the search for an appropriate explanation. The problem here is that none of the theories commonly used to analyze European integration turn out to be very useful for analyzing the effects of crises, and none of the theories commonly used to analyze crises turn out to be very useful for explaining European integration. After a good deal of effort trying to fit square empirical pegs into round theoretical holes, this paper falls back upon General Systems Theory to ground explanations. The tenets of General Systems Theory contribute importantly to explaining why even the very serious Ratification Crisis did not greatly damage the workings of the EC/EU or set back Europe’s progress toward greater integration. The primary goal of this paper is to show that memory matters, in that memory is a prominent source that regulates the crises. This paper argues that memory directly, indirectly and mainly influences constructive crisis resolution in the EC/EU. To pursue this goal, this paper is structured in three main sections. The first provides an overview of the crises. The second seeks to show that the interest-based explanation, arguing that the crises were resolved by rational calculations of objective national interests, is not satisfactory. The final section seeks to demonstrate that the Europeans continue to be burdened by the lessons drawn from World War II and memory of the wars is deeply embedded in a new political culture ? a problem-solving culture ? of the EC/EU. It is argued that the carriers of memory such as perseverance, acceptance, mutual responsiveness and friendship played an important role in resolving the crises. Then, this paper concludes that the regulatory capacity of the EC/EU system turned out to be more than sufficient to handle disturbances from the environment that caused the crises. The EC/EU is stable and durable, because the regulatory capacity of the system is rather impressive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research on unregulated population movements suggests that illegal migration and undocumented migration for labor and other purposes is on the rise in Northeast Asia, and is demanding the attention of regional policy-makers. The last decade has also witnessed an increase in the criminalization of migration in the lucrative form of human trafficking, often related women and girls for prostitution. This paper reviews the scholarly debate on the linkages between security and migration, including how illegal migration has been incorporated into the discussion on traditional and non-traditional security, and human security. The emergence of illegal migration as a security issue in the European Union is discussed before a consideration of whether, and how, illegal migration has been defined as a "security" issue among politicians and policy-makers in Northeast Asia. The so-called Copenhagen School?s framework of "securitization" is discussed in relation to how securitization could be applied to specific cases of illegal migration and unregulated population flows within and from Northeast Asia. Finally, the paper draws some conclusions regarding the implications and lessons for regional cooperation on illegal migration in Northeast Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will focus on Mid-Atlantic EU Simulation Consortium (MEUSC) experiences using the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) as the simulation focus in its 2001 simulation program. One of MEUSC’s persistent themes has been to engage students in EU issues and debates that are both topical and current in actual EU decision making circles. CFSP, with a special focus on terrorism, proved to be most effective in that regard during 2001 MEUSC simulation; this simulation was also especially daunting precisely because of the combination of timing and topic. This paper, therefore, will examine the range of challenges faced by MEUSC participants at several key points, and especially by the MEUSC student Commission in its formulation of the 2001simulation resolution. Students and faculty alike were immediately forced to confront the massive amount of work that EU decision makers had undertaken in the wake of the September 11th attacks. MEUSC’s experiential learning program endeavors to connect American students and faculty to EU policy makers and policy making in a unique way, using the simulation experience to help bridge the gap between the academic and the practical. The challenges that MEUSC participants had to overcome in preparation for the 2001simulation in many respects mirrored the cooperation and conflict that is often part of EU decision making, and certainly the reality of the EU policy process in the aftermath of September 11. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is based on Central and Eastern Countries' experience in implementing public diplomacy as a tool of their foreign policy. The main hypothesis says that public diplomacy makes a suitable tool for positioning a country internationally while using the means of soft power (J. Nye). This was the case of twelve countries, mainly from the Central and Eastern Europe, which joined the European Union after 2004. The paper is based mainly on the cases of Poland, Czech Republic, Baltic States and Hungary. They represent the region characterized by no visibility in European politics. The Polish case will be displayed with more details as the government of the country adopted public diplomacy in order to strive for middle power position within the European Union. The paper sheds light on national specifics of public diplomacy of the EU new members and at the same moment at the contribution of the countries to the understanding of the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that, in drawing predominantly upon Marxist approaches, existing critical accounts of European integration suffer from the problem of economic determinism. Whilst such accounts have enriched our understanding of European integration through their considerations of capitalism, therefore, they have nevertheless been unable to provide a feasible explanation for the relationship between the two processes. The paper argues for a turn to the work of Deleuze and Guattari, which provides insights into how we might consider the relationship between capitalism and political institutions, whilst avoiding the depiction of one as determining of the other. In doing so, it argues that European