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3862. A League of Their Own
- Author:
- James M. Lindsay
- Publication Date:
- 03-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Foreign Affairs
- Institution:
- Council on Foreign Relations
- Abstract:
- To the Editor: Charles Kupchan's contribution to the debate over how best to promote international cooperation in a globalized world ("Minor League, Major Problems," November/December 2008) is welcome. Unfortunately, his criticisms of proposals to create a concert of democracies miss the mark.
- Political Geography:
- Europe, South Africa, and Brussels
3863. The Georgia Crisis: Implications for the Partnership for Peace
- Author:
- Graeme P. Herd and Daniel A. Flesch
- Publication Date:
- 03-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Connections
- Institution:
- Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
- Abstract:
- On 7 August 2008, Georgia attacked Tskhinvali, the capital city of South Ossetia, with heavy artillery, rocket launchers, and ground troops in an attempt to take control of the breakaway republic, which contained bases of both Russian and OSCE peacekeepers. Russia, claiming to be acting under the mandate of peace enforcement, pushed Georgia out of both South Ossetia and another breakaway Georgian republic, Abkhazia, and deep into Georgian territory. This created the potential for regime change, as the Russian Army appeared to be moving on Tbilisi with the intent of overthrowing Georgia's democratically elected government. On 8 August 2008, Russian military forces crossed the Georgian border into South Ossetia and Abkhazia in a successful effort to repulse Georgian troops. The immediate casus belli for Russia was genocide, with claims that “over two thousand” South Ossetians had been killed by Georgian troops, along with the shooting of ten Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia, which necessitated a humanitarian and peace enforcement operation. The Russian advance included ground troops, tanks and armored personnel carriers, and air and sea operations, combined with coordinated kinetic and cyber attacks. Russian forces also crossed into Abkhazia in defense of their compatriots – 70 percent of the Abkhaz population of 220,000 are Russian passport holders, and 90 percent of the South Ossetian population of 70,000 are also Russian citizens.
- Topic:
- Security, Defense Policy, International Affairs, and Population
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Europe, Georgia, and South Ossetia
3864. When Right Makes Might: How Prussia Overturned the European Balance of Power
- Author:
- Stacie Goddard
- Publication Date:
- 03-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- International Security
- Institution:
- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- From 1864 to 1871, Prussia mounted a series of wars that fundamentally altered the balance of power in Europe. Yet no coalition emerged to check Prussia's rise. Rather than balance against Prussian expansion, the great powers sat on the sidelines and allowed the transformation of European politics. Traditionally, scholars have emphasized structural variables, such as mulitpolarity, or domestic politics as the cause of this "underbalancing." It was Prussia's legitimation strategies, however -- the way Prussia justified its expansion -- that undermined a potential balancing coalition. As Prussia expanded, it appealed to shared rules and norms, strategically choosing rhetoric that would resonate with each of the great powers. These legitimation strategies undermined balancing coalitions through three mechanisms: by signaling constraint, laying rhetorical traps (i.e., framing territorial expansion in a way that deprived others states grounds on which to resist), and increasing ontological security (i.e., demonstrating its need to secure its identity in international politics), Prussia effectively expanded without opposition. An analysis of Prussia's expansion in 1864 demonstrates how legitimation strategies prevented the creation of a balancing coalition.
