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This paper focuses on the progress of democratic consolidation in Central Europe from the perspective of national security. The paper analyzes the depth of democratic reforms that have already taken place in the various national security institutions of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland and highlights the gains that have been made as well as areas in need of deeper reforms in order to ensure the success of the overall democratic consolidation effort in each case. Special emphasis is placed on examining the interface between the various government agencies that participate in the national security policy making process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is to examine how international actors influence democratization by focusing on two leading states of recent democratization in East Asia and East Europe - Taiwan and Hungary. The paper seeks to challenge the classic domestically biased assumption that democratization is an exclusively domestic affair, aiming at the transformation of the internal political system, and external factors may play a secondary role. It aims to provide systematic accounts for why and how there are different external actors at different phases of democratization through a cross-regional comparison between the two regions. First, I will examine the dynamics of democratization and the interactions between external and domestic factors in each national case from the phases of transition to consolidation. Next, I will develop some explanatory factors for the international dimension of democratization from the two regions and compare their similarities and differences. For the country case studies, I will be attentive to internal-external linkages and to their own historically specific conditions. For the inter-regional comparison, I will compare Taiwan with Hungary, placing greater emphasis on their common elements across regions and differences shown in each region. My analysis supports following points: (1) in Central Europe, the Soviet presence was a decisive overriding obstacle to democratization, no matter how favorable domestic conditions may be in countries like Hungary. The constraint was gradually lifted under Gorbachev, finally opening the possibility for a successful transition to democracy. Furthermore, the policies of various European institutions like EU, OSCE, the Council of Europe, and NATO are becoming crucial stabilizing elements in the consolidating process. The integration into Western institutions began to act as an external democratic force. (2) in East Asia, the global trend toward economic liberalism did exert some positive impact on the transition to democracy in Taiwan. More fundamentally, unlike Central European cases, the political opening in both Asian cases was not triggered by any major socio-economic crisis, geopolitical change or external market shocks. In both cases, societal support for the regime-sponsored development program has been much more broadly based as compared to many Latin American countries at comparable level of industrialization. Lastly, the dominant characteristic of Taiwan is its inherited legacies of divided nations. Their nationhood problem makes the regime stability highly susceptible to external influences in the processes of democratic transition and consolidation. This paper will be a first effort to compare and distinguish international effects on East Asian patterns of democratization from what has been noted especially in East Europe. It attempts not only to refine current theoretical frameworks, but also to enhance the literature of democratization in both breadth and depth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the Anschluss to Munich, Britain pursued a policy of appeasement. The Chamberlain government responded to German advances in Central Europe by selecting policies of peace rather than policies of war. What prompted British decision-makers to choose a path of diplomacy rather than a path of military confrontation? Why did they accommodate German expansion? This paper reviews British decision-making from March to September 1938 and considers the explanatory power of the cognitive calculus theory of decision-making. It draws attention to deliberations at the top levels of government, including the Cabinet and Inner Cabinet, the Foreign Policy Committee, and the Committee on Imperial Defense, and highlights the influence of decision role, decision stage, and substantive knowledge in framing problems and selecting solutions. Demonstrating the impact of military and non-military expertise in arriving at foreign policy judgments, this paper affirms the explanatory power of the cognitive calculus theory and extends earlier work, including American and Japanese decisions for war and peace in other times and other circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why have some of the newest members of the European Union consolidated their democratic transitions while others have lagged behind? This paper tests the hypothesis that the difference in democratic consolidation between Central and Eastern European countries could be attributable to factors associated with membership in international governmental organizations. Three countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, have consolidated their democratic political systems while three others, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania, have not. This paper utilizes aggregate data to compare the differences in political outcomes in Central and Eastern Europe and measure the effect of the assistance provided by the European Union upon these political outcomes. This process of norm diffusion suggests ideational factors should be taken into account for democratization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In what way can international organizations influence the development of domestic ethnic protest movements? Since the beginning of the 1990s there has been a growing movement of Romani activists who have sought to redress the problems that face the largely