Search

Regularized intergovernmentalism refers to a distinct kind of foreign policy practice that connects and intertwines foreign policy processes in particular ways. This paper puts forth a concept to properly capture and expose such distinctive foreign policy realities characterizing certain periods and places. With this concept, the article systematically scrutinizes the intergovernmental fabric of bilateral Franco–German relations from 1963 to 2009. The characteristic features of Franco–German regularized intergovernmentalism represent a crucial foreign policy connection, foundational for European affairs of the past half century and a defining feature of Europe’s post-war order and regional governance. Exploring key aspects of what it is that links France and Germany in particular ways, this paper offers a historically deeply grounded constitutive analysis. Based on its constitutive inquiries, the papers points at new possibilities of causal theorizing and explores some of regularized intergovernmentalism’s hypothesized effects and limitations. Franco–German intergovernmental affairs may be the most developed instance of this practice. But regularized bilateral intergovernmentalism is not a Franco–German idiosyncrasy. Rather, it is an important and apparently growing approach to structuring foreign policy conduct, and seems an increasingly prominent aspect of how the world is organized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between Turkey and the EU entered a new phrase on October 3, 2005 with the opening of Turkey’s accession negotiations. This paper proposes that the specific juncture that European integration finds itself in and the perceptions of Turkey’s fit into Europe are the main variables around which member states’ preferences and the European public’s position on the Turkish accession are shaped. This is different from arguing that Turkey’s adoption of the EU acquis would determine its accession. Turkey’s adoption of the EU acquis/criteria is necessary but not sufficient on its own, as other factors will shape Turkey’s accession. These factors are the convergence of member states’ interests, the public approval and the EU’s internal dynamics. This paper concludes by arguing that the interplay of the utilitarian concerns, the ideational factors and the EU’s internal dynamics is the key to understand the conditions under which Turkey’s accession talks will proceed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference paper about the asylum system in Europe is presented. It discusses the asylum policy of the European Union (EU), with its members setting several targets including the creation of a uniform status for refugees and a common asylum procedure, and limitations on asylum seekers' secondary movements. It explains the role of EU as the intermediary between the international system and member states with regards to asylum responsibilities.

This article contributes to two debates about international relations (IR) as a discipline: first, how global is IR, and how is it structured? Second, what is the state of theory in IR? We conducted (co-) citation analyses of both Web of Science (WoS) and—for the first time— non-WoS publications from Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. With regard to the first question, we find that global IR resembles a core–periphery structure as a "hub and spoke" system whereby transatlantic core nodes are interconnected to each other and to some periphery nodes, while the periphery nodes are connected to the core but not to each other. IR scholarship in the periphery quotes the transatlantic theory cluster but is not linked to each other, not even in the same region. Knowledge produced in the periphery has to go through the transatlantic core in order to be recognized globally. As to the transatlantic core, we identify two major (co-) citation clusters: one committed to IR theory-building across issue areas from a variety of perspectives and the other focused on security studies with a strong emphasis on quantitative methods. With regard to the second question, global IR hangs together through references to the IR theory cluster consisting of North American and European authors who appear to define what IR theory is. Scholars in the periphery refer to this transatlantic IR theory cluster when engaging in theory-building. IR theories have become rather diverse and pluralistic, even in the core. While scholars still refer to the big "isms," they use them around the globe in a synthesizing manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of evidence and expertise in policy-making has been of interest to public health professionals and political scientists alike. The public health community often sees its efforts as part of a linear knowledge transfer process and tends to blame itself for inadequate communication or translation of its arguments to policy-makers' language when its efforts fail. Political science, especially theories of the policy process, offer alternative perspectives to explain the success or failure of experts' preferred policy goals. This paper focuses on the concept of epistemic communities (groups of experts with a common policy goal derived from their shared knowledge) in policy-making, drawing on examples from the field of health technology assessment in Europe. By combining the parsimony and the central focus on experts of the linear knowledge transfer model with the recognition of complexity of political science, the epistemic communities concept provides a useful structure for the public health community to analyze its efforts to influence policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper demonstrates the use of an in-class simulation to model negotiations in the European Council. Simulations are an increasingly popular way to teach the complex processes of policymaking and negotiations in the European Union (EU) where institutional procedures are difficult to understand and where intergovernmental and supranational issues often conflict. Advocates of active learning promote simulations to get students more involved and to reach an increasingly diverse student body. The simulation presented here has three separate sessions, each covering a different issue and lasting for a week (two class days) each. Modeling the European Council allows students to experience the intergovernmental side of policy decisions in the European Union while at the same time learning about the issues facing EU policymakers. It is a useful tool for teaching about the EU presidency and a worthwhile exercise for studying the national aspects of European integration. Student surveys indicate that students process the information they gain by role-playing better than information they receive in the traditional classroom. A simulation of the European Council gives students a base for understanding issues of European integration and can serve as a springboard for further study of EU institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference paper about the status of human trafficking in Europe is presented. It explains the differences between human smuggling and trafficking. It discusses why many women and children are being trafficked for sexual and labor exploitation. It highlights how women and children are being trafficked from Eastern to Western Europe, and how authorities, non-governmental organizations and international organizations are collaborating to address this problem.

