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1251. Trade Policy Issues for the Euro-Med Partnership

Author:
Paul Brenton and Miriam Manchin
Publication Date:
05-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
Abstract:
The economic prospects of the Mediterranean countries are currently constrained by the lack of ambition in their relationships with each other and with their major export market, the EU. These economic relationships are limited by a lack of coverage (agriculture and services are effectively excluded), by a lack of depth (substantial technical barriers to trade remain due to differences in regulatory requirements and the need to duplicate testing and conformity assessment when selling in overseas markets), and they are limited by rules (restrictive rules of origin and lack of cumulation limit effective market access). In addition, the rest of Europe, including Turkey, is integrating at a faster pace to create a Wider European Economic Space. If nothing is done to invigorate the integration process in the Mediterranean, then the region will fall (further) behind relative to other regions on the periphery of the EU, such as the Balkans and Russia and the Ukraine.
Topic:
International Trade and Finance and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, Turkey, Ukraine, Middle East, and Balkans

1252. EU and Ukraine: a turning point in 2004?

Author:
Taras Kuzio
Publication Date:
11-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Union Institute for Security Studies
Abstract:
EU enlargement raises important questions: How much further can the EU enlarge? Should the EU encompass geographic 'Europe' or stop at the western border of the CIS? Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) clearly allows any geographically based European state to apply for membership. Is Ukraine then eligible? On 15 March 2001, the European Parliament supported Ukraine's future membership; in contrast, the EU continues to fudge any answer to this question. The difficulty in answering these questions lies with the criteria that should be used to formulate a response. Whatever the answer, with enlargement it has become a matter of urgency for the EU to engage strategically with its new neighbours in Eastern Europe. In particular, the EU must develop a realistic strategy for Ukraine, its largest new neighbour within Europe. Of these neighbours only two – Ukraine and Moldova – seek EU membership. One reason why Ukraine needs greater attention on the part of the EU is geopolitical. European Commission President Romano Prodi and Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson wrote: 'Any political instability, regressive economic development or fragmentary reform in these countries would threaten to create a new discontinuity in Europe – a political, economic and social divide – in the wake of EU enlargement.' 1 Ukraine borders three, and soon to be four, new EU members. All four of these are or will soon be NATO members. With enlargement, Ukraine's geostrategic importance becomes an issue that the EU must address. This Occasional Paper discusses critical issues in the EU-Ukrainian relationship and provides a number of policy recommendations that could contribute towards fashioning an EU strategy towards Ukraine. At the heart of the current stalemate in relations are virtual policies adopted by the EU and Ukraine towards each other. 2 The EU has never adopted a clear strategy towards Ukraine and other western CIS states that seek EU membership, and in general has paid far too little attention to the region. Ukraine straddles the Central and East European-Eurasian divide. This makes it all the more imperative that the EU devise a strategy that would support a potential shift within Ukraine towards a more Central and East European identity. This potential is more present in Ukraine than in other CIS states. The most effective manner to support Ukraine's 'European choice' may be by offering it an 'open-door' policy. The 2004 elections will have a decisive impact upon Ukraine's 'European choice'. If the front-runner in polls since 2000, Viktor Yushchenko, won the elections, the EU would be forced to change its 'closed-door' approach. Yushchenko would no longer continue a virtual 'European choice' strategy and the EU would be forced to drop its own virtual policy towards Ukraine. The policy proposals developed in this Occasional Paper outline a possible EU strategy towards Ukraine.
Topic:
International Relations and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe and Ukraine

1253. National Security Decision Making, Formal vs. Informal Procedures and Structures: Case Study 1 - The Former Soviet Union, Russia and Ukraine

Author:
Yuri Nazarkin
Publication Date:
08-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
The current Russian security decision-making system represents a particular interest, because Russia today is at a crucial stage of its development. There are a number of factors that are shaping its system: new security dimensions and requirements, traditional and innovative approaches towards security, political interests of various groupings, economic interests of big corporations, politicians' personal ambitions. At the same time the past experience puts a noticeable impact on the current decisionmaking mechanisms. That is why I am going to start with the Soviet period.
Topic:
Communism, Development, and Economics
Political Geography:
Russia, Ukraine, and Soviet Union

1254. Comparing Frameworks of Parliamentary Oversight: Poland, Hungary, Russia, Ukraine

Author:
David Betz
Publication Date:
07-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
It is a truism that the nature and limits of parliamentary oversight in any state are determined by the constitutional and political structure unique to that state. That is to say, a state's constitutional and political “framework of legislative oversight” ultimately constrains the extent to which its parliamentarians may regulate their defence establishment. In some countries, parliament has the legal wherewithal to exert a high degree of scrutiny and control over developments in the defence sector. In others, parliaments possess only limited legal prerogatives in this respect because the executive dominates the defence sector.
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, Civil Society, and Government
Political Geography:
Russia, Ukraine, Poland, and Hungary

1255. Relics of Cold War: Europe's Challenge, Ukraine's Experience

Author:
Oleksiy Melnyk, Ian Anthony, and Alyson J. K. Bailes
Publication Date:
11-2003
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)
Abstract:
In 1989, the year when the death knell sounded for the Communist bloc in Europe and for the 'cold war