impoverished and marginalized Romani populations in Central Europe. They have found support from a large number of internationally active non-governmental organizations. Gradually, the situation of the Roma also attracted the attention of international governmental organizations, in particular the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the European Union (EU). This paper seeks to find out how this new transnational space for discourse and action affected the development of the Romani movement in the countries of Central Europe. By locating empirical findings from research in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary within a theoretical framework that combines insights from social movement analysis and international relations, the paper not only seeks to make a contribution to understanding of the case of the Romani movement, but also adds to ongoing debates on political action and ethnic identity formation, showing how ethnic minority movements are ultimately conditioned by the interplay of strategies of mobilization, with wider domestic and international policies towards minorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The governments of most accession Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries have shown keen interest to adopt the Euro soon after EU accession. This interest is motivated, on the one hand, by want for a strong political signal, namely of an irrevocable ?return to Europe?. The interest is motivated as well by a search for a reform anchor that imposes a binding constraint on fiscal policy and wage bargains at home. This keen interest has been persevered despite the fact that the rules of the EMU club were written without considering the CEE countries? future membership. This paper conceptualises hegemony as a specific transfer of political property rights. This captures both the use of delegation as a commitment device and the problematique of disenfranchisement that such delegation entails. The dilemma of CEE countries in joining a hegemonic club is explored with reference to Poland, the largest candidate country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of the democratic and political transitions in Central and Eastern Europe, countries in the region have adopted lustration laws. Lustration laws are designed to expose those who collaborated with the former regime and bar them from public office. Lustration laws are envisioned as a way to address the historical atrocities of the former regimes, and rebuild trust between the state and society and between citizens. International institutions have sharply criticized lustration policies in Eastern Europe. International institutions such as the European Union, the International Labor Organization, the Charter of International Rights and Freedoms, and Helsinki Watch argue that lustration laws constitute a fundamental violation of individual rights, because they allow public access to confidential, potentially biased information that could be professionally and personally damaging. The institutions contend that instead of redressing the past, lustration laws threaten to undermine the very democratic foundations of the new states. This paper will examine the extent to which international institutions’ understanding of lustration policies affects the way Central and Eastern European states understand and implement rights issues in transitional societies. How do international institutions affect Eastern European states’ understandings of individual and societal rights? How do international institutions frame debates regarding lustration as a means of teaching transitional societies about the appropriate way to conceptualize freedom in a democracy? Finally, what types of distributive implications result from the influence of international institutions on the implementation of lustration policies? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intergovernmental organization, knowledge and power : The League of Nations and the reconstruction of Central Europe during the 1920s The end of the First World War was linked with a profound disorganization of Central Europe. On the political level, new states appeared from the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the administrations of which had to be re-created and the relations of which were frequently under tension. On the economical level, the crisis in the aftermath of the War was characterised by hyperinflation and trade crisis. The reconstruction of Central Europe was made following several different models, the most popular being the Dawes Plan for Germany in 1924. In two other important cases - Austria and Hungary - the League of Nations (LoN) was mobilised to manage the reconstruction. Its role, notably the role of its Financial Committee, can be compared in a certain way to the role of the IMF after WW2 (Pauly 1998). Thanks to a stabilisation loan, a reconstruction scheme led by the LoN permitted to control the Austrian and Hungarian budgets, indirectly through High Commissioners acting in Vienna an Budapest. On the monetary level, new issue banks were created independently from the State and more or less strongly controlled by foreign advisers under the influence of the Bank of England. The aim of this paper is to analyse the role of the LoN as an intergovernmental organization (IO) in the reconstruction of Central Europe through the creation and legitimation of economic and political standards. IOs are considered very differently according to the different theoretical perspectives. In the neo-realist approach, IOs are judged as being rather weak actors of the international system, in opposition to Nation-States which are considered as the principal actors, fighting for their survival or their power (Mearsheimer 1995). In this sense, IOs don’t have the power to create, impose or legitimise efficient economic or political standards. In the neo-liberal approaches on the contrary, intergovernmental organizations play an important function in the creation of information, international statistics or economic expertise; moreover, IOs permit to reduce