Background: The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Group has developed a new multidimensional instrument measuring cancer-related fatigue to be used in conjunction with the quality of life core questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30). The module EORTC QLQ-FA13 assesses physical, cognitive, and emotional aspects of cancer-related fatigue.Methods: The methodology follows the EORTC guidelines for phase IV validation of modules. This paper focuses on the results of the psychometric validation of the factorial structure of the module. For validation and cross-validation confirmatory factor analysis (maximum likelihood estimation), intraclass correlation and Cronbach alpha for internal consistency were employed. The study involved an international multicenter collaboration of 11 European and non-European countries.Results: A total of 946 patients with various tumor diagnoses were enrolled. Based on the confirmatory factor analysis, we could approve the three-dimensional structure of the module. Removing one item and reassigning the factorial mapping of another item resulted in the EORTC QLQ-FA12. For the revised scale, we found evidence supporting good local (indicator reliability ≥ 0.60, factor reliability ≥ 0.82) and global model fit (GFI t1|t2 = 0.965/0.957, CFI t1|t2 = 0.976/0.972, RMSEA t1|t2 = 0.060/0.069) for both measurement points. For each scale, test-retest reliability proved to be very good (intraclass correlation: R t1-t2 = 0.905-0.921) and internal consistency proved to be good to high (Cronbach alpha = .79-.90).Conclusion: Based on the former phase III module, the multidimensional structure was revised as a phase IV module (EORTC FA12) with an improved scale structure. For a comprehensive validation of the EORTC FA12, further aspects of convergent and divergent validity as well as sensitivity to change should be determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marinova, Nadejda K. and Patrick James. (2012) The Tragedy of Human Trafficking: Competing Theories and European Evidence. Foreign Policy Analysis, doi: 10.1111/j.1743-8594.2011.00162.x This paper explores an issue that is both domestic and international: whether legalization of prostitution leads to an increase in human trafficking. For both theory and public policy, this is an important query to answer, with implications beyond the cases in question. The principal domains of investigation are Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands. These states subscribe to UN, EU, Council of Europe and OSCE agreements and are located in the same geographic region, yet have adopted opposite approaches to prostitution. The Netherlands and Germany legalized prostitution in 2000 and 2002, respectively. Sweden outlawed it in 1999 and imposed criminal penalties for the purchase of illicit sex. The preceding characteristics make these states ideal for a comparative exercise in the context of competing perspectives on human trafficking and legalized prostitution. We find that legalization leads to an increase in trafficking. The dynamics of trafficking are also associated with numerous factors, among which the most critical are government efforts specifically targeting the activity in the field of law enforcement. Implications for theory and public policy are offered, along with ideas about future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background There is a broad consensus in the European public health community that international collaboration and coordination are key in the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Yet, while experts typically testify the importance of cross-national learning and a coordinated effort to reduce the spread of multi-resistant bacteria, there are mixed views about how that is best realized in practice, particularly on the dichotomy between horizontal and vertical activities. Methods National action plans (NAP) from all EU member states were systematically overviewed by two independent researchers. We followed a fixed procedure for locating a broad and comparable content on the international dimensions, and letting these vary on scales. Results We find that countries adhere to four different strategies for international coordination, varying between 'high' and 'low' on values of vertical and horizontal activities. Most countries spend none or very little space to discuss international activities, while some countries use their NAPs to outline their aspiration for taking leading roles in the international struggle. Moreover, in line with previous research, we find that many countries directly mimic the Global Action Plan, but also that a large share of countries describe independent arrangements in their international strategies. Conclusions European countries recognize AMR and its inherent international governance challenge differently in their NAPs, which may have implications for coordinated action to address the issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses vaccination hesitancy among people in Europe and U.S. with reference to the article published in "Journal of Public Health". Topics discussed include development of strategic approach against widespread misinformation and conspiracy theories on COVID-19 vaccines, research published by EU agency Eurofound on the vaccine hesitancy among adults in Europe, and progress on COVID-19 vaccination campaigns in US.

The quinquennial Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference represents a highly important event from the perspective of the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). Though not a party to the treaty itself, the EU has made a consistent effort since the 1990s to coordinate the positions of its member states and achieve higher visibility in the NPT review process. The aim of this article is to examine the role of the EU in the 2015 NPT Review Conference deliberations. Drawing on on-site observations, statements and in-depth research interviews, it argues that the recent institutional changes notwithstanding, the influence of the EU as a distinct actor in the NPT context remains very limited, and the EU's common position is in bigger disarray than ever before. This year's Review Conference demonstrated the widening rift between the member states, in particular in the area of nuclear disarmament and the related issues. The inability to maintain a coherent common position limits the EU 'actorness' and impedes its striving for relevance in the NPT forums. The dynamics outlined in this article further highlight the limits of the EU CFSP in security matters in which the national positions of individual member states are as divergent as in the case of nuclear disarmament. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article informs that the U.S. European centrality is urgently needed toward cohesive and comprehensive transatlantic ‘One Health' approach in addressing global COVID19 response and health security. Topics include multifaceted and multilateral global COVID-19 ‘One Health' approach and develop an enhanced transatlantic post-pandemic recovery; and role of European Union (EU) joint procurement of medical countermeasures to large-scale disease outbreaks with considerable public support.

