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The starting point for this paper is twofold. On the one hand, the authors have recently been involved in a study on European integration and border conflict transformation, which established conditions under which integration and association can have a desecuritising effect on border conflicts. One core condition was an image of the EU as a positive force in world politics. On the other hand, both authors have been involved in the debate on normative power Europe and have argued that this concept is better seen as a discursive self-construction imbuing the integration project with new force and establishing an EU identity against Others, rather than an objective analytical concept. In this paper, we explore the degree to which this self-construction of the EU is shared by others in international society, and in particular in conflict areas. Our basic hypothesis is that the EU's chances to act as a mediator, or to transform conflicts through association agreements and other forms of partnerships, largely depends on this acceptance of the notion of normative power Europe. The paper uses the cases of Cyprus and Israel/Palestine as examples, but also draws from a wider set of cases. Its aim is to develop a theoretical framework with which the basic hypothesis can be studied, to discuss initial examples, and to draw out the political and normative consequences from the relationship between normative power Europe and conflict transformation, especially in light of our earlier criticism of the EU's self-construction. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to expand the theoretical concept of a Middle Eastern Regional Security Complex (MERSC) (Buzan and Waever 2004), based on the literature e.g. on security, regional integration, development and global governance towards a Euro-Mediterranea ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accelerating development of international and transnational economic law tests the resources of even the most developed states. African states can barely manage participation in the institutions most vital to their interests. That states are both legal equals and unequal participants poses a central problem for contemporary global governance. This paper takes a bottom-up perspective by examining African states’ attempts to influence the development of international agricultural trade rules. Conventional wisdom points to the limited resources and capacities of African states. Governments in the developed world and international organizations are providing aid to target such resource constraints. However, this paper finds that such factors only partly explain levels of African state participation and success (or failure).This paper makes the argument that how institutions of global governance are organized around an issue affects the opportunities and constraints states face when they seek to influence the development of international rules and principles. While most analyses focus on a single institution, this paper considers the impact of multiple institutions on strategic rule-making and negotiation. Thus it matters that the set of international institutions relevant to agricultural trade, for example, is different from the sets of institutions relevant to intellectual property, foreign direct investment, or the management of refugee crises. For agricultural trade, the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) as the dominant provider of international trade rules and mechanisms for enforcement alter the context of regional and bilateral rule-making activities (African agreements with Europe in particular) as well as multilateral rule-making. Other legal instruments find themselves somewhat bound by WTO rules. This paper explores the argument by substantively focusing on African state experiences in the area of agricultural trade, with particular attention to rules for cotton and sugar. Legal analysis and in-depth interviews with participants in international rule-making inform the study. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since November 2002, European integration of Turkey has been accelerated thanks to the commitment of Justice and Development Party (JDP) in joining the EU. In this process, JDP government established its vision on European integration on the discourse of ?dialogue among civilizations? which turned out to be an appealing one for both Turkish public and European politicians who support Turkey?s membership. As it receives more support, the discourse has been modified as ?the alliance of civilizations.? It is promoted as being pragmatically advantageous for both Turkey and EU, and as a good response to the ?clash of civilizations? thesis. This paper will question the ability of this perspective to challenge the ?clash? thesis and to be an appropriate ground for the development of Turkey-EU relations. It will be argued that the dialogue/alliance perspective is problematic for three reasons. First, it reproduces the civilizationist discourse, which is based on Orientalist assumptions. Second, by emphasizing categories like Islamic or Western civilizations, it has the danger of blurring the boundaries exist among the subunits constituting that larger categories. And finally, the dialogue/alliance perspective defines civilization on the basis of religion, obscuring the secular realities and reducing people into a single, religious identity. The paper will argue that the ?dialogue among civilizations? discourse cannot be an appropriate ground for the improvement of Turkey-EU relations since this perspective not only represents Turkey as more Islamic than it actually is, but also weakens the secular claims underlying the European identity. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper critically explores the shortcomings of the European model applied to the North American context, as well as the notion of a "Big Idea" as a basis for deeper integration. The next section assesses possible alternatives on the basis of their political feasibility. Finally, the paper examines the premise that deeper integration in North America is possible, but is unlikely to proceed through a big leap forward. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The plight of Europe?s Roma (gypsy) minority has risen high on the international agenda due to the rapid decline of Roma living conditions in Central and Eastern Europe and the integration of states with large Roma populations into the European Union in 2004. This paper examines the response of leading international governmental and non-governmental organizations to the plight of Europe?s Roma minority. We show that major organizations in this field have responded with a range of policies that focus on human rights and socio-economic integration of Roma. International Roma policy also suffers from two tensions that lessen its effectiveness: First, a tension between liberal economic policies that have hurt Roma economically and policies of socio-economic integration; and second, a tension between the articulated policy of Western international actors and actual minority policies in Western member countries. This paper describes international organizations responses and explores these tensions in international Roma policy. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the endogenous strategic considerations in simultaneously creating, enlarging, and deepening an international union of countries. What explains for example the heightened legislative activity within the EU in the periods leading up to ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why has Europe gone much further than other regions of the world in terms of integration? How do we explain the variation in the ?depth? and ?evolution? of regional integration? Given the presence of significant potential political gains as well as market gains from integration, these institutional differences across regions present an anomaly. Why do we observe the variation in governments? pooling and delegating sovereignty to common institutions in different regions? Contrary to the conventional wisdom which emphasizes the systemic sources of integration?i.e., degree of economic complementarity, members? levels of economic development, the existence of a common threat, relative capabilities of states, the presence of a regional leader, I argue in this paper that state preferences are a key to understanding the variation in regional integration. The existing explanations do not provide compelling answers on the ?depth? and ?evolution? of integration across region across time, since they tend to ignore policy preferences and strategies/choices of states in different regional settings, which are critical to understand the political forces of regional integration. Given that the different level of regional integration can be explained by taking into account the variation of preferences of member states in a particular regional integration scheme, I claim that domestic politics should be the starting point for the theory of comparative regional integration. Once state preferences are set in a given time at point, states via interstate bargains choose a regional integration scheme over others based on their preferences and calculations of costs and benefits. However, state policy preferences themselves are affected and thus reshaped, over time, by regional institutions. Thus the depth and evolution of regional integration over time is a function of the degree of divergence of the participating states? policy preferences, the degree of negotiated agreements of major states, and degree of harmony between current institutions and member states? expectations on them. Put another way, interactions between preferences, interstate bargaining, and institutions produce the outcome of regional integration. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the scholarly debate within the study of European integration enrolls along the predictable lines of rhetorical antithesis. The most outstanding example is probably the manner in which so-called ‘traditionalists’ and ‘revisionists’ debate the orig ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the demise of the Soviet Union and the dawn of the post-Cold War Era, economic stability and viability has increasingly become the main measure of might for states. With the emphasis on economic growth and a global economic presence, comes a focus on the means by which states have chosen to obtain these policy goals. International cooperation through economic integration has drawn increasing attention as a tool of economic growth. Historically, a vast amount of work on economic integration has centered around European integration and the development of the European Union. The main objective of this research is twofold. We first examine six major theories of integration that were originally developed to explain the European experience. These theories can also be applied to the study of the formation and development of other international regional organizations, such as Economic Cooperation organization (ECO). These theories include: Functionalism, Neofunctionalism, Dialectical Functionalism, Intergovernmentalism, Supranationalism, and Corporatism. Secondly, we discuss the nature, role, and structural organization of ECO in order to identify which integration theory would more clearly and comprehensively explain ECO's goals and operations. These research topics are significant since they are central to the study of international politics and help to identify and analyze forces that contribute to the formation of larger political communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scholarly and policy literatures on Asian and comparative regionalism tend to stress the differences between European and Asian regionalism. The far greater development of multilateral institutions in Europe is usually said to demonstrate the lack o ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]