transaction costs in the advantage of every actor and thus can be considered as a public good. Furthermore, IOs can resolve credibility problems of states facing a situation of internal instability, and reinforce macro-economic stability (Santaella 1993). The reconstruction of Central Europe by the League of Nations shows the role and functions of intergovernmental organizations in an other perspective, and enables one to stress the importance they play in the production of knowledge and in the transnational power relations. The role of the LoN in the creation and internationalization of standards must be placed in its historical context. The aftermath of the First World War is characterised by a period of reactionary transition; the strong inflationary and protectionist heritage from the War are at the origin of a large movement aiming to reinstall the economic and financial conditions of liberalism as it had reigned during the end of 19th century. Exchange rate stability and gold-standard were therefore at the centre of the occupations of political and financial elites after the War: in Central Europe, inflationary depreciations were especially severe and accompanied by economic nationalism (David 2003). The reconstruction policies recommended and applied by the LoN found their origin in the theoretical works led by economist inside the League (International Labour Organization) or Economic & Financial Commission) or outsiders (Irving Fisher, Ralph Hawtrey for instance). The main points put forward by these works militate in favour of the return to currencies convertible in gold or in gold currencies (Dollar and Sterling), this being impossible to achieve without deflationary policies. These research projects recommended at the same time the end of exchange controls, public budget balance, the independence and cooperation of the central banks. All these measures were expected to initiate a virtuous circle and to restore the international trade, and thus eradicate unemployment (Endres/Fleming 2002). The LoN plays an important role firstly in the process of creating and legitimating economic standards, but it is also influential in the application of these principles in Central Europe between 1922 and 1931. The reorganisation of Austria and Hungary was accompanied by acute and rapid budgetary reductions, 100’000 civil servants were dismissed in Austria in four years, and several state companies had to be privatised. As the economic standards requested, the currencies were pegged to gold or gold-currencies and the exchange rates were maintained until the financial crisis of summer 1931. The exchange controls were abolished, and this, in addition to high interest rates decided by the new central banks under British influence enabled to maintain the exchange rate by attracting important short term foreign capital. Important volumes of American and British, but also French, money found a very profitable affectation in the Austrian and Hungarian banking system, which soon became strongly indebted and weakened. The bad financial situation kept being worsened by a negative trade balance which had to be compensated with new financial flows. One can see that the LoN reconstruction schemes took the form of relatively strong methods allowing the application of principally American and English (but also French or Swedish) standards of international finance and economic cycles. Actually the financial circles of these two countries in particular had a lot of interests to promote in Central Europe during the twenties. These specific economic actors, among others, could impose an economic system according to their interests through the League of Nations. In this perspective, the intergovernmental organization can be analysed as an instrument which enables specific and sectional social actors to organize the international structure according to their objectives. The reconstruction of Central Europe shows that knowledge and standards legitimation cannot be dissociated from the mechanisms of power and hegemony, especially in situations of economic and political transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using Freedom House?s Nations in Transit Reports, this paper investigates the claim by the European Union that its method of expansion to Central and Eastern Europe is helping states to develop strong, stable democracies. After employing logit and regression models to test development and change in the civil societies and political institutions of twenty-two states, the authors find that the European Union is not a significant influence on the development of democracy in Central and Eastern Europe. Rather, what democratic consolidation is taking place is the result of each state?s own domestic internal reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given that the EU indirectly affects its member states' social policy, there is a long-standing debate about the direct causal effect of the EU on its member states regarding non-economic matters. This paper analyzes how the governments of new postcommunist Central and Eastern European EU members and candidates reacted to pressures from the European Commission, while acknowledging that the broader context of various other global, regional, and domestic actors also affects the establishment of new laws and norms related to domestic violence. The EU's influence is controversial and manifold in the postcommunist Central and East European context: while it has rhetorically endorsed gender equality, it has only recently and selectively started to pressure members and candidates into implementing changes and monitor progress. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following World War II, relations between East and West were marked by a military build-up which allowed the Soviet Union to become a superpower. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the reestablishment of independent countries in Central and Eastern Europe gave way to friendlier and more cooperative relations between the former rivals, however, Russia's desire to regain its superpower status lingered. As Russia earned increased revenue from oil and other natural resource exports, its relations with the West began to visibly cool. This paper examines the impact of Russia's economic success on its foreign policies in general, and the development of its relations with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe more specifically. Findings show that the former rivalry between East and West, which had once been based on military power, has been reestablished on economic terms. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Pacific or elsewhere, the world is witnessing the emergence of a new global player: the new, enlarged, half a billion citizens European Union. This paper explores and explains one of the fundamental steps of this suigeneris Great Power genesis: the 2004 Eastern enlargement. This major evolution not only hugely increased EU's area-and-population weight, but also provided the final answer to the identity dimension of the European construction. The European Union equals now Greater Europe; it is a continent that has found the political will of standing united in the world arena. Emphasizing the role of Europe Agreements and especially that of EU conditionality, I will show the successive steps taken by the European Union in order to transform its Eastern neighbors identity and the responses of CEEC state-society complexes to this challenge. Finally, this is the fundamental element that is turning the European Union - i.e. the European continent -- into a heavy weight world player difficult to ignore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article takes the notion of international society as its conceptual framework and claims that weak regional bonds within Europe are unable to sustain the negative impact that the process of EU enlargement exerts on them. Notwithstanding the large number of joint infrastructure projects in the region of South-East Europe encouraged and funded by the Union, on a wider institutional and ideational level the ongoing process of its enlargement fails to materialise the region?s integrative potential in the way it does in Central Europe and in the Baltic countries. The main reason is twofold: the lack of institutional and conceptual tools in the Union?s architecture and, what is more important, the lack of positive identification with each other among the very countries of the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the collapse of the communist regimes, Central and Eastern European countries opened themselves up to the West. The post-communist states began enjoying more liberty in the formulation of their foreign policies. Focusing on the study of foreign policy change in post-communist Europe implies analyzing the main actors involved in policy making.This paper means to demonstrate that there were three major periods of change in Romanian foreign policy: 1989-1994, 1997-2002 and 2002-2006. It also seeks to reveal both the most important external factors (incentives) and the national actors (policy makers) provoking the change and how and why the change happened. Existing literature of foreign policy change have recently been preoccupied with the role of external actors (EU, NATO ? theories of europeanization) in the formulation of the foreign policies of the post-communist states. This paper adds value by focusing on a specific issue that might influence the restructuration, the adaptation or the redirection of Romanian foreign policy: the academics. Scholars are usually linked in two ways to the various power structures: 1) by direct involvement in policy formulation (Havel, Geremeck, Plesu) or 2) by offering advices to decision makers (consulting, think tanks, etc). After 1989 some former Romanian political dissents as well as well known intellectuals (especially political science scholars) have been tempted to take part to the decision making process (Plesu, Ungureanu). This trend has been perceived as being rather frequent in Central and Eastern Europe and was seen as the result of the lack of skilled political elites after the collapse of the communist regimes. Nevertheless, in Romania the evidence shows that 16 years after the defeat of the former regime the academics feel to have a special mission to formulate and to take part to the decision making process. While most of Western scientists believe that the disengagement and the dissent are preferable to the direct involvement in policy making, Eastern scholars often evaluate their merit through active involvement in policy formulation. This is even most frequent and evident in the formulation of the Romanian foreign policy.Our paper seeks to analyze the place and role of Romanian scholars in the formulation of the Romanian foreign policy after 1989. Our central hypothesis is that the Romanian foreign policy was shaped and reoriented most by academics than by ?traditional? bureaucrats/policy makers. By analyzing the composition of the Romanian Foreign Ministry since 1990 until today we will try to see how the major periods of change in the Romanian foreign policy were affected by the academics? influence. Ultimately, the paper endeavor is to understand if the Romanian scholars that are interested in developing policy-relevant knowledge overintellectualized policy-making by assuming that should be devoted more to high-quality policy options based on the criterion of analytic rationality (see A. George, 2005; Nincic & Lepgold, 2000).Our study is based on a range of visual indicators (charts and graphics) that tend to show what type of elite was in place when major changes occurred in the Romanian foreign policy and how the policymaking process was shaped. The present paper could be also presented as a poster. