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371. The Limits of Conditionality: Nuclear Reactor Safety in Central and Eastern Europe, 1991 - 2001

Author:
John Van Oudenaren
Publication Date:
03-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Wilson Center
Abstract:
Conditionality has become an increasingly prominent feature of international politics in recent years.1 Once mainly associated with the macroeconomic stabilization programs of the IMF, since the collapse of communism it has been used by the EU, NATO, the OECD, and the Council of Europe to promote a variety of political, economic, and social objectives – everything from abolishing the death penalty to privatizing national monopolies. With increased use has come increased controversy. Critics of conditionality argue that it is often applied in ways that ride roughshod over national sovereignty, ignore local circumstances, and impose economic hardship. Others note the frequent inability of recipients of conditional aid to fulfill commitments to international donors. Even when measured by its own narrow objectives, they argue, conditionality often fails.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

372. MAP Reading: NATO's and Russia's Pathways to European Military Integration

Author:
Stephen Blank
Publication Date:
02-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Wilson Center
Abstract:
As part of NATO's and Europe's continuing and open-ended processes of enlargement and military-political integration, in 1999, NATO presented aspiring members with a Membership Action Plan (MAP) to guide them in their activities preparing their governments and armed forces for membership in NATO. The MAP, if fulfilled according to NATO's requirements and approbation, allegedly would make the aspiring members' military forces more nearly congruent or interoperable with NATO forces. With this document, NATO has arguably created its own version of the EU's acquis communautaire “against which the Alliance can assess the technical preparations and capacities of the nine MAP partners and judge their readiness for membership.”
Topic:
International Relations, Security, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

373. Political Priorities and Economic Interests in Russian-Latvian Relations

Author:
Andris Spruds
Publication Date:
12-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
The paper focuses on interaction of political and economic aspects in Russian-Latvian relations. During the most of the 1990´s, the relationship was dominated by the «conflict manifestation, » which could be witnessed during the protracted Russian troop withdrawal and mutually irreconcilable positioning over NATO expansion and status of Russian-speaking population. However, in the context of EU enlargement and «economisation» of Russian foreign policy, economic factors may play an increasingly important role in Russian-Latvian relations. It is possible to discover a complex web of links and economic interdependence between economic actors in both Russia and Latvia. This especially refers to transit as Latvian ports remain among the major routes of Russian exports, primarily oil, to Western Europe. Yet, certain interests of particular economic groups in Russia as well as economic and political priorities of Russian government generally, in the region and domestically will have influence, not necessarily favourable, on further development of this economic interdependence.
Topic:
NATO and Politics
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, Asia, and Latvia

374. Mercosur/European Union — Tariff Talks

Publication Date:
07-2001
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxford Analytica
Abstract:
The outlook for trade ties between the EU and Mercosur. EU-Mercosur trade negotiations earlier this month gave a vigorous push to commercial negotiations between the two regions. The EU presented a detailed proposal for liberalising EU-Mercosur trade during the next ten years. Trade talks between the EU and Mercosur have now reached a more advanced stage than the talks on the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
Topic:
Economics and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

375. European Union: Belgian Presidency

Publication Date:
07-2001
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxford Analytica
Abstract:
The rotating EU presidency this week passed from the Swedish to the Belgian government. The Belgian presidency faces a considerable test of nerve as it attempts to square its constitutional ambitions for further political integration with the increasing unpredictability of European public opinion. The new public mood of caution towards European integration has resulted in a notable ambivalence on the part of Verhofstadt. While stressing the importance of a completely open debate, Verhofstadt is also using the more closed approach of close consultation between governments and their representatives in preparing keynote proposals for the Laeken European Council, which, in reality, is the only way of reaching solutions.
Topic:
Government and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

376. European Union — Takeover Tensions

Author:
Caspar Fithin
Publication Date:
05-2001
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxford Analytica
Abstract:
The proposed takeover bids directive may be lost unless the differences between the European Parliament (EP) and the Council of Ministers are resolved by June 6. The ongoing negotiations between the Council and the EP in the conciliation committee may be made more difficult by Germany's recent decision to renege on the Council common position on the directive. The move was received with incomprehension in other EU member states. Germany so far stands alone in its attempt to change the directive. Nevertheless, its decision could give MEPs enough ammunition to avoid a compromise in the conciliation committee, and hence to allow the directive to fail. More importantly, Germany's decision also draws attention to the various level-playing field issues still to be addressed in the area of corporate control through greater harmonisation of company law.
Topic:
Government and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe and Germany