Background: End-of-life care attracts major policy interest. Place of death is an important metric of individual experience and health system performance. Most people prefer to die at home, but hospital is the most common place of death in high-income countries. Little is known about international trends in place of death over time. Methods: We aimed to collate population-level data on place of death in Europe for the years 2005-2017, and to evaluate association with national characteristics and policy choices. We sought outcome data from the 32 European Economic Area countries. We identified national economic, societal, demographic and health system predictors from Eurostat, OECD and the WHO. We analysed these cross-national panel data using linear regression with panel-corrected standard errors. Results: Our analytic dataset included 30 countries accounting for over 95% of Europe’s population and economic activity. Average national proportion of deaths occurring in hospital in the study period ranged from 26% to 68%, with a median of 52%. Trends vary markedly by region and wealth, with low and decreasing hospital deaths in the North-West, and high and increasing prevalence in the South and East. Controlling for demographic and economic factors, strong palliative care provision and generous government finance of long-term care were associated with fewer hospital deaths. Conclusions: We found modifiable policy choices associated with hospital mortality, as well as wider structural economic and societal factors. Policymakers can act to curb worrisome trends inhospital mortality. Data on places of death outside hospital can improve future research, policy and practice. Key messages: Cross-national longitudinal analysis. Trends of hospital deaths in Europe, association between hospital mortality rate, palliative care and other healthcare factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Market services productivity Since the mid-1990s, market services have positively influenced labor productivity growth in the US, but not in most European countries. We analyze these cross-country differences in growth dynamics using industry-level measures of output, inputs, and multifactor productivity (MFP) from the new EU KLEMS database. We find that using detailed data has important implications for empirical analysis of policy influences on growth. Increased investment in information and communication technology (ICT) capital and growth in human capital contributed substantially to labor productivity growth in market services across all European countries and the US. However, countries differ most strongly in the rates of efficiency improvement in the use of inputs. We find no evidence of an externality-driven relationship between such efficiency changes and the growth of ICT use or of employment of university-educated workers. We also find that entry liberalization has been beneficial for productivity growth in telecommunications, but not in other service industries. — Robert Inklaar, Marcel P. Timmer and Bart van Ark [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at promoting a new bilateral legal framework for China-EU economic relations without political interference, this paper first surveys the developments of China-Europe economic relations and the relevant legal arrangements since 1949; second, it deals with political issues affecting China-EU economic relations; and third, it discusses basic legal considerations in signing China-EC economic treaties for the Chinese side. The author points out that the China-EC Economic Cooperation Agreement in 1985 has proved insufficient for practical needs and a substitutive agreement should be promoted in the new era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Credited with having fostered the renaissance of Francisco de Vitoria and the School of Salamanca in international law circles in the interwar period, Camilo Barcia Trelles has largely fallen into oblivion along with most Spanish international law professors of the Spanish Civil War generation. The first part of this article provides an outline of the long career of Barcia Trelles against the background of the radically transformed domestic and international context of the interwar years and the aftermath of World War II in both Spain and Europe. The second part surveys three key themes of Barcia Trelles' 60-year long contribution to the study of international law and international politics. First, it analyses his early interest in the process of regionalism in Latin America and the role of North American foreign policy in the region. This is followed by an analysis of Barcia Trelles's attention to the study of the Spanish classics of international law during the interwar period, and, finally, by an overview of his approach to the study of international law in the light of international politics during the Cold War. The conclusion briefly engages with the legacy of Barcia Trelles' life and works in the European tradition of international law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this discursive exploration that is influenced by ethnography and autoethnography is to present how Western-based music therapy intersects with the pluralistic healthcare culture in Malaysia. We will first be situating music therapy as a Eurocentric-based healthcare practice. We will then introduce the history of Malaysia and healthcare culture through a pluralistic lens, drawing inspiration from a popular Malaysian street food— rojak , a form of salad. We use rojak as an analogy to honor Malaysia's food culture while drawing similarities between the diverse flavors and textures between the distinct components of rojak, with the unique pluralism that exists throughout Malaysian culture and healthcare practices. Through this rojak pluralist lens, we will share several unique Malaysian vignettes to explore the different ways we consider Eurocentric music therapy as a potentially colonial practice, ranging from postcolonial theory perspective to a pragmatic, inclusive perspective. As Malaysia has maintained its pluralistic culture as a uniquely multiracial Asian country despite the lengthy history of colonization, we offer these Malaysian, post-British-colonial music therapy vignettes in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paul Rohrbach was an influential publicist in Wilhelmine Germany. He also routinely used racial justifications to defend brutal policies for managing the indigenous populations of Germany's African colonies. In recent years, scholars have interpreted Rohrbach's promotion of colonialism as evidence that colonial ideas increasingly saturated German political and imperial discourse before and during the First World War. His work has thus been cited to support an emerging narrative of pathological continuity, which contends that Wilhelmine German imperialists reflexively drew upon colonial ideologies, experiences and models to inform increasingly repressive and violent plans to rule ethnically diverse space in Eastern Europe. This article argues that Paul Rohrbach has been misinterpreted. His