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the end of the Cold War, NATO has gradually extended its presence in Central Europe (CE) and the Balkans with the explicit goal of promoting cooperation and long-term stability in a region well-known for its political and military volatility. International Relations (IR) scholars have approached NATO?s policies in the region from three main perspectives. Constructivists have viewed the extension of NATO?s influence in Central Europe and the Balkans as a factor of security community building. Realists have argued instead that the eastward expansion of NATO assists primarily the strategic interests of the United States (US) by granting it access to new allies and military resources for fighting the ?War on Terror?. Finally, critical theorists and post-structuralists have expressed skepticism in the long-term benefits of NATO enlargement by arguing that its strategies in the region serve mainly to reinforce a hierarchical and patriarchic power structure, the success of which depending on reproducing a civilizational identity by defining new cultural boundaries against other spaces.The main objective of this paper is twofold: first, to review and assess the validity of these three bodies of theories; second, to examine the nature of their shortcomings to fully explaining the security dynamic of the Balkan region. To this purpose, the paper will examine the scope and effectiveness of NATO?s influence on the security policies of the Balkan states (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania and Serbia & Montenegro). The level of regional cooperation, degree of closeness to US policies, and the definition of new threats represent the three main criteria to be used for assessing the analytical strength and empirical relevance of the three theoretical approaches outlined above. The paper will trace the evolution of the security policies of these countries since 1990, but special emphasis will be put on their reactions to two major crises: NATO?s military intervention in Kosovo in 1999 and the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. The first case tested the commitment of the Balkan states to confronting long-standing attitudes of ethnic prejudice, while the second case questioned their views about the principles around which international world should be defined. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will begin by tracing elements of Central European philosophy which have shaped recent work in critical IR theory. In particular, the paper will explore the work of Jan Patocka as a way into a set of debates concerned dialogism in IR theory. Even though Patocka has recently been recognised as a significant contributor to the mid 20th Century European phenomenological philosophical movement, his work on ontology and history, along with the Czech political experience of the early 20th Century has, to date, been neglected in IR. With this in mind, it is necessary to map the original contributions of Patocka onto the study of global politics, so as to offer a series of points of departure for further theoretical dialogue in global politics. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will address the impact of national and sectoral level economic interests on the development of national government policies to promote economic growth in Central and Eastern Europe. EU membership places the Central and East European countries before important dilemmas. For one, EU membership ultimately forces these countries to think more regionally or locally than was previously the case-in particular with respect to the use and administration of the EU's structural and cohesion funds. Despite the fact that these countries have been able to rely on more centralized control and administration of these funds for the period 2004-2006, the EU essentially requires that this policy be shifted to one of more decentralized control and administration for the next framework period 2007-2013. At the same time, however, it may well be possible to think of the crucial economic development concerns facing these countries as more explicitly national and/or global in character. In particular, these countries now stand before the requirement of consolidating the past decade of privatization, economic restructuring and foreign investments into more firmly embedded systems of economic production and technological development. At the same time, powerful forces are at work in the European Union to limit the degree of economic competition between East and West, potentially reducing the inflow of resources and restricting the nature and shape of the economic development tools these countries have at their disposal. This paper thus attempts to illuminate an important debate and emerging in Central and Eastern Europe and the New Europe over appropriate national level economic development tools and goals. This debate revolves around both centralized and regional control of the EU's structural and cohesion funds on the one hand, and the nature and shape of national-level economic development goals and their translation into industrial policy on the other. In important ways, this debate reinvigorates previous discussion of the North/South debate in Europe. The basic goal of this paper then is to outline the basic forces involved in the construction of national level economic policy-in particular in Hungary-and thereby to explain the basic shape and contour of emerging national strategies of economic development. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the end of the Cold War, most of the countries of the former Soviet Bloc engaged in foreign policies that would bring them closer to ?the West.? Throughout the 1990s their domestic and foreign policies were relatively predictable as they appeared to acquiesce to most Western demands. Yet, in 2003, it became apparent that U.S. policies towards Iraq differed drastically from the West European ones. Post-communist countries were forced to choose between the two ?Wests.? They overwhelmingly joined the United States and offered their support for the war in Iraq. This is true for both the former Soviet satellite countries of East and Central Europe (ECE) as well as for most of the CIS countries that used to be part of the USSR. In fact, at one point, more than half of the countries involved in the US-led coalition in Iraq came from ECE or the CIS.Their decision is somewhat surprising. First of all, in most (if not all) states the public did not support the war. Moreover, one can argue that the ECE decisions threatened one of their most important (if not the most important) foreign policy goals: joining the EU. In fact, some French officials made it clear that the ECE support for the U.S.