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Regional financial arrangements and monetary integration in East Asia and Europe have made considerable progress in recent years. This paper discusses whether governments in both regions, Japan and Germany as the most advanced regional economies in particular, can use the new dynamics as levers to raise their status vis-à-vis the United States. It will be argued that activities are defensive rather than offensive, aiming at protecting the respective region from financial risk. Japan, in particular, would find it difficult to raise its status vis-à-vis the United States significantly by promoting regional financial and monetary integration, principal reasons being actor heterogeneity, the role of China, hesitation to bear burden and risk, and the historical legacy of a bank-oriented system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of the regulatory furore over 'fake news', this article examines the protection that is afforded to untruthful expression by the European Court of Human Rights and by national courts in Germany, the UK and the US. It argues that the suppression of 'fake news' in the face of uncertainty over the contours of this highly politicised term and of the evidentiary vacuum as to the harm posed, may run counter to constitutional guarantees of free speech. Regulatory interventions seeking to curb the flow of 'fake news', which is not per se illegal, require careful consideration lest they should empower governments or unaccountable technology corporations without editorial culture to become the arbiters of truth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a qualitative study of 110 providers and administrators of refugee services from four countries: United States, Switzerland, Germany, and Iceland. Of the total participants, 28 were male and 82 were female. The sample consisted of 83 social workers who provided direct services to refugees and 27 administrators who managed the programs. The interviews occurred over a period of 3 years from January 2014 to January 2017. The participants described what they perceived to be the goals of resettlement and the successful outcomes of their work with refugees. Findings show that providers and administrators varied in what they believed to be the goals and outcomes, with three main differences emerging: (1) lessening the transition burden; (2) acquisition of language and securing self-sufficient employment; and (3) enhancing the integration of resilience within the refugee. These differences are discussed in terms of how they differ in resources required and in outcomes. The implications of these differences are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The manner in which President Karimov's roles were recognized in the global arena affected how Uzbekistan's international relations developed – a perspective that highlights both the form and the content of bilateral relationships. While mutual interests are crucial to beginning a relationship, it is also important to understand how those relations were recognized in public and dealt with in private. If partners managed to recognize Karimov's agenda publicly, or at least act with discretion, this tended to create an atmosphere favouring cooperation. As such, recognition and discretion reveal much about Karimov's concerns with international equality and self-reliance, pointing to the reasons why Uzbekistan's relations fluctuated more with some actors than others. The United States and Germany are ideal examples of that ambivalent situation: Washington often cooperated with Uzbekistan on security matters, but then saw its military personnel excluded from Qarshi-Qanabad after the 2005 Andijan crisis; whereas Berlin witnessed little change in its relationship with Uzbekistan and continued to lease a base in Termez after 2005. This difference in outcomes can be explained in part by a dynamic of recognition and discretion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The written account of Count Béla Széchenyi's 1862 trip to the United States, published in 1863, represents a unique chapter in Hungarian travel writing on the New World. The author was the first-born son of Count István Széchenyi, an iconic figure of Hungary's Age of Reform in the 1820s to 1840s. Following Hungary's defeat in the 1848–9 Revolution and War of Independence against the Habsburgs, István was locked up in a mental asylum outside Vienna, where he committed suicide in 1860. Unlike his father in the 1820s, Béla was allowed to travel to the United States, and his account clearly reflects the time he lived in and the concerns he entertained. Béla had done his Grand Tour in Germany, England, France and Spain, and was an experienced traveller. He sympathised with the more aristocratic South in the Civil War, although he never visited there. His book focuses on issues of slavery and race (Native Americans and African Americans), American democracy (he presents both the US and the Confederate Constitutions, but does so without any commentary), the character of the Yankee, and American progress. He then offers a detailed agenda for the development of Pest-Buda, but, unlike his father, separates issues of progress and national independence, arguing that the former would inevitably bring about the latter. This unique piece of travel writing combines the imperial view of West European travellers in the new world with the highly personal account of a young aristocrat who has just lost his father, and who was trying to come to terms with his loss. Amerikai utam is clearly censored, but in the absence of relevant documents it is impossible to draw the balance between self- and enforced censorship. This little book represents a transition in the history of Hungarian travel writing on the United States between the Age of Reform (which focused on political agendas, especially issues of democracy) and the Dualist period (1867–1918, which discussed American progress and emigration from Hungary). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article dicusses the conditions, obstacles and prospects for a modernisation partnership with Russia as a way to improve European security and relations between Russia and the West in general, including Russia's NATO membership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The securitization crisis that started in mid-2007 has demonstrated that we are indeed living in a "global financial village" and are all subject to the vagaries of financialization. Nevertheless, the fallout from the credit crisis has not been homogeneous across space. That some localities were hit harder than others suggests that there are distinct geographies of financialization. Combining insights from the "varieties of capitalism" literature with those from the literature on "financialization studies," the article offers a first take on what may explain these different geographies on the basis of an informal comparison of the trajectories of financialization and their political repercussions in the United States, Germany, and the Netherlands. The article ends with some reflections on how economic geography could be enriched by combining comparative studies on institutionalism and financialization, while its distinct research focus-detailed spatial analysis endowed with a well-developed sensitivity for geographic variegation—may help overcome the methodological nationalism of much comparative institutionalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the comparative literature on immigrant integration, Germany and the United States are frequently placed in distinct and opposing regime categories. Using cross-sectional data from the 1997 German Socio-Economic Panel and the 1997 Panel of Income Dynamics, we compare the process of integration of four generational cohorts of Turks in Germany and Mexicans in the United States, focusing on markets, welfare, and culture. The comparative analysis of the data supports Gary Freeman's 'patchwork' hypothesis that integration in Western democracies is happening not monolithically, or in a linear fashion, but rather in the form of irregular patchworks. The specific patchworks revealed by our data include some progress toward integration, in particular in the market sector, as well as stagnation, and perhaps exclusion, in others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Variations in the economic performance of nations and regions due to an ongoing globalization and economic liberalization have fuelled debates about the role of public policies in economic growth. This article contributes to the empirical debate on the role of public policies in stimulating start-ups and regional economic growth by looking at public information, public counseling services, and public start-up assistance programs for entrepreneurs in the United States and Germany. The goal of the qualitative cross-national study is to evaluate potentials of public support for entrepreneurs in a global environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assumption that technological innovation constitutes an inevitable facet of something called ‘globalisation’ is called into question by comparative historical investigation. In the areas of biotechnology and genome research, for instance, the United States and Germany - two advanced industrial states - have demonstrated remarkably different historical trajectories. While the US was a driving force behind the explosion of biotechnology as an industrial sector, Germany was unable to muster much effort until the late 1990s. Explaining this difference, this article utilizes historical political economy to characterize these states and their relationship to capitalism. The lag in German efforts is understood as a function of the pre-capitalist vestiges of the state and their peculiar effects on capitalist social relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Former Soviet Union (FSU) has historically been seen as having an unusually large population of individuals with alcohol problems. Since the fall of the communist regime, a growing drug abusing population has become visible. With the large migration of its residents to western countries and to Israel, the rates of alcohol and drug problems among these immigrants appear to be disproportionally high, although reliable data are lacking. The purpose of this article is to summarize exploratory data regarding alcohol and other drug use among immigrants from the Former Soviet Union living in Israel, Germany and the United States, and to identify further research needs and implications for treatment and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]