- Topic:
- Security and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Prussia
3865. Bosnia's Incomplete Transition: Between Dayton and Europe
- Publication Date:
- 03-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- While Bosnia and Herzegovina's time as an international protectorate is ending, which is in itself most welcome, now is the wrong time to rush the transition. The state put together by the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement after a long war will never be secure and able to take its place in the European Union (EU) until it is responsible for the consequences of its own decisions. But tensions are currently high and stability is deteriorating, as Bosniaks and Serbs play a zero-sum game to upset the Dayton settlement. Progress toward EU membership is stalled, and requirements set in 2008 for ending the protectorate have not been not met.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Civil War, Ethnic Conflict, Peace Studies, Religion, and Treaties and Agreements
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Balkans
3866. Did Reagan Rule In Vain? A Closer Look at True Expenditure Levels in the United States and Europe
- Author:
- Jacob Funk Kirkegaard
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Peterson Institute for International Economics
- Abstract:
- It is generally believed that the United States is a country of low taxes and small government, at least when compared with countries in Europe (and until the financial crisis so greatly expanded the role of the federal government in the United States in late 2008). Fully accounting for the role, size, and effect of the government in an economy is a complex endeavor, however, and it is hardly accomplished by repeatedly restating differences in top marginal tax rates, overall tax burdens, or gross sizes of governments in GDP terms.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, Political Economy, and Privatization
- Political Geography:
- United States and Europe
3867. Rationality, Institutions and Reflexivity in the EU: Some Ontological and Epistemological Considerations
- Author:
- Niilo Kauppi
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Political Sociology
- Abstract:
- Sociological research on the European Union provides a much needed alternative to mainstream EU-studies dominated by economics, law, IR and political science. However, until now this sociological alternative has mostly involved the adaptation of sociological terminology such as “social construction” or “identity” and the introduction of new objects of research, such as the social conventions regulating national security or the discursive constructions of Europe. It is however the claim of this paper that sociological theory also provides the tools for a more fundamental re-evaluation of some of the ontological and epistemological presuppositions of EU research and a corresponding reconstruction of the object of study of European studies.
- Topic:
- Economics, Nuclear Weapons, and Political Theory
- Political Geography:
- Europe
3868. Europeanisation and the reform of the State: The influence of the European Union in the reform of the Czech public administration (1993-2004)
- Author:
- Magdaléna Hadjiisky
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Political Sociology
- Abstract:
- The question of the status of public administrations–outwardly a technical one–appears as an important political issue in the post-communist context. The form and place of the State is one of the main issues (political and scientific) raised by post-Sovietism in East European societies. The administration of the former regimes, along with the Communist Party, has embodied the Soviet type of centralized state control. It constitutes a particularly relevant context to evaluate the evolution of the form and action of the State in these new democracies. The administrations in socialist countries were based on the explicit rejection of the separation of powers. Administrative staff organization was based on partisan selection and on the management of civil servants, as well as on the denial of a statutory identity specific to the civil service. The debate on the status of civil servants and services provided by the State has allowed for the redevelopment of a fundamental aspect from the former system: partisan intervention in the selection and management of personnel, and consequently, a degree of political autonomy for the administrative staff. More generally, the treatment of civil servants is important evidence of the conception of the State that prevails at any given moment in history.
- Topic:
- Cold War, Communism, and Democratization
- Political Geography:
- Europe
3869. Sociology of a new field of knowledge: gender studies in postcommunist Eastern Europe
- Author:
- Ioana Cîrstocea
- Publication Date:
- 02-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Political Sociology
- Abstract:
- A new research field named “gender studies” or “feminist studies” has emerged during the 1990s in East-European and post-Soviet countries. The scientific productions in that field often function as experts' studies and aim at contributing to improve women's condition. Established by agents who simultaneously act in several social spaces (scientific, associative or political), feminist studies are at the crossroads of academic and activist, national and international dynamics. Therefore, we consider them as a new discipline at the core of the social and political programmes of recomposition after the collapse of communist regimes, and as an indicator for the rebuilding of social sciences, the emergence of new academic topics, the international circulation and importation of scientific concerns, the reconstruction of intellectual elites in the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CCEE). The paper offers some guidelines for a sociology of this new field of knowledge production.
- Topic:
- Cold War, Communism, Democratization, Gender Issues, and Political Theory
- Political Geography:
- Europe
3870. Peace in Colombia: Can the European Union and the US Collaborate?
- Author:
- Dorly Castañeda
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute for Latin American and Iberian Studies at Columbia University
- Abstract:
- Colombia has been the recipient of the European Union Official Development Aid (ODA) and US foreign aid (military aid and ODA) since the late 1990s. Both international actors have their own particular understanding of the armed conflict, the possible solutions and the role of foreign aid. From one side, the US emphasises military aid and uses ODA in function with security objectives by working closely with the central government and President Uribe. On the other side the EU cautiously develops a common foreign policy to Colombia and insists on civil society participation and local programs in a rather bottom up peace building approach. Considering their different approaches to the Colombian conflict, the war on drugs, the war against terrorism and human rights in the Andean region this paper will asses the possibility of collaboration between both international actors.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Foreign Policy, Civil Society, Humanitarian Aid, and War on Drugs
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Colombia, and Latin America