-led war in Iraq may affect some of the former communist countries? chances of joining the EU. In some of the former CIS countries with large Muslim populations the decision to join the war in Iraq was seen as especially risky due to potential internal tensions. This paper asks why virtually all post-communist countries decided to support the U.S. in the Iraqi war. Some of the literature on the region has offered insights into the decisions made by individual ECE countries. Yet most scholars have remained within the confines of ?case studies.? There have been relatively few efforts to offer region-wide explanations for this trend. The few studies that have focused on multiple countries have emphasized only the material benefits that these countries believed they would reap from the Untied States. This study will also incorporate some institutional and ideational explanations of these decisions. The study is based on approximately sixty interviews conducted with officials of fourteen ECE and CIS countries. The interviews were conducted in the capitals of twelve ECE and CIS countries as well as at embassies in Washington and Paris. The paper identifies similarities and differences across the decision-making processes leading to ECE and CIS support for the US in the war. Based on such comparisons, it then draws a set of generalizable conclusions regarding foreign policy choices in post-communist states. The foreign policy decision of these countries will be discussed in terms of ?rationalist? IR theories focusing on cost-benefit calculations as well as in terms of constructivist theories explaining preference formation based on common norms. The study of such decisions is becoming increasingly relevant as ?the West? is likely to experience other important foreign policy differences and the post-communist countries will be faced with similar choices in the future. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over past 4 years the Central European new EU member states have been experiencing rapid growth in credit to GDP ratios (often exceeding an average annual growth rate of 30%). This fast pace of credit growth, fuelled primarily by foreign (western European) financial institutions, has attracted considerable attention from academic as well as policy oriented institutions (such as the IMF), who have been concerned about the potential associated financial and macroeconomic risks. Evaluating the sustainability of episodes of credit expansion is always difficult given the absence of a generally-accepted way of determining what rate of credit growth may be deemed to be “excessive”. It is particularly problematic in the case of the Central European post-transition economies where focusing on deviation from an estimated trend is virtually impossible given the short time series and the likely structural breaks in the series. This is why the majority of research thus far has opted for evaluating the "excessiveness" of credit growth based on economic fundamentals such as trends in economic (GDP) growth, interest rates, and catching up in incomes. On this basis, the majority of research has thus far concluded that the current episode of rapid growth should be regarded as a healthy and natural element of the catching up process with the more advanced developed economies of the EU and represents a convergence towards a new equilibrium rather than an episode of excessive and unsustainable credit expansion which is likely to results in an inevitable bust. However, economic fundamentals can only tell us a part of the story at best; the sustainability of credit expansion is affected also by a variety of institutional and cultural (extra-economic) factors which are quite impossible to model and are thus also significantly harder to forecast. If we learned anything from the recurring financial meltdowns of the 1990s it is that foreign investor confidence, crucial for the stability of host emerging markets' financial systems, is far from based strictly on economic fundamentals. In contrast, this paper aims to promote a more realistic evaluation of the sustainability of credit expansion in Central Europe. Arguably, focusing on the institutional and cultural environment which frames the activities of the main (foreign) lenders, and exploring the sources for the rising demand for credit amongst consumers and producers in the region, yields a significantly less benign interpretation of the current credit boom in the region. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four newly admitted countries to the European Union from Central Europe and soon to be EU members Bulgaria and Romania operate nuclear reactors for civilian power generation purposes. The reactors in Slovenia and Romania are relatively uncontroversial, but those in the Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, and Slovakia have been significant sources of dispute over their safety and environmental impact at least since the end of the Cold War. They have created difficulties in relations between new and old EU members and at times between new members and the EU bureaucracy. Central European countries consider the reactors national assets ? reflections of technological advancement and frequently a source of much needed foreign revenue ? whereas several Western European countries favor policies moving Europe toward denuclearization. Recently the nuclear industry worldwide has been gaining ground because of high oil and natural gas prices and because the memories of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 are weakening. Moreover, with EU accession successfully completed or nearly so, nuclear business interests and governments are emboldened to press for pro-nuclear policies. This paper will survey the operating nuclear reactors in Central Europe and the key disputes associated with them. It will then review appropriate global, EU, and national policy initiatives regarding the continued operation of nuclear reactors and consider as well the beliefs and impact of anti-nuclear NGOs to evaluate the prospects for decline or growth of civilian power nuclear reactor operation within the European Union. Particular emphasis and preliminary theoretical speculation will be given to comparison of the influence of governments, anti-nuclear NGOs, and national and multinational business interests. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dual process of post-communist transition and EU accession has highlighted the role of minorities and migrants in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Minority issues have been an integral part of the region?s history of state- and nation-building and the transition process since 1989. Under communism migration involved extreme cases of forced migration as well as labour migration within and across communist countries. The experience of in-migration from other regions, however, has been one of the consequences of successful transition and EU membership. While the EU?s leverage in the area of minority protection by and large ends with a country?s entry into the EU, the EU?s role in migration policies becomes effective with membership. This EU-based temporal distinction between minority and migration issues, however, overlooks the conceptual and policy linkages between the two areas, which this paper sets out to explore. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EU-membership is tightly conditioned, leaving little room for real negotiations between the applicant states and the EU. The EU is not passively waiting for applicants to adapt to the membership criteria, however. On the contrary they are actively taking part in the adoption process, giving financial and administrative assistance and policy recommendations on the basis of the annual opinions of the progress made. The aim of the paper is to study the role of the EU in the domestic policy processes in the former and current applicant countries of Central and Eastern Europe.The overarching question to be answered is thus: In what way, to what extent and with what consequences does the EU interfere in the domestic policy processes in applicant countries?The second part aims at analysing the effects of the pattern discovered in part one and what lessons EU should learn from the last and current enlargement processes, when starting negotiations with new countries. The specific questions related to section two are thus: What are the consequences of the EU interference in terms of sovereignty, democracy and accountability, popular trust and support for the domestic political institutions in the candidate countries? How should EU deal with these issues in future enlargement processes? ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Almost two decades after democratization in Central and Eastern Europe, the party systems are still highly unstable. The volatility is high both in terms of shifting voter allegiance between the established parties and in terms of new parties entering par ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After 20 years of the Collapse of the Cold War, we would like to estimate how does the effects of the democratization. Wa it succeeded or not, and what is the main problem of the effect of Democratization in Central Europe in 21st century..To think of the effects of Democratization in 1990s, we will not avoid the rising neo-nationalism, xenophobia and regional collaboration and reconstruction in Europe. I would like to investigate why the Democratization after the Cold War brought (or not)in the effedt the Neo-Ntionalism, Dept of Democracy , and not people's Co-existance, but Xenophobia? ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experience of emerging democracies in the first wave of democratization in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has been largely with newly designed constitutions, which were to some extent imported or heavily influenced by constitutions of developed demo ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the constitution of collective identities that are present in current Central and Eastern Europe and attempts to assess the state of societal security in the region. Security-community building institutions such as NATO, the EU and the OSCE have had considerable impact upon the traditional military-political aspect of regional security. However, issues surrounding human and societal security evolving from a post-cold war regional instability have not been sufficiently addressed in the past. This work will examine the societal security threats as perceived by collective sub-regional actors in Central and Eastern Europe and show that the existing securitization agents lack in the provision of basic societal security such as minority rights, the rule of law and conflict prevention. This lack of security results in the renationalization of collective identities, which see the reliance on their collective identity as a guarantee for their security and thereby further destabilize the region. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The governments of central and east European countries sought during the 1990s to adopt the policy making practices of "developed," "European," and "capitalist" states. Three international organizations ? the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the European Union (EU), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) ? helped to define the legitimate range of economic policies available to them. By the middle of the decade those organizations have formally and informally promoted capital liberalization as a practice that constituted "developed" and "European" states. After a series of devastating financial crises in emerging markets, however, the prevailing orthodoxy of the international financial community changed substantially, and the OECD and IMF urged caution on the countries of central and Eastern Europe. By the early years of the new decade only the EU, informed by its financially liberal acquis communautaire continued to promote capital liberalization in the region. In 2005 prospective members of the EU were caught between the liberalism of Brussels and the caution of Paris and Washington. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It comes as a surprise that while educationalists, university management, partially lawyers and economists discuss the Bologna Process from the professional viewpoints political scientists and the IR specialists remain almost silent, though the integration of higher education in Europe may be significant in its social and economic consequences. They are very likely to have an impact not only on European political development.Paper discusses how the integration of European Higher Education area will influence political process in Europe (in particular in Central and Eastern Europe), what will be the role of European universities, what kind of migration in Europe it caused, if it will influence of democratization of Eastern and Central Europe, what kind of new challenges we will face, how to make Bologna Process more smooth. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the System Transformation to joining to the EU in Central and Eastern Europe, the economic situation compoletely changed in these spheres, but the sicial differentiation between Rich and Poor becomes strictly wide. Especially in Hungary, the Eastern and Southern borders contact to Western Ukraine, Western Romania and Serbia, there remains poverty and un-modernized system. The author analyzes through Japanese investment and company trade comparing between Eastern border and the Metropolis, and analyzes the social situation of minorities, romas, in these area especially before and after joining to the EU. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent events in postcommunist Europe suggest that external actors can significantly affect political and economic reform. The European Union and the United States have promoted democratization and free-market capitalism throughout East Central Europe. In Eastern Europe, Russia?s support has helped to preserve authoritarian regimes in Belarus and the Ukraine. However, as the United States? relationship with Cuba and other Central American countries demonstrates, external actors are often ineffective in changing regimes. Is it possible to predict when and where international pressure may have an effect? Based on extensive research in Slovakia and the Czech Republic I theorize that two main variables, the strength of the international pressure and the strength of elite support for the current regime, can explain the effectiveness of international pressure in changing regimes. When the external actors have a high degree of economic leverage and a significant minority of the elite do not support the current regime, then international pressure may be effective in changing the regime. A deeper understanding of what determines the effectiveness of international pressure in Europe can help policy-makers and scholars to develop better expectations about the likelihood of success of American and European programs promoting political and economic reform in Africa, Asia, and elsewhere. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Europe Undivided analyzes how an enlarging EU has facilitated a convergence toward liberal democracy among credible future members of the EU in Central and Eastern Europe. It reveals how variations in domestic competition put democratizing states on different political trajectories after 1989, and how the EU?s leverage eventually influenced domestic politics in liberal and particularly illiberal democracies. In doing so, Europe Undivided illuminates the changing dynamics of the relationship between the EU and candidate states from 1989 to 2004, and challenges policymakers to manage and improve EU leverage to support democracy, ethnic tolerance and economic reform in other candidates and proto-candidates such as the Western Balkan states, Turkey and Ukraine. Albeit not by design, the most powerful and successful tool of EU foreign policy has turned out to be EU enlargement ? and this book helps us understand why, and how, it works. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The end of the cold war with accompanying collapse of the former Soviet Union and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact were all stark demonstrations of how the ones failed to adapt were dropped from the game, and how the ones meeting the needs ? such as the EU and NATO in terms of liberal democracy and security ? remained on paramount demand than ever. Even so, the stark demonstrations were not over yet, until the tragedy of the terrorist attacks of 9/11 on the United States. Still, such global threats remain, which apparently even the world?s strongest state is not immune. All in all, the cumulative consideration of these events point out to the indispensability of comprehensive approach to security, which involves not only socio-economical dimensions, but more critically the delineation of ?our? spheres and their respective identities. Recent enlargements of the EU and NATO in 2004 are exclusive examples to this end, with the broadening Western scope to include the countries of the Central and Eastern Europe into the Transatlantic framework. Now, is this the end? Do we have a complete picture responding to global needs? Are we satisfied with this picture? Above all, what is this picture, and who is supposed to be in or has to be left out?Answering these questions primarily requires a comprehensive consideration of the emerging balances and motives on the both sides of the Atlantic. To this end, the analysis of further enlargement prospects of the EU and NATO deems indispensable. This study begins with the European side, to track the divergent trends within the EU towards further enlargement, and then comparing them with the concerns on the other side of the Atlantic in the light of further enlargement prospects for NATO, in search for a common ground based on converging objectives with diverging priorities. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]