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The content of 'O' and 'A' level papers on modern British and European History set by two GCE Examination Boards was analysed to find out what particular aspects of the past were emphasised and thus to throw light on the experience of history as a subject which was gained by the candidates. These papers, which are taken by the great majority of the candidates, were found to be dominated by political history, up to 77% of the questions being devoted to the affairs of governments and political leaders. Foreign politics was especially important in papers on European history reaching as high as 44% of the questions set and domestic politics was central to papers on British history attaining means in different groups of papers between 40 and 50%. At the end of the article the wisdom of the approach to school history evident in these papers is questioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with re-imaginings of 'Europe' following the accession to the European Union (EU) of former 'Eastern European' countries. In particular it explores media representations of post-EU accession migration from Romania to the United Kingdom in the UK and Romanian newspaper press. Todorova's (1997) notion of Balkanism is deployed as a theoretical construct to facilitate the analysis of these representations as first, the continuation of long-standing and deeply embedded imaginings of the 'East' of Europe and, second, as a means of contesting these discourses. The paper explores the way in which the UK press construct Balkanist discourses about Romania and Romanian migrants, and then analyses how the Romanian press has contested such discourses. The paper argues that the idea of the 'East' remains important in constructing notions of 'Europe' within popular media geographies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper underlines Vattel's commitment to maintaining the sovereignty of Europe's small states by enunciating the duties he deemed incumbent upon all political communities. Vattel took seriously the threat to Europe from a renascent France, willing to foster an equally aggressive Catholic imperialism justified by the need for religious unity. Preventing a French version of universal monarchy, Vattel recognised, entailed more than speculating about a Europe imagined as a single republic. Rather, Vattel believed that Britain had to be relied upon to prevent excessive French ambition, and to underwrite the independence of the continent's smaller sovereignties. Against those who saw Britain as another candidate for the domination of Europe, Vattel argued that Britain's commercial interests explained why it was a different kind of state to the great empires of the past. The paper goes on to consider the reception of Vattel's ideas after the Seven Years War. Although further research is required into readings of Vattel, especially in the smaller states of Europe in the later eighteenth century, the paper concludes that by the 1790s Vattel was being used to justify war to defeat the gargantuan imperialist projects of newly republican France, in order to maintain Europe itself, and the smaller states within it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to provide a historically informed analysis of Europe, understood as an ‘essentially contested concept’, whereby Turkey is interpreted as a critical point of reference that evokes different discursive constructions of Europe, either including or excluding Turkey. At first, the theoretical-methodological section of this paper will introduce a discourse analytical research programme which utilizes the radically constructivist notion of communication as formulated by Niklas Luhmann in order to analyze the processes of inclusion and exclusion built into various constructions of Europe. Then, the empirical section of this paper analyzes more than 40 years of British and German news coverage (1960–2004). One of the main empirical findings is that Turkey is neither seen as a stable European ‘Other’ nor as a European ‘Self’. Instead, Turkey is predominantly interpreted as ‘the thing on the (European) doorstep’, thereby stimulating various differing constructions of Europe.Journal of International Relations and Development (2009) 12, 223–250. doi:10.1057/jird.2009.13 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the applicable environmental laws regarding the integrated pollution prevention and control in Great Britain and in Europe. A discussion concerning the origin and scope of these laws is presented. It also overviews the European Union's Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive, a requirement for industrial and agricultural activities with a high pollution potential to have a permit which can only be issued if certain environmental conditions are met, and summarizes efforts to apply this Directive within Great Britain. Moreover, two environmental issues that are significant to the integrated efforts which includes the energy policy and climate change is discussed. Both countries unified laws are expected to reduce pollution to air, water, and land.

This paper reports on a debate about The Current and Future Directions of the political relations between the UK, USA and Europe held in March 2005 for the Academy of the Social Sciences. A panel of four social science practitioners and academics, chaired by Philip Davies, addressed the question of the real nature of these relations and their written comments are presented with a commentary by Davies. Dumbrell explored the way that ‘both the US-UK “Special Relationship” and the entire Atlantic alliance were struggling to come to terms with the removal of the cold war, “common fate” glue, much less the Great Rift over Iraq’. Meehan drew attention to ‘a flurry of efforts on both sides of the Atlantic to repair the relationship between the EU and the US and, hence, the UK's relationship with European partners’, concluding that ‘the good intentions to understand common real interests and act upon them through common Enlightenment values may yet pave the road to hell’. In revising her analysis for publication she moderated her earlier scepticism ‘about the strength of good intentions on both sides not to allow such continuing differences to stand in the way of the co-operative pursuit of real interests’. Hames argued that Britain should be more relaxed about its relations ‘rather than hands being wrung about whether we are insufficiently “pro-European” or not close enough to becoming the 51st state of the United States, those interested in maintaining or extending British power should ask themselves what we need to do to keep our present privileged position’. Williams made the case for a more sophisticated understanding of the domestic political dynamics of the USA by those on the European side of the Atlantic, and for a greater recognition ‘that the political achievement of the European Union is a staggering one’. In all, the debate acknowledged the ‘grinding reality of realpolitik’ . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the development of SOE's 'irregular political activities'. It argues that SOE's approach to political warfare evolved considerably over the course of the war, partly as a response to changes in SOE's leadership, but primarily on account of its failure to carve a niche for itself within British diplomacy in Europe that did not 'threaten' the interests of the established government agencies in this area. Despite a recrudescence of its covert political work in the final year of the war, SOE was unable to persuade the political and military leadership of the benefits of conducting 'irregular political activities' in support of British diplomacy and as a consequence the legacy it was able to leave for Britain's post-war operations in this area was a meagre one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the U.S.-European relations from the twentieth to the twenty-first century in context of conflict in Iraq. The events that led to the recent U.S.-Great Britain campaign in Iraq created severe strains in the U.S.'s relations with some of its European allies. These strains, in turn, have impacted on both NATO and the EU. Even before the military campaign turned into occupation, a start was made on repairing the damage to transatlantic relations. The purpose of this paper from an American's perspective is not so much to predict the outcome of diplomatic initiatives, as it is to examine the main trends and factors that caused the strains: the "Messianic" aspects of U.S. foreign policy, the changes in U.S.-European power relations since World War II, post-cold war events and experiences, and the key diplomatic events that preceded the Iraqi Campaign.