integration can be understood to have overseen the re-centring of what Deleuze and Guattari refer to as the 'capitalist axiomatic', in the attempt by Europe's political elite to enable, represent, and repress the connections of desire that constitute the contemporary European social assemblage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the EU's use of strategic diplomacy as a means of positioning itself in the world arena and of managing relationships with major powers within the arena. The first part of the paper develops an argument about the place of strategic diplomacy in EU external policy, identifying key elements and proposing a framework for analysis. The second part looks at the record of EU diplomacy towards China since the mid-1990s, evaluating key phases in the evolution of the EU-China 'strategic partnership', and assesses the negotiations for an EU-China Partnership and Cooperation Agreement. The conclusions revisit and reassess the arguments, and ask whether it is possible to identify 'value added' through the pursuit of EU strategic diplomacy in this case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the framework of the DYNAMUS project about the interaction between the European Union and global institutions, this paper develops a specific conceptual framework that tries to establish more precise links between the EU's 'single voice' and its ability to exert influence in global institutions. Traditionally, a key assumption of both practitioners and academics of European integration is that a stronger 'single voice' leads to more ability to exert influence on the international stage. This paper argues, however, that in certain circumstances this is not necessarily the case. More specifically, the paper identifies several processes where a stronger 'single voice' leads to less ability to exert influence. The paper ends with a preliminary case study on the EU's involvement in the Oslo Process regarding cluster munitions in order to illustrate some of the issues raised in the conceptual framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines transnational advocacy in the European Union, EU governance, and the emergent normative order that fosters (or supports) nontraditional forms of contentious collective action to understand how such a deinstitutionalized space impacts decision making and contributes to the construction of a discernable European polity. By looking at discrete constituencies this essay hopes to illustrate how governance, as a notion and empirical reality, changes the parameters of contention in fundamental and observable ways. This paper will argue: 1) when adhered to, a governance paradigm challenges traditional/formal modes of political contestation and has potential to undermine/disrupt representative democracy; 2) insofar as „outside? actors are able to exert power, a cleavage is forming between local activists/residents and global and/or regional actors and nongovernmental organizations; 3) in an „open? multi-layered polity, especially one that promotes governance, political mobilization is uncertain and unpredictable. Ultimately this paper wants to contribute to literature on multilevel governance, contentious collective action, and decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Negotiating regional trade agreements with other regional organizations constitutes an essential part of the EU's promotion of its idea of regional integration. It forms a diffusion process whose "sender" - the EU - has so far gained by far more attention than the respective "receiving ends". Due to a highly asymmetric relationship with the EU, African regional organizations seem to have little choice but to comply and "download" in such diffusion processes. Yet, in case of the latest negotiations of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA), the EU's idea of regional integration has been met with strong resistance and the negotiation process largely failed. Such cases of resistance have hardly been studied, and the paper argues that as a first step, research needs to look "inside" the receiving ends. Rejecting an "all in one boat logic", it suggests an actor network approach to unravel national, regional and interregional interactions taking place within changing regional configurations. The paper presents the findings of a three-year research project of a case study on the EPA negotiations between the EU and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the least decade, international organizations (IOs) have become an integral part of global and regional counterterrorism cooperation. At the same time, there are still important functional and political impediments to a more advanced role of IOs in this sensitive environment. The paper sheds light on IOs' specific role as formal bureaucratic organizations in counterterrorism cooperation and investigates how and when they exercise agency under tight political and functional constraints based on comparative empirical evidence for EU and UN post-9/11 counterterrorism efforts. It distinguishes three mechanisms of IO agency: IOs as channels and entrepreneurs, IOs as coordinators and managers, and IOs as think-tanks and authorities. While states continue to be in the driving seat of the fight against terrorism, the paper argues that shifts towards more comprehensive counterterrorism cooperation have created new opportunities for IO agency based on outreach and expertise in a less politicized atmosphere. At the same time, the encroachment into particularly political areas has also opened up new avenues for contestation. The analysis suggests that the emerging role of IOs in this context is best explained by mechanisms pointing to IOs as coordinators/managers and as think-tanks/authorities. The practical challenge will be to reconcile IOs' bureaucratic outreach and expertise with political direction and accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the threat represented by the 20-year old post-Soviet frozen conflicts to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Moldova, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. This threat is twofold. On the one hand, the three republics have to face a sub-national challenge. The breakaway enclaves of Transnistria, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, and Nagorno-Karabakh have developed de facto states pursuing coherent state-building projects. This has hampered