career represents not the ease with which colonial ideas infiltrated German imperial discourse, but rather the severe reluctance of an ardent colonialist to employ colonial methods in European space. Drawing upon his writings on Africa and his discussions of German war aims in Eastern Europe during the First World War, this article demonstrates Rohrbach's profound unwillingness to structure German imperial expansion in Russia's Baltic provinces and Congress Poland according to colonial precedents. Differences in the perceived cultural and political sophistication of African, Baltic and Polish societies convinced Rohrbach that repressive and brutal colonial models of rule would be inefficient or counterproductive for achieving German objectives in Eastern Europe. Indeed, Rohrbach's studies of colonialism actually reinforced his commitment to decentralization and respect for national diversity as essential instruments for governing politically sophisticated European societies. His experiences in Africa, in other words, steeled his confidence in multinational imperialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Whereas it is generally accepted that maternal environment plays a key role in child health, emerging evidence suggests that paternal environment before conception also impacts child health. We aimed to investigate the association between children's asthma risk and parental smoking and welding exposures prior to conception.Methods: In a longitudinal, multi-country study, parents of 24 168 offspring aged 2-51 years provided information on their life-course smoking habits, occupational exposure to welding and metal fumes, and offspring's asthma before/after age 10 years and hay fever. Logistic regressions investigated the relevant associations controlled for age, study centre, parental characteristics (age, asthma, education) and clustering by family.Results: Non-allergic early-onset asthma (asthma without hay fever, present in 5.8%) was more common in the offspring with fathers who smoked before conception {odds ratio [OR] = 1.68 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.18-2.41]}, whereas mothers' smoking before conception did not predict offspring asthma. The risk was highest if father started smoking before age 15 years [3.24 (1.67-6.27)], even if he stopped more than 5 years before conception [2.68 (1.17-6.13)]. Fathers' pre-conception welding was independently associated with non-allergic asthma in his offspring [1.80 (1.29-2.50)]. There was no effect if the father started welding or smoking after birth. The associations were consistent across countries.Conclusions: Environmental exposures in young men appear to influence the respiratory health of their offspring born many years later. Influences during susceptible stages of spermatocyte development might be important and needs further investigation in humans. We hypothesize that protecting young men from harmful exposures may lead to improved respiratory health in future generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Evidence on association of maternal pre-pregnancy weight with risk of orofacial clefts is inconsistent.Methods: Six large case-control studies of orofacial clefts from Northern Europe and the USA were included in analyses pooling individual-level data. Cases included 4943 mothers of children with orofacial clefts (cleft lip only: 1135, cleft palate with cleft lip: 2081, cleft palate only: 1727) and controls included 10 592 mothers of unaffected children. Association of orofacial cleft risk with pre-pregnancy maternal weight classified by level of body mass index (BMI, kg/m 2 ) was evaluated using logistic regression adjusting for multiple covariates.Results: Cleft palate, both alone and with cleft lip (CP+/-CL), was associated with maternal class II+ pre-pregnancy obesity (≥ 35)compared with normal weight [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 1.36; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.16, 1.58]. CP+/-CL was marginally associated with maternal underweight (aOR = 1.16; 95% CI = 0.98, 1.36). Cleft lip alone was not associated with BMI.Conclusions: In this largest population-based study to date, we found an increased risk of cleft palate, with or without cleft lip, in class II+ obese mothers compared with normal-weight mothers; underweight mothers may also have an increased risk, but this requires further study. These results also suggest that extremes of weight may have a specific effect on palatal development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: SYNARR-Flash study (Monitoring of SYNcopes and/or sustained palpitations of suspected ARRhythmic origin) is an international, multicentre, observational, prospective trial designed to evaluate the role of external 4-week electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring in clinical work-up of unexplained syncope and/or sustained palpitations of suspected arrhythmic origin.Methods and Results: Consecutive patients were enrolled within 1 month after unexplained syncope or palpitations (index event) after being discharged from emergency room or hospitalization without a conclusive diagnosis. A 4-week ECG monitoring was obtained by external high-capacity loop recorder (SpiderFlash-T(®), Sorin) storing patient-activated and auto-triggered tracings. Diagnostic monitorings included (i) conclusive events with reoccurrence of syncope or palpitation with concomitant ECG recording (with/without arrhythmias) and (ii) events with asymptomatic predefined significant arrhythmias (sustained supraventricular or ventricular tachycardia, advanced atrio-ventricular block, sinus bradycardia <30 b.p.m., pauses >6 s). SYNARR-Flash study enrolled 395 patients (57.7% females, 56.9 ± 18.7 years, 28.1% with syncope, and 71.9% with palpitations) from 10 European centres. For syncope, the 4-week diagnostic yield was 24.5%, and predictors of diagnostic events were early start of recording (0-15 vs. >15 days after index event) (OR 6.2, 95% CI 1.3-29.6, P = 0.021) and previous history of supraventricular arrhythmias (OR 3.6, 95% CI 1.4-9.7, P = 0.018). For palpitations, the 4-week diagnostic yield was 71.6% and predictors of diagnostic events were history of recurrent palpitations (P < 0.001) and early start of recording (P = 0.001).Conclusion: The 4-week external ECG monitoring can be considered as first-line tool in the diagnostic work-up of syncope and palpitation. Early recorder use, history of supraventricular arrhythmia, and frequent previous events increased the likelihood of diagnostic events during the 4-week external ECG monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on the European Union (EU) Commission Communication promoting international academic cooperation amid geopolitical tension and polarization in 2021. The commission acknowledged the need to cooperate to improve research and innovation value chains in the document. It explains the implication of the reference to European values in the Communication. Also mentioned are the use of ambiguous terms in the document such as open strategic autonomy and rules-based cooperation.