The involvement of urban and regional governments in transnational cooperative arrangements and policy networks has led to considerable debate regarding the political and theoretical implications. This paper examines networking and cooperation between urban areas and regions in the UK and France with a shared sea border. Such cross-border cooperation involving local authorities in Europe is a growing phenomenon and has certain implications for the analysis of local and urban politics. Three study areas are examined in detail: the Transmanche region involving Kent County Council and the French region Nord-Pas-de-Calais; the Transmanche Metropole which includes Southampton, Portsmouth, Bournemouth and Poole in Britain and Caen, Rouen and Le Havre in France; the cooperative initiative between the English county of East Sussex and the French de partements of Somme and Seine-Maritime. In all three case studies, the development of cooperation has been influenced by the availability of funds from the European Union Interreg programme which supports transfrontier networking. A number of political consequences of cross-border cooperation are identified. The implications of these policy initiatives for theories of urban politics are considered, including a discussion of the political and economic construction of competition and cooperation between cities and regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the response of Great Britain to its treaty obligation requiring European Community countries to remove frontier controls between member states by 1992. it examines the role that intelligence can play in antiterrorism and British reform of its policing system. It also argues that police officers too often see intelligence as an aid to operational success rather than as a tool for the strategic management of resources. it analyzes the nature of intelligence and the problems associated with police understanding of the concept. Finally, it describes the changes that are taking place in British policing and the proposed organization of the National Criminal intelligence Unit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the right to health care. Various expressions of this right may be distinguished. These include both individual rights and social rights which could be based upon international treaties and constitutional rights. They may be found in national health legislation and, in some cases, in jurisprudence. To analyze the consequences of limiting the right to health care, a framework for judicial review has been developed which encompasses these expressions of the right to health care. The framework was used to examine legal and health policy developments in three Western and two Eastern European countries. In Italy and the Netherlands the right to health care is protected constitutionally (but on differing legal bases) while the United Kingdom does not have a written constitution. In contrast, Hungary and Poland have for many years seen the state take responsible for the provision, administration and allocation of health care services and the right to health care was guaranteed theoretically but not in practice because of the lack of (financial) means. However, the Polish Constitution explicitly anticipates possible limitations of the right to health care. What all these countries have in common is a cost containment perspective where the future will bring even tighter limits on what resources patients may consume. Despite differences in legal structure between these countries, where they seem to converge is on the consequences of putting limitations on the right to health care. The courts in Italy, the Netherlands and the UK have formulated conditions drawn from the acceptance that this right has to be judged within the context of limited resources. It may be concluded that finding a compromise between the right to health care and cost containment policies could also be an issue, Eastern European countries will have to face in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The British government's position in the 1996 IGC will reflect long-standing policy positions that have been shared by both main parties. This consistency in policy was partly masked by the tone of British statements on Europe during the Thatcher premierships. However, there was a change of tone when Major came to office, and this was followed by successful British diplomacy in the 1991 IGC on political union, with the result that, on the issues that are under discussion in the 1996 IGC, Britain is largely a status quo state. The government will resist far-reaching changes to the Treaty on European Union, especially any erosion of the three-pillar structure and any further extension of the competences of the European Community. However, it will want to see institutional changes agreed that will pave the way to further enlargement. In these objectives it is likely to find allies because the European Union as a whole has been moving in the British direction since Maastricht, because of public hostility to further integration, the collapse of the federalist coalition, and the 1995 enlargement. However, the influence of Conservative backbenchers is making it more difficult for the present government to adopt the right tone in negotiations. The policies of the Labour Party do not differ markedly from those of the Conservatives, except on social policy, and if there is a change of government before the end of the IGC, the removal of the so-called 'Euro- sceptic' influence on the diplomatic tone of the government might help Britain to achieve its objectives even more successfully than the present government could. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents comments on the problems of international economic policy by providing various discussions from specialized conferences. There are two persistent enemies of international commerce. The one is restrictionism, the other discrimination. Great Britain and the United States alike have tried to compromise with both. Neither American protectionism, even as modified by the Hull agreements, nor the system of preferential tariffs, as exemplified in trade treaties among Great Britain and the Dominions, is consistent with international prosperity nor with international friendship. According to one of the economists, for the European continent foreign trade is simply vital for maintaining of decent living possibilities, it is not a question of a degree of economic stability but of the whole economic structure. The postwar balance of trade may be unfavorably affected by the structural changes in the British balance of payments, as Great Britain has been a big surplus importer from the European Continent, supplying it with dollars and other overseas exchanges.

This article puts contemporary debates about the relationship between immigration policy and the welfare state in historical perspective. Relying on new historical data, the article examines the relationship between immigration policy and social policy in Western Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the modern welfare state emerged. Germany already had comparably strict immigration policies when the German Empire introduced the world's first national social insurances in the 1880s. Denmark, another early social-policy adopter, also pursued restrictive immigration policies early on. Almost all other countries in Western Europe started out with more liberal immigration policies than Germany's and Denmark's, but then adopted more restrictive immigration policies and more generous social policies concurrently. There are two exceptions, Belgium and Italy, which are discussed in the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article ponders the future of NATO after the collapse of European communism. NATO leaders have thought of seven reasons to stay in business, even though the communist threat has crumbled. NATO members indeed have a good reason for being pleased--the epic change in Europe's political and military landscape. More tacitly, NATO also served to fetter West German military might. For political and military reasons, the United States should remain closely allied and militarily present in Europe, and NATO guarantees that coupling. In the meantime, NATO should actively participate in building the European security community, although, in the process, it will lose importance as the Soviet Union turns into a political partner and as CSCE institutions progressively assume more of NATO's current functions.

Background: The evidence that inspires and fosters communication skills, teaching programmes and clinical recommendations are often based on national studies which assume, implicitly, that patients' preferences towards doctors' communication style are not significantly affected by their cultural background. The cross-cultural validity of national results has been recognized as a potential limitation on how generally applicable they are in a wider context. Using 35 country-specific focus group discussions from four European countries, the aim of the present study is to test whether or not national cultures influence lay people's preferences towards doctors' style of communication.Methods: Lay people preferences on doctor's communication style have been collected in Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Italy. Each centre organized between eight and nine focus groups, where participants (n = 259) were asked to comment on a video of a simulated medical interview. The discussions were audiotaped, transcribed and coded using a common framework (Guliver Coding System) that allowed for the identification of different themes.Results: The frequency distribution of the topics discussed highlights lay people's generally positive views towards most part of doctors interventions. The regression model applied to the Guliver categories highlighted slight national differences and the existence of a cross-cultural appreciation, in particular, of five types of intervention: Doctors attitudes (both Task-Oriented and Affective/Emotional), Summarizing, Structuring and Providing solution.Conclusion: Lay panels valued doctors' communication style in a similar manner in the countries selected. This highlights the existence of a common background, which in the process of internationalization of heath care, might foster the implementation of cross-national teaching programmes and clinical guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information about the book "The Nordic Nations in the New Western Security Regime," by Ingemar Dorfer. The book considers the evolving structure of the post-cold war security situation in Europe and whether Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark will become part of the hierarchy of the Western security regime. Explains why there is so little international interest in Nordic security and why the West's expectation that the Nordic nations should handle Baltic security is unreasonable. Analyzes the security resources of Northern Europe and the role of the important Western friends, Great Britain, Germany, and the United States in Nordic security. Describes how the Nordic countries' membership of NATO could come about. Considers several NATO enlargement studies and their implications for Nordic countries and, since Poland is likely to join soon, the implications of Polish membership.

The study registers the first moments which defined the process of European contruction, and the necessity of its rise, then, it points the most meaningful moments in which France interceded by its foreign policy in this process. France abndoned the desire to find in Great Britain a partner for its foreign policy, De Gaulle refocused his policy to an agreement with West Germany, his success being explained by his excellent relation with Chancellor Adenauer. By its foreign policy in the process of Eurpean construction, France pursued the fulfilment of the national interests and the conception of an European frame in which France to be the spokesperson of Europe. As predited by De Gaulle, the process of European construction evolved from „The Six” to its twenty- seven members, France supporting by its policy the extension of the European Union, and the famous Gaullist formula „Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals” is about to turn into reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political scientists in Britain have traditionally been more comfortable with, and open to, historical work than their American counterparts. There is nevertheless surprisingly little interaction between history and politics in the United Kingdom and little indication that political scientists make much use of even the best historical work on politics or international relations (IR). This essay reviews five more or less recent histories that focus on the British Empire and, more broadly, on Britain's place in the world, suggests why they might be of interest to students of contemporary politics and sketches a framework that might serve to connect them with more recent phenomena in Britain's IR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the December 2010 issue of the journal "Political Insight," which explores issues related to arguments, trends and developments in world politics, economy, and security. It discusses the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the rise of career politicians in Europe, how to deal with threats posed by terrorists in the 21st century, and the indecisive election result, national indebtedness and the first coalition government of Great Britain since 1941. It explores the representation of women and ethnic minorities in the British House of Commons and the new politics of public health within an age of austerity in the country.

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]

The article examines Great Britain's policy toward Europe as of September 2008 and how it may develop in the period to 2020. It examines policy possibilities and proposals including conditional Europeanism and a commitment to the European Union (EU), a stalemate position that could lead to possible crisis, and the development of a more committed pro-Europeanism. The authors discuss the possible scenarios and how they might impact British and EU defense policy and foreign policy, as well as the EU climate change agenda and the Euro currency. The article discusses how European integration might influence European policy development in Great Britain.

In March 2004, the U.K. government announced its intention to grant limited authorization for the growing of commercial genetically modified (GM) crops. This article reviews the potential liabilities that may arise from GM cropping, for environmental damage and for economic losses claimed by non-GM producers. It considers the application of the European Community (EC) Environmental Liability Directive of 2004 to genetically modified organisms (GMO) releases, and the proposed statutory scheme for the coexistence of GM and non-GM agriculture in England and Wales. It also examines the application of the common law of nuisance to the release of GMOs and considers the relevant case law of the English courts. Although there will be a residual role for liability at common law following the establishment of a statutory coexistence scheme, the article highlights a number of formidable problems facing attempts to establish claims for liability arising from GMO releases at common law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores UK and German positions in the debates on European defence in the Convention on the Future of Europe and in the Intergovernmental Conference that followed. It also has a subsidiary interest in France, and develops a framework for exploring why UK, German and French positions on defence cooperation diverge, but also for plotting how those positions moved significantly towards convergence during the constitutional debate. The move towards more convergent positions is traced through a discussion of Common Foreign and Security Policy, the Petersberg Tasks, the solidarity clause, structured cooperation and the European armaments and strategic research agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the role of the Treasury in the formulation and implementation of Britain's European policy in the period between the Messina conference and the failure of the first membership bid. It points to a strong contrast between the 1955-59 period, during which the Treasury, aided and abetted by the Board of Trade, was the dominant force in British European policy, and the early 1960s when the Cabinet and Foreign Offices successfully challenged for the position as lead department in this policy area. The final section of the article seeks to explain the disappearance of Treasury pre-eminence, suggesting that factors ranging from the personality of the Chancellor to the subject and context of negotiations with Western European interlocutors help explain why the Treasury appeared a waning force in the making of Britain's policy towards the EEC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the transatlantic relations in the framework of the Conférence de Montréal 2003, where this year's theme was "Innovating in an Uncertain World." The conference brought together decision-makers from the public and private sector to discuss important issues of international concern. One of the most pressing of these is the relationship between the two most important trading and power blocks of the world, the U.S. and Europe, in the aftermath of the U.S. and Great Britain campaign in Iraq. Global uncertainty requires governments to rethink their priorities and world governance to be reinvented.

The article focuses on the formation of Normandy Campaign by British Army to invade Europe in 1942. The ability of British army to generate and sustain fighting power during the Normandy campaign has attracted a good deal of criticism. According to the author historians in their post-war studies have devoted little attention to the preparations that the army undertook to prepare itself for the campaign before the landing. This article tries to shed new light on these criticisms by examining three neglected aspects of the army's preparations for the campaign.

Little appeared to have changed in Britain's relations with Europe in 2002: speculation about the Britain joining the euro continued; euroscepticism continued to operate at a low key; and Britain continued to engage in the diplomatic game over the enlargement of the EU. However, the year also saw a growing EU irritation, especially from France and Germany, at Tony Blair's close relations with George Bush, and the gulf widened towards its end as war with Iraq looked increasingly likely. For its part, Britain was irritated by the watering down of a reform package by France and Germany. In addition, signs of a rift between Blair and Gordon Brown over the euro and proposals for closer union emerging from the European Constitutional Convention are both likely to make Britain relations with Europe more difficult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the relation of Great Britain to European countries during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era. Consideration of the British attack on Copenhagen, Denmark in September 1807; Great Britain's intervention in 1808 to help expel the French; Inclusion of Britain's commercial supremacy as a principal theme of French propaganda.

This article reviews the place which the comparative study of European countries has occupied in the development of political science as an academic discipline, and discusses how single country studies can contribute towards the construction of new models for cross-national research. Particular attention is paid to the contribution made by the late Stein Rokkan to this development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines J. M. W. Turner's paintings of ancient Carthage--Dido and Aeneas, Dido Building Carthage, and The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire--within the context of European and British relations with North Africa, and reflects on the ways certain discourses on art function as ideologically conservative forces by disallowing connections to be made manifest between high art, print culture, and politics. Turner's Dido and Aeneas conjured up the geography of Africa in a fashion which allowed it to be seen as a fantasy space of no discernible locality. In the Decline slavery was used as a general metaphor for the transhistorical notion of imperial decline, universalized by virtue of its inscription within the visual and literary discourse of classicism.

The article analyzes the motives for and nature of Great Britain's post-Second World War Continental (SWWC) commitment with reference to its efforts to lessen troop commitment after 1955. The costs of supporting foreign troops which became a major source of argument within the alliance and the troop questioned continued to weaken the solidarity of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization during 1960. It is said that the question is complicated by the fact that the administration of the U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was as uneasy as that of Great Britain to lessen overseas troops. It is concluded that the country's post-war objective on the SWWC is ensuring the reconstruction of continental Europe and is seeing that no single power would dominate it.

The article comments on the article "British Armaments and European Industrialization, 1890-1914: The Spanish Case Re-Examined," by R.J. Harrison. Harrison's article examined the economic and political conditions in Spain from 1890 to 1914. It is discusses the industrialization of European countries and how Great Britain was imbibed on building armaments. The article also considers Spain's working population that is engaged in agriculture during the period. It explores the scandal involving the Spanish naval program of the government of Antonio Maura. Official Assessor of the Naval Ministry, Juan Macias, accused the whole government of prevarication in the adjudication of tenders for the squadron.