377. Italy — Berlusconi Victory

Author:
Caspar Fithin
Publication Date:
05-2001
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxford Analytica
Abstract:
The outcome of last Sunday's general election is now clear. Although the centre-right has won substantial majorities in both houses of parliament, both the Alleanza Nazionale and the Northern League suffered setbacks. The League failed to pass the threshold needed to qualify for a share of the quarter of seats in the Chamber of Deputies allocated by proportional representation. For the time being, Forza Italia, and therefore Berlusconi, who dominates the party, is in firm control of the centre-right coalition. If Berlusconi can retain his authority over the coalition for the next five years, it could assist in stabilising a still highly-fractured and potentially unstable party system.
Topic:
Government and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe and Italy

378. The Tale of Two Constructivisms at the Cold War's End

Author:
Vendulka Kubalkova
Publication Date:
01-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Peace and Security Studies
Abstract:
Constructivism as an approach to IR and Soviet “new thinking” as a phenomenon of the final years of the cold war barely crossed paths since constructivism was coming into existence as an approach just as the other, “new thinking”, together with its main author, Mikhail Gorbachev, were about to exit international relations. Soviet “new thinking” is associated with Gorbachev's tenure of office as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). This ran from the mid 1980s till the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991. Nicholas Onuf introduced constructivism in his book World of Our Making in 1989 and it was only in 1992, a year after the formal dissolution of the USSR, that Alexander Wendt referred to “new thinking” in his article “Anarchy is What States Make of it” as “one of the most important phenomena in [recent] world politics” (Wendt 1992, 450). It is in this same article that he also used the term constructivism, a term he borrowed from Onuf. Other, freshly convert- ed constructivists followed in Wendt's footsteps and, as evidence of the strength of their new approach, they often used “the DNA of the deceased”: Soviet “new thinking” and other artifacts and stories related to the cold war, which—with its main protagonist gone—was over. “New thinking” figures prominently again in Wendt's theoretical book on constructivism, where it is probably the empirical case that he handles in a more sustained manner and devotes to it more time than to any other cases or examples (Wendt, 1999).
Topic:
Cold War and Politics
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, and Soviet Union

379. Danish Security Policy over the last 50 Years - Long-Term Essential Security Priorities

Author:
Bertel Heurlin
Publication Date:
07-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
This article is about the general priorities of Danish security policy over the last 50 years. But what exactly is security policy – and how should one perceive priorities? First a few remarks on semantics. The term security policy is new. From 1949 Denmark only gradually used the term security policy, rather than defence policy and foreign policy. In 1945 the United Nation's Security Council had been established. It was to act on behalf of the Member States when international peace and security were threatened. In 1947 the National Security Council was established in the United States. The Council was evidently intended to take care of the US' national security. With the introduction of these vital institutions the step was taken towards using the terms ”international” and ”national security policy”. In general the term ”security policy” became common in the beginning of the 1960s. Minister for Foreign Affairs Per Hækkerup talks about security policy in his book on Danish Foreign Policy from 1965. Furthermore the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1967 could publish the first book on Danish security policy.
Topic:
Security, Foreign Policy, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

380. Greenland's geopolitical reality and its political-economic consequences

Author:
Jens Kaalhauge Nielsen
Publication Date:
06-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Geopolitics is an old concept, which received its classic modern form in the work of Friedrich Ratzel, Rudolf Kjéllen, Harold J. Mackinder, Alfred T. Mahan, and Karl Haushofer. It can be regarded as an intellectual approach that aims at establishing a political grammar of world politics, through a scientific discipline based on the objective reality of geography. Thus, geopolitics is often seen as a “realistic” attempt to establish world policy as an objective science based on some kind of "physico-spatial reference". The implicit assumption is a discreet claim that it is possible to study international politics and the allocation of power as one studies the weather: as a system based on objective, natural laws with a fixed and firmly established pattern of forces and indispensable reference points. Hence, Halford J. Mackinder believed that he could identify "the Geographical Pivot of History." In this way, somewhere behind the concept of geopolitics as a scientific concept lies a compelling idea: a theory of the international system based on sheer objective forces, which can be reduced to the invariable necessities of an ultimate "physical" matrix that was merely given expression by the vocabulary of "national interests." We find the same notion in the concept of "realpolitik," the idea that it is possible to conduct a policy grounded on a realm of crucial necessities, as in Bismarck's policies framed in the image of Iron and Blood.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Economics, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe