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91. The Decision-Making Process behind Launching an ESDP Crisis Management Operation

Author:
Annika Björkdahl and Maria Strömvik
Publication Date:
04-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Overall, the development of the European security and defence policy (ESDP) and the deployment of ESDP operations have been nothing less than impressive. At the time of writing the EU has, within a five-year period, initiated twenty-one ESDP operations, on three continents, of which about a dozen are presently ongoing. The rapid growth of this completely new field of activities for the EU has placed new demands on the whole system of ESDP decision-making. Contrary to most EU policy areas, decision-making concerning ESDP operations involves all member states at all times and with a right to veto the process at any time (with the partial exception of Denmark). This examination of the European Union's decision-making process for launching EU-led peace support operations captures and describes the dynamics of the process and investigates the working methods of ESDP decision-making. It reveals that the intergovernmental character of this process is more fluid and involves fewer formalised steps than one would imagine at a first glance. At times the processes preceding the launch of an ESDP operation can also be surprisingly quick, although at other times it displays bottlenecks for instance in the force generation process constraining efficiency and rapidity of decision-making. One of the biggest challenges facing the EU today relates to capacity – in terms of planning, funding and availability of civilian and military personnel and equipment for ESDP operations.
Topic:
Defense Policy
Political Geography:
Europe

92. The refugee, the sovereign and the sea : EU interdiction policies in the Mediterranean

Author:
Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen
Publication Date:
03-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
This paper starts from the encounter between a European navy vessel and a dinghy carrying boat refugees and other desperate migrants across the Mediterranean or West African Sea towards Europe. It explores the growing trend in the EU of enacting migration control at the high seas or international waters – so-called interdiction. It is argued that these forms of extraterritorial migration control aim at reconquering the efficiency of the sovereign function to control migration, by trying to either deconstruct or shift correlate obligations vis-à-vis refugees and other persecuted persons to third States. In both instances, European States are entering into a sovereignty game, in which creative strategies are developed in order to reassert sovereign power unconstrained by national and international obligations.
Topic:
Human Welfare, International Law, Migration, and Sovereignty
Political Geography:
Europe and West Africa

93. The europeanization of Europe : the transfer of norms to Europe, in Europe and from Europe

Author:
Trine Flockhart
Publication Date:
03-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Europeanization is a concept predominantly concerned with the domestic impact of the EU whilst less concerned with its historical foundations and wider geographical reach. By forwarding a Historical Sociological conceptualization of Europeanization it is revealed that the concept suffers from fundamental problems relating to historical and geographical scope, to uncertainty about which causal relationships to explain, and that it is based on implicit but unsustainable assumptions. This article challenges the assumption that Europeanization is based on ideas endogenous to Europe and is an activity preserved for Europeans. It suggests that 'Europeanization' can be conceptualized as several social processes involving different agents, structures, processes and conceptions of 'self' and 'other', and that Europeans have been more on the receiving end of ideational diffusion than promoters of a European norm set. By employing a Historical Sociological perspective it is revealed that before Europeans could 'Europeanize' either in or from Europe, they not only had to develop a European identity through a process of ideational diffusion to Europe, but the idea set which is today regarded as 'European' was diffused from the United States and stands in complete contrast to ideas previously also regarded as European.
Topic:
Civil Society and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
Europe

94. Studying violent radicalization in Europe I : the potential contribution of social movement theory

Author:
Anja Dalgaard-Nielsen
Publication Date:
03-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Why do some apparently well-integrated youth in Europe become attracted to Islamist militancy? Why and when do people cross from violent talk to violent action? What prevents others, exposed to the same political, ideological, and socioeconomic influences, from crossing? When and how might people de-radicalize and draw back from violent action? What policy initiatives would be called for to limit the spread of radical ideas, counter the factors that spur violent radicalization, and strengthen those, which pull in the other direction? In sum: When, why, and how do people living in a democracy become radicalized to the point of being willing to use or directly support the use of terrorist violence against civilians, and what can be done about it?
Topic:
Political Violence, Civil Society, Islam, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

95. Studying violent radicalization in Europe II: The potential contribution of socio-psychological and psychological approaches

Author:
Anja Dalgaard-Nielsen
Publication Date:
03-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Why do some apparently well-integrated youth in Europe become attracted to Islamist militancy? Why and when do people cross from violent talk to violent action? What prevents others, exposed to the same political, ideological, and socioeconomic influences, from crossing? When and how might people de-radicalize and draw back from violent action? What policy initiatives would be called for to limit the spread of radical ideas, counter the factors that spur violent radicalization, and strengthen those, which pull in the other direction? In sum: When, why, and how do people living in a democracy become radicalized to the point of being willing to use or directly support the use of terrorist violence against civilians, and what can be done about it?
Topic:
Political Violence, Civil Society, Islam, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

96. Sarkozy og Vichy-syndromet

Author:
Cecilie Felicia Stokholm Banke
Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Den franske præsident gjorde sig i begyndelsen af 2008 bemærket med sit forslag om Holocaust-undervisning for alle børn i 10-års alderen. Men Frankrig har længe været foregangsland for bevarelsen af mindet om Holocaust. Sarkozy gør reelt, hvad andre regeringsledere har gjort før ham. Han inddrager Holocaust – Shoah – i sin egen politiske strategi. Og det siger mere om, hvilken betydning mindet om Holocaust har i den internationale politiske kultur, end det siger om Sarkozy.
Topic:
Education, Genocide, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

97. EU and the Comprehensive Approach

Author:
Eva Gross
Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
EU efforts at implementing a comprehensive approach – and what it has termed Civil-Military Coordination (CMCO) – must be understood in the context of both the growth of the EU as a security provider by means of civilian and military crisis operations under the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP), and of a changing security environment in which state failure and international terrorism increasingly require both civilian and military solutions. Operational experience in the Balkans, sub-Saharan Africa and more recently Afghanistan has further demonstrated the need to combine civilian and military crisis management in order to address security challenges that include the fight against organized crime, the need to reform the police and justice sector, or the provision of military forces on a short-term basis in support of larger peace-keeping missions.
Topic:
Security and Defense Policy
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Africa, and Europe

98. "Bringing in the Americans?" – Assessing EU And U.S. Post-Kyoto Policies Options towards a Copenhagen Protocol in 2009

Author:
Christian Hald-Mortensen
Publication Date:
08-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Bringing in the Americans is the first task for the UN-COP-15 for the Danish government along with its EU partners. The key contents of the EU's climate leadership towards the climate conference are assessed, such as the-20% by 2020 reduction target, the effort sharing agreement and reforms of the European Trading Scheme. EU climate leadership is both based on strong public support and economic features such as a lower energy intensity of production than the U.S. The EU and Danish strategy converge in promoting the concept of a "low-carbon economy", based on first-mover advantage exports in renewables technology, such as wind power. The contents of the "Danish example" are assessed; decoupling economic growth and emissions within a "lowcarbon economy"-storyline.
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, Treaties and Agreements, and United Nations
Political Geography:
United States, America, and Europe

99. Danish Foreign Policy Yearbook 2007

Author:
Nanna Hvidt and Hans Mouritzen
Publication Date:
05-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
This is an outline of Danish foreign policy 2006 provided by the Permanent Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Throughout 2006, developments caused by globalisation posed huge challenges to Denmark. The cartoons crisis and the conflict in Lebanon were the most obvious ones. Confronted with these challenges, Denmark managed to pursue a pro-active foreign policy. Interrelated issues such as energy security, climate change, failed states and weapons of mass destruction became increasingly important. These issues must be addressed with different instruments ranging from diplomacy and multilateral cooperation to trade policy and development cooperation. They illustrate the need for new tools in foreign policy such as public diplomacy, which has gained further importance in the globalised and network-based system of international relations. In addition, the need for horizontal coordination has increased. The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a major globalisation study in 2006, recommending how Denmark can cope with the challenges of globalisation.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and Economics
Political Geography:
Europe and Denmark

100. A new transatlantic relationship? European responses to US global hegemony

Author:
Trine Flockhart
Publication Date:
07-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
The paper addresses the question of how Europe (in NATO and the EU) has responded to changes in US announced and operational strategic and military policy and what the principal factors are for explaining European responses to what is perceived as a new form of American hegemony. The discussion is centered around the question of whether the United States has altered it conception of hegemony from one based on consent to one based on 'a preponderance of force', and therefore to have abandoned the crucial process of consensus building through persuasion, which has formed the foundation for the post-war Euro-Atlantic community. If so, then the problem relates more to the fundamental question of maintaining the security community during significant international change and perceived changes in European and American interests than it does to the specific policy content of American foreign policy. European reactions to the perceived change in American foreign policy have been varied in style and rhetoric, but can be di vided into those that have been concerned with safeguarding the achievements of the post-war era by following the United States wherever it may choose to go, or those who see a need for constructing a different relationship with the United States based on a more independent European foreign policy stance.
Topic:
International Relations and Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
United States, America, and Europe