The transatlantic partnership needs to be reassessed. Since the end of the Cold War, Europe has chosen to bandwagon with the United States and to outsource its security to Washington. Bandwagoning has serious consequences when the use of force is at stake: it may lead to entrapment, where weaker allies may be involuntarily dragged into a conflict. It may also lead to abandonment, where the dominant ally may choose to discard their vital security concerns. With the evolution of the international system towards a multipolar configuration, this strategy of bandwagoning is becoming increasingly costly for Europe while the dominant power, the United States, is progressively confronted by other competitors at the systemic level. These classic dilemmas attached to an asymmetric partnership are exacerbated in a multipolar configuration. In particular, the abandonment scenario may become more and more frequent precisely because there is competition-and thus potential costs-at the international level: the United States may leave Europe alone, not by choice but by necessity. The current crisis in Ukraine illustrates this shift: while some American leaders were keen to escalate the conflict by arming Ukraine, the Obama administration's commitment to the defence of Europe has been minimal and it has largely delegated the management of the crisis to the Europeans themselves. Washington had other and more important priorities. Strategic autonomy is not an option for Europe; it has become a reality, a Gaullist moment where Europeans will have to learn to think and act strategically for themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Russian President Vladimir Putin claims that his country's annexation of Crimea in March 2014 was partly in response to NATO enlargement. NATO leaders counter that eastern enlargement is not a cause of the Ukraine crisis, and they argue that enlargement does not threaten Russia, but rather it creates stability for all of Europe. This article examines the history of NATO-Russian tensions over enlargement, considers how NATO's enlargement policy factored into the Ukraine crisis, and reviews options for the future of enlargement. Drawing on diplomatic history and geopolitical theory, the article explains Russia's persistent hostility towards NATO's policy of eastward expansion and highlights NATO's failure to convert Russia to its liberal world-view. The alliance's norm-driven enlargement policy has hindered the creation of an enduring NATO-Russia cooperative relationship and helped fuel the outbreak of conflict in Georgia and Ukraine. In light of this, NATO should alter its current enlargement policy by infusing it with geopolitical rationales. This means downgrading the transformative and democratization elements of enlargement and, instead, focusing on how candidate countries add to NATO capabilities and impact overall alliance security. A geopolitically-driven enlargement policy would prioritize countries in the Balkan and Scandinavian regions for membership and openly exclude Georgia and Ukraine from membership. Ultimately, this policy would have the effect of strengthening NATO while giving it more flexibility in dealing with Russia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unravelling of the post-Cold War security order in Europe was both cause and consequence of the crisis in Ukraine. The crisis was a symptom of the three-fold failure to achieve the aspirations to create a 'Europe whole and free' enunciated by the Charter of Paris in 1990, the drift in the European Union's behaviour from normative to geopolitical concerns, and the failure to institutionalize some form of pan-continental unity. The structural failure to create a framework for normative and geopolitical pluralism on the continent meant that Russia was excluded from the new European order. No mode of reconciliation was found between the Brussels-centred wider Europe and various ideas for greater European continental unification. Russia's relations with the EU became increasingly tense in the context of the Eastern Partnership and the Association Agreement with Ukraine. The EU and the Atlantic alliance moved towards a more hermetic and universal form of Atlanticism. Although there remain profound differences between the EU and its trans-Atlantic partner and tensions between member states, the new Atlanticism threatens to subvert the EU's own normative principles. At the same time, Russia moved from a relatively complaisant approach to Atlanticism towards a more critical neo-revisionism, although it does not challenge the legal or normative intellectual foundations of international order. This raises the question of whether we can speak of the 'death of Europe' as a project intended to transcend the logic of conflict on the continent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The war in Ukraine is revelatory of a malaise in Europe's security order created by Russia's resistance to western institutions on the one hand and the western desire to maintain these institutions while partnering with Russia on the other. Absent a sense of priorities, western policy risks contributing to the erosion of Europe's security order that Russia seeks in opposition to western ambition. Europe's order is premised first and foremost on a distinctively western concert of nations-whereby Euro-Atlantic states coordinate policy according to a common purpose layered into both NATO and the EU-that forms part of a wider balance of power between Russia and the West. Western policy should aim to strengthen the concert and clarify the balance. However, the prevalent desire to include Russia in the concert confuses matters in a major way, eroding both the underlying sense of priorities and the foundation for order. This article examines this threatening erosion and traces it to three underlying trends: political contestation with regard to the meaning of 'restoration' post-1989; military instability following from the unpredictability of 'hybrid war'; and moral equivocation on the part of the West when it comes to defending the Euro-Atlantic security order. The article concludes that given the depth of contestation, western allies should learn to distinguish concert from balance and act on the condition that the former, a vibrant western concert, is a precondition for the latter, a manageable continental balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trans-border co-operation is regulated in a special way, because it includes not only States, but also parts of States, such as the subjects of federations, regions etc. These relations are regulated by international treaties (bilateral and multi-lateral), by agreements between local authorities and acts of formation specially created for this co-operation. The process of trans-border co-operation is more actively developing in Europe, where special entities—“Euroregions”—are being created, and a network of different agreements has been concluded for the regulation of this kind of co-operation. Non-sovereign participants of trans-border co-operation are not subjects of public international law and their agreements are transnational administrative agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Lacher, Hannes, and Julian Germann. (2012) Before Hegemony: Britain, Free Trade, and Nineteenth-Century World Order Revisited. International Studies Review, doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2486.2012.01100.x This article argues that neo-Gramscian theorizations of 'hegemony' have failed to illuminate the role of nineteenth-century Britain in the rise of a liberal world economy in three respects. First, they have provided mutually exclusive accounts of the social forces underpinning domestic and international hegemony. Second, they have failed to show Britain's agency in the making of a liberal world order. Third, they have posited a uniformity of social forces and liberal state forms that elides the differences between British and continental societies, thereby obscuring the real reasons for the general shift to liberal internationalism. We argue that it was the structural differences in the economic, social, and political organization of Britain and continental Europe that made free trade without a hegemon possible. Neo-Gramscian theorists of hegemony-just like their mainstream peers-have unduly generalized from the unique structures of American hegemony after 1945. Instead of serving as a master concept to organize the history of international relations, hegemony itself needs to be historicized: as a singular and temporally limited possibility of societal and international rule, preceded and succeeded by other forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A diverse set of national and international bodies is increasingly commenting upon other organizations’ compliance with ‘global administrative law’ norms, creating a complex network of interaction and review. Although many forms of interaction can be identified and observed, horizontal review between international organizations appears to be relatively rare. This article examines one instance in which review did emerge: the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's criticisms of the transparency and accountability of the World Health Organization (WHO) during the H1N1 pandemic. Two key questions arise from the case study. First, what structural or institutional features allowed inter-institutional review to take place? And, secondly, why would two institutions have such divergent views of an international organization's accountability and transparency? The analysis suggests that a key factor in allowing horizontal review to occur is diversity in institutional composition – in terms either of membership, distribution of power between members, or interests represented by members. In this case study, the Parliamentary Assembly represented the interests of states’ legislative branches, whereas the WHO representatives reflect the interests of states’ executive branches. Variations in baseline assumptions regarding the WHO's function in regulating infectious disease response and to whom it should be accountable may partially explain the substantive divergence of opinion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Why does Europeanization-the process of adopting European rules-advance in some countries, while it stalls in others? What explains different European trajectories of otherwise similar candidate states? This article explains foreign policy choices of EU candidate states with an identity-based theoretical framework. In states where European identity is a widely shared social value, the inevitable short-term costs of Europeanization-economic, social, and political-will still be worth the price of admission because becoming 'European' trumps other domestic political concerns. In contrast, in countries where the European idea is not broadly shared, pro-European groups will find it hard to forge crosscutting coalitions needed to successfully promote Europeanization with all its associated costs. To illustrate these theoretical insights, I compare Europeanization in Croatia and Serbia, the two Balkan states with similar regional status, shared legacies of communism, and ethnic war, yet quite different European trajectories. I argue that the process of identity convergence explains Croatia's rapid compliance with controversial EU requirements, while in neighboring Serbia, identity divergence has derailed Serbia's EU candidacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the relationship between intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and conflict has captured the attention of international relations scholars for decades, the empirical results of this research agenda have presented contradictory conclusions regarding the pacifying effect normally attributed to IGOs. We address these contradictions by refocusing primarily on potential IGO effects on low-severity conflicts. We examine new states in the postcommunist space spanning Europe and Central Asia as a useful research site to explore these relationships in the post-Cold War era. We argue that especially in the case of newly emerging states, where there is little institutional memory and long-term experience in foreign affairs, IGOs expose differential policy preferences between members, and such information should be associated with the likelihood of increased low levels of conflict. We find a strong association between shared IGO membership and low severity conflict, a significant relationship between low and high severity conflict, and differences between IGO membership effects on low versus high severity conflict, consistent with our theoretical argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue of International Affairs seeks to stimulate more debate and interest in Britain on North Africa. This relatively neglected area of British foreign policy has largely been funneled through the European Union (EU), where the focus of policy has been on preventive security, above all policing against illegal migration and the spread of radicalism and terrorism. The main driver for regional change and potential insecurity is now demographic, evident in the high levels of youth unemployment across North Africa. In facing the challenge of leadership successions over the next decade, it is in the interest of the EU, and in turn, Britain, to engage more closely with North Africa's younger generations to ensure the region's longer term security and stability. Britain has few strong bilateral links with North African societies, however, with the exception of private sector investments in the energy sector and security cooperation. New investment opportunities and a demand for English language and other forms of training for employment could put Britain at an advantage in responding to North African demands for diversified international relationships. A greater focus is also needed on local development opportunities to assist new actors to assume their own economic and political roles, as a better means of delivering security and jobs than relying on central states to deliver both. The articles in this special issue offer new insights into developments in the region, as well as analyses of European and American policy responses to the challenges identified. A common theme is that the region has been held back by a combined lack of institutional safeguards and political participation, with negative impacts on the spread of the economic benefits of higher growth rates and investment. Authoritarian leaderships have proved reliable partners for the EU and Britain in the past, but will they continue to do so in future? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a new interdisciplinary perspective in international relations (IR). It suggests that contributions from perception studies can help us reconceptualize some elements of IR. Specifically, the article takes up the concept of Gestalt and applies it to European integration. The Gestalt laws and phenomena demonstrated by European integration can be identified in other examples of regional integration, as well as in various international organizations, or alliances. They also provide insight into other features of IR, such as the international order. The Gestalt approach per se may contribute to the development of a psychological constructivist theory of IR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resorting to the "rule of law" within the traditional environment of international law generates difficulties, especially when circumstances require us to square the circle by accommodating normative claims with state legal orders, fundamental rights, and democracy. Unsurprisingly, in recent cases brought before supranational courts, such as the European Court of Justice (Kadi and Al Baarakat, for example), or domestic courts, such as the United States Supreme Court (Hamdan, for example), the import and notion of the rule of law have been interpreted in ways that reveal the uncertainty surrounding the concept and the rather idiosyncratic or instrumental uses to which it is put. Through the analysis of such instances, this article proposes a restatement of the rule of law that better explains its use beyond state borders. Then, it shows how the relation between different orders, as a factual matter, does not obey some monist hierarchy and does not even reflect the logic of the "dualism" of self-contained systems. Given that the autonomy of legal orders is a vital contemporary reality, confrontation between them and with international law appears to be replacing the formal primacy of sources as well as blind or dogmatic closure by content-dependent constitutional assessments. In this connection, a road taken in the European environment shows that communicative pluralism can embark on a practice of giving reasons inherently capable of producing common standards, the rule of law, and thin lines of principle. All of these factors are ingredients that might finally evolve further into a rule of recognition for the international legal order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, we argue that critical International Relations (IR) scholars must consider American Orientalism in tandem with American Exceptionalism in order to better understand US identity, foreign policymaking, and hegemony. We claim that American Exceptionalism is a particular type of American Orientalism, a style of thought about the distinctions between the “West” and the “East” that gives grounding to the foundational narrative of “America.” While Exceptionalism and Orientalism both deploy similar discursive, ontological, and epistemological claims about the “West” and its non-western “Others,” Exceptionalism is also rooted specifically in American political thought that developed in contradistinction to Europe. As such, we demonstrate that different logics of othering are at work between the West and the non-West, and among Western powers. We implore critical IR scholars to interrogate how the United States and Europe alternatively collude and clash in wielding normative power over their non-Western Others. We claim such research is important for exploring the staying power of American hegemony and understanding the implications of European challenges to American foreign policy, particularly given recent concerns about a so-called transatlantic divide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines intercultural interactions between Europe and China in the eighteenth century. It focuses on China's greatest imperial palace, Yuanming Yuan, detailing its pivotal importance in contact with Europe. The first section compares Yuanming Yuan with Versailles in order to demonstrate that beneath their mutually exotic appearances lay similarities in how systems of art, architecture and gardens were deployed to reinforce structurally similar court societies. The second section argues that it was this systemic compatibility that made it possible for French and British cultural agents to make sense of Chinese arts through the playful distortions of chinoiserie. Mirroring Europe, the Chinese court simultaneously appropriated European arts in a symmetrical phenomenon of ‘Européenerie’. This case study shows that unlike many later Orientalist relationships, the unique compatibility between China and Europe in the eighteenth century made it possible for each society to make the other culturally meaningful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For Member States of the European Union, participation in this supranational organization has increased the number of difficulties in the international arena. Occasionally, the expanding legislative activity of the European institutions reaches out beyond the borders of the European legal system and incidentally affects the EU Member States' autonomous relations with third parties. Consequently the EU and its members, often with success, seek third parties' consent to exceptional treatment. Because of their number and significance, such derogations have inspired this article to inquire into their expansion and legal status under international law. Even though the EU-related exceptions have not created an international customary rule, the article observes that European integration shapes international rules in diverse fields and adjusts them to its needs. Since European integration is designed to administer and regulate an increasing number of issues, the autonomous international obligations of the EU Member States may become an obstacle. Because the European Union is likely to continue using special treatment in the future, it is important to assess how far the supranational exception can go in order to accommodate all interests at stake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an account of the Thirty Years War. The Thirty Years War starts with the revolt of the Protestant Bohemians against Catholic Habsburg rule in 1618. It continues with a conflict that spread outward in concentric circles in Central Europe. It discusses that Catholic and Protestant powers identified with the contending groups in Bohemia that intervention was necessary to prevent trouble spreading to their own lands. It also presents the series of chronological phases of the war.