seriously the development of the three former Soviet republics. However, there is also an imperial dimension. Moscow has been a decisive actor that provided the secessionists with military, political, moral, economic, and financial support. Using the case study of Transnistria, this paper explores the consequence of major recent changes undergone by all relevant actors. Moldova democratized. The Transnistrian regime is experiencing a serious legitimacy crisis. The European Union has become increasingly involved in the region. And Russia perceives Brussels' actions targeting Moldova as an overt intrusion in its own sphere of influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores whether, how and to what extent the foreign policy choices of EU member states are affected by their progressive integration into the supranational organization. Policy-makers and analysts alike have deplored the proclivity of EU member states to prioritise the pursuit of 'special' bilateral relations with powerful non- EU states such as Russia, the US and China, at the expense of a joint pursuit of relations at the European level. To date, scholars have focused predominantly on exploring the development of common foreign policies towards powerful non-EU states, in terms of both process and substance, while scant attention has been paid to the question of how, why and to what extent national governments pursue their foreign relations with these states at the European or the bilateral level. In particular, we know little about what motivates national governments' choice against cooperation although the fact that member governments frequently opt for a bilateral engagement with important non-EU states is well documented. This paper seeks to explain national foreign policy choices by using the example of member states' relations with the Russian Federation. It explores their choices on energy supply policy and trade disputes during the 2000s. The findings indicate that whereas much emphasis is placed on the need for governments to make 'appropriate' foreign policy choices in the official rhetoric, in practice national governments tend to place great emphasis on the utility of their choice, and not on whether it is 'appropriate'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to show how a combination of different theoretical models can explain the development of the European financial program for supporting cooperation across the Dutch-German border. Cross-border cooperation in the European Union represents a new system of multi-level and interdependent decision-making. Even though the analytical model of Multi-Level Governance (MLG) does justice to the relevance of the different levels of governance involved - subnational, national and supranational - it lacks a clear understanding of how the interaction between the actors at different levels occurs. Here, the Principal-Agent model (PA) can provide more insight. In this approach, the relationship between two actors - the principal and the agent to which authority is delegated - is characterized by oversight mechanisms by means of which the principal seeks to control the agent. In this paper, I will incorporate both approaches by focusing on the shifts of authority in German-Dutch cross-border cooperation, which created several agents by not only delegating authority from national principals to the European Commission, but also from the European Commission to the subnational Dutch-German cross-border organizations. In addition, and contrary to what is expected on the basis of the assumptions of the MLG approach, national actors were actually able in part to regain decision-making authority on cross-border cooperation rather than losing it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the EU is generally a proponent of strong regulatory norms concerning environmental protection at the multilateral level and is often regarded as a "green global leader", such a perception deserves a deeper assessment. Based on an empirical analysis of the contentions between the EU and Brazil at the World Trade Organization (WTO) over the issue of retreaded tyres, this paper argues two main points. First, it states that the EU falls short in demonstrating political coherence relating to environmental preferences, especially when trade variables are at stake. Here, the problem of normative visions regarding a "European green power" is raised. Second, being the first developing country in the history of the WTO to employ public health and environmental arguments to justify a trade ban, Brazil has demonstrated its capabilities to efficiently emulate developed country strategies in the context of international trade disputes. In this context, the selected case study should help to explain why great emerging countries have progressively become great defenders of a liberal economic order symbolized by the WTO. The paper concludes by showing how an example of European policy incoherence has, paradoxically, given more consistency to Brazilian environmental and sanitary domestic policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey's accession to the European Union has been the subject of much debate and controversy across regions. However, diverse governmental and non-governmental actors, interviewed by us in May 2010, emphasized the distinction between the EU accession process from actual membership and the profound impact that this process has already had on the country. This paper draws on interviews and meetings conducted with political officials and civil society actors at the national and local level and members to explore how the EU process affects democratization efforts in Turkey, particularly in the Kurdish region. The paper applies the two-level game to explore how domestic debates regarding identity issues, women's empowerment, the role of religion in politics and local development are all framed as essential to democratization in an effort to appeal to wider domestic and international audiences. While many different political and civil society actors coopt the term "democracy" in presenting their own demands, they are quick and forceful to downplay the democratic credentials of political opponents. We work to parse out the different stakeholders, their unique and shared perspectives on democracy, their individual investment in the EU process and commitment to actual accession. We focus on the following question: what is the impact of the EU accession process on democratization in Turkey? We present our argument using evidence from interviews conducted at the national and local level in Turkey, newspaper accounts, EU reports, and additional secondary sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses and explains the level of integration of climate policy objectives ("climate policy integration") into EU energy policy. It argues that the integration of these two policy sectors cannot be assumed, even following the adoption of the climate and energy package of policy measures in 2009. To outline this argument, we, firstly, present an overview of the conceptualisation of climate policy integration at the EU level. Secondly, we outline an analytical framework to measure climate policy integration, and a conceptual framework drawn from theories of European integration. Thirdly, we examine in detail two sub-sectors of EU energy policy. From an internal energy perspective, we explore climate policy integration into the EU's renewable energy sector. From an external policy perspective, we examine policy developments in the promotion of gas pipelines in southern Europe to secure future supply of natural gas from the Caspian Sea region. The paper then provides some general conclusions on the conditions for the advancement of climate policy integration in the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper develops a two-dimensional typology of political reasons for governments to pledge referendums on European integration when they are not obliged to do so: the first dimension is about the political level at which the strategic use of referendum pledges is targeted and it distinguishes between domestic and European reasons; the second dimension attends to the strategic mode of governments when pledging EU referendums which can either be about avoiding political losses (the defensive mode) or about realising political gains (the offensive mode). In combination, the typology yields four ideal types of reasons for governments to commit to EU referendums: the depoliticising, plebiscitary, red-line and internationalist EU referendum pledges. In the empirical analysis, the paper applies this typology to classify 28 cases of discretionary government commitments to EU referendums and it presents the findings of an expert survey that has been conducted for this purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the end of the Cold War, the European Union recognized "the transition to a new European order as a positive opportunity to develop its external role" (Pace 2003, 164). With the establishment of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) as part of the Maastricht Treaty, a renewed Mediterranean Policy was introduced in December 1990. Nevertheless, the EU still had not adopted long-term policies to address the increasing disparities between the two sides of the Mediterranean (Pace 2003, 164) until 1995 with its official start through the Barcelona Declaration/EuroMed Partnership (EMP), now succeeded by the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM). From the EU perspective, this paper seeks to show how both hard and soft power approaches are utilized in its foreign policy approach to MENA, with the CSDP as part of the CSFP (and a number of member state initiatives) the EU in tandem with NATO (and especially its Mediterranean Dialogue and Istanbul Cooperation Initiative) as hard power (Manners 2002, 237), and the UfM focusing on soft power. This paper addresses the security implications of soft power, with the optimal mix between security and soft power constantly being adjusted (Heisbourg 2001, 6/7), as different national and international parameters are securitized more or less. These dynamics are based on the political realities of the day globally and intra-regionally, as well as due to progress in the process of harmonization among UfM members, operationalized by security sectors and levels (Buzan, Waever and de Wilde 1998 within the "three basket structured" (political, economic, and social-cultural of the EMP as well as the UfM). Heisbourg (2001, 7) points out that capability is not merely a function of military hardware, but equally a "function of strategic vision" (Ibid.) - and the UfM is evaluated in the proposed paper for its role in contributing to the Euro-Mediterranean regional capabilities for stability and prosperity per its ENP mandate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competition laws, which aim to prevent firms' anticompetitive behavior in the marketplace, existed only in a handful of industrialized countries until the 1980s. In the last three decades, many countries around the world adopted competition policies and established independent competition authorities. How do we explain the rapid spread of such policies around the world in a relatively circumscribed time period? Scholarship on international diffusion suggests four mechanisms through which policies may spread internationally: coercion by dominant actors, competition among countries to attract investors, learning, and emulation. This paper develops a theoretical framework to account for the spread of competition laws around the world by drawing on the diffusion literature. Empirically, it illustrates the first of these mechanisms, coercion, by focusing on the EU's efforts to transfer its competition policies to its neighbors. What are the motivations for the EU to export its policies? What are the strategies it uses, and what are the factors that lead to success or failure of policy transfer? The paper explores these questions in the empirical case of attempted policy transfer in the EU's neighborhood, and thus seeks to contribute to our understanding of the mechanism of coercion in explaining policy diffusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the dawn of the 21st century it is widely recognised that transnational terrorism can pose a major challenge to the security of nation-state. To manage this challenge, multi-agency collective efforts, beyond those at the domestic level, are needed. Though since 2001 there has been an invigoration of national security efforts, any multinational security efforts will be successful only if there is a shared understanding of the domestic and multilateral institutional architectures, both existing and needed, to combat terrorism and respond to man-made or natural catastrophic events The academic communities on both sides of the Atlantic have taken notice of the need for academic research and instruction in a Homeland Security (HS) based curriculum, but have responded differently to how this might best be achieved. US universities have largely developed entire HS academic programmes, but this has not been replicated in the European Union. Building upon a paper delivered at the 2010 ISA annual convention, this paper will examine the data that has been generated for a research project funded by the EU/US Atlantis Programme. This project analyses HS education provision in the US and EU, and will compare curricular coverage of comparative and international issues in homeland security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the main organisational dilemma inherent in the new-born European External Action Service (EEAS). It argues that two main dimensions will impact the functioning of the EEAS. On the one hand, bureaucratic arrangements will bring about variations in officials' preferences on how to compose different nationalities and previous institutional affiliations. On the other hand, the hybrid foreign policy mission of the EEAS will create variations in foreign policy conceptions on whether the EEAS should act as an entrepreneur or as a broker in the process of foreign-policy making. By crossing the bureaucratic and political dimensions, four scenarios on the future role EEAS within the EU system are advanced. It is here argued that there will be a direct relationship between political entrepreneurship and representational bureaucratic arrangements, whereas a more 'technical' bureaucratic arrangement would lead towards a brokerage role in foreignpolicy matters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is no single global mobility regime, over the past 20 years, the European Union (EU) has been developing an institution framework within which mobility issues can be addressed. And, policymaking targeting third country nationals (TCNs) has been introduced into the joint policy domain of the EU. This paper tracks the ascent of policies that relate to TCNs in the EU policy discourse, identifies the key actors in pushing for the mainstreaming of this portfolio, and reviews and assesses selected policy output to date. Using policy tracing as a method, the paper chronicles the efforts to situate TCN policies within a broader global human rights regime by employing the discourse of (human) rights (of minorities) relative to European Union citizens. The Long Term Residents, Family Reunification, and Returns Directives are used as case studies, as the paper chronicles efforts at the global, regional, national, and subnational levels and applies a framework of political opportunity structures which inform the policy process. The paper seeks to explain why the negotiation of TCN policies generally demonstrates a minimalist pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper combines research on the EU timescape with an historical institutionalist toolkit to explore the temporal dimension of the Europeanization of governance in the European Union member states. It draws specifically on empirical research conducted on the impact of the EU on German and British governance. Applying the dual dynamics of path dependent incremental development and radical change (punctuated evolution or critical junctures), the paper seeks to shed light on the under-researched temporal dimension of Europeanization. In particular it examines the issues at play in synchronizing the EU and member state timescapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the flexible institutional arrangement characterising the European Union Humanitarian Aid Policy (EUHAP). It is the only EU foreign policy presenting an institutional arrangement providing with the simultaneous coexistence of three different intervention alternatives: unilateralism, cooperation, and delegation. This paper then questions the reasons of such a peculiarity. Referring to the principal-agent theory, this paper argues that states choose for or against delegation, and, in a second moment, to what extent delegating on the base of a calculus costs/benefits. Delegation is of benefit to overcome three transaction costs - information asymmetries, preferences divergence and commitment credibility - but entails a cost in terms of autonomy reduction. This paper then hypothesises that flexible delegation is the best solution to capitalise delegation benefits and minimise its costs. The hypothesis is illustrated through three different examples of EUHAP implementation. The aim is, first, to show how flexible delegation is concretely applied to the EUHAP context, and, second, to discuss its utility to enhance delegation benefits and reduce delegation costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Cold War Nordic cooperation blossomed and Nordic identity was strong but defence was left outside of the Nordic framework. After the end of the Cold War, Nordic cooperation waned and it was largely replaced by cooperation within the EU framework. During the past couple of years, however, the Nordic defence cooperation has been boosted by a number of initiatives and common projects. The paper tries to analyse this recent rise of Nordic defence cooperation. Theoretically the article revolves around the question of how material and identity factors explain security cooperation in today's Europe. During the Cold War it was easy to explain that identity was important in low politics cooperation between the Nordic countries but geostrategic factors and national interests based upon them determined (the lack of) defence cooperation. Even today, Nordic defence cooperation is justified more by costefficiency and geographical proximity than by common identity. The argument of the paper is that Nordic identity nevertheless plays an important role in motivating defence cooperation. It is not driven by pure cost-efficiency or strategic calculation. The role of identity needs however to be understood not as a kind of independent force but as part of the political process. Nordic identity explains the rise of Nordic defence cooperation in three ways: it facilitates informal cooperation between defence officials at various levels, it is easy to sell it politically to domestic audiences and it is not seen as contradicting European or NATO cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]