The article discusses the use of the Field Force in the grand strategy of the British in balancing their European power. The decision of the government to dispatch the Filed Force to Western Europe is important in the British strategic planning in underpinning their foreign policy. However, the efforts of the War Office to build the Field Force has encountered various obstructions which does not originate from their trouble of translating the rapid increase of budget appropriations into efficient expeditionary force.

The article discusses the European Union (EU) as a "good international citizen," seeking a middle path through the debate between realists who see the EU as a potential emerging superpower and idealists who think it should renounce militarism altogether. The article examines Europe as the center of a mature regional international society that has transcended some aspects of national sovereignty as conceived in traditional international relations theory, as by the establishment of a European citizenship for residents of EU member states.

The article discusses and evaluates the European Union (EU) as a "normative power" whose hybrid supranational and international form of governance marks a change in the traditional state-centered norms of world politics just by existing. The article also discusses how well EU self-governance and foreign policy lives up to the normative ethical principles it espouses: peace, freedom, democracy, human rights, the rule of law, equality, social solidarity, sustainable development, and good governance.

The article discusses the ethical issues surrounding the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP), and the military undertakings of the European Union (EU) since 1999. The compatibility of any military posture with the stated purpose of the EU as an agent of international cooperation is discussed, along with issues around criteria for intervention in international conflicts, including concern for peace, human rights, and international law. Other topics discussed include the EU involvement with disarmament questions, internal EU security, and political accountability.

The article discusses the European Union (EU) as an "ethical power" in international relations from a realist and conservative political perspective. The twin dangers seen in attempting an ethical security and foreign policy are that the EU may become weak, irrelevant, and unable to advance the interests of its member states, and that it may pursue dangerous and overreaching moral projects. A normative international agenda is discussed as an option in cases where vital interests are not at stake, but only based on principles of prudence, skepticism, and reciprocity.

The article evaluates the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) established by the European Union in 2004, prioritizing ethical actions, in the form of incentives rather than sanctions, in EU foreign relations with neighboring countries in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Topics discussed include the issue of ethics, morality, and power in international relations, how the ENP articulates its goal of regional and global stability and security, and whether the policy is ethically sound.

The article discusses the European Security and Defense Policy in relation to the emerging "human security" paradigm, an alternative to the traditional concept of national security. Human security prioritizes the welfare of individuals over that of the state, and is proposed as a more ethical basis for security policy. Topics discussed in the article include the nature of war in the post-Cold War and "post-national" era, the evolving military and foreign policy of the European Union, and the role of the United Nations and NATO.

In this article, the author discusses the role of Switzerland in the establishment of international cooperation among nations. He offers a brief history of Switzerland with respect to its relationship with other countries in Europe. He discusses Switzerland's confederal structure and deeply embedded democracy as decisive factors for its becoming as humanitarian or caring capital of the world.

This article provides an overview of selected aspects of how the economic security of growing numbers of Africans is linked to international migration. It first examines the emergence since 2005 of a new international policy discourse emphasizing the positive economic benefits of migration through remittance flows, the transfer of ideas and inward investment by migrants. The article outlines European policy responses to the recent upsurge in illegal Africa migration across the Mediterranean and examines the reaction of African governments and the Africa Union to increased migration and the enhanced dependence of African economies on remittance flows. The final section highlights the way in which the accelerated settlement of Africans in the UK prefigures longer term changes in the UK's relationship with Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking a constructivist approach to foreign policy analysis and using German policy vis-à-vis Poland and Czechoslovakia/the Czech Republic as an example, we examine Ostpolitik since the 1960s as a case of a norm-driven foreign policy. We argue that the content of Ostpolitik, including changes over time, can be explained by reference to a prevailing norm consensus in Germany about the country’s foreign policy toward Central and Eastern Europe, which began to develop in the 1960s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European integration has fascinated students of international relations and of history since the 1950s. Over the past 15 years or so it has begun to attract attention from political philosophers too. As a result, the nature of the theorizing has altered. Accordingly, this article presents some remarks on the transition from explanatory theory to normative political theory in relation to the EU, and on the context and nature of recent theoretical work. A topic of wide concern is whether and how the EU might be justified, and this is discussed in the light of an approach to public justification associated with the philosopher John Rawls. Some difficulties in applying this approach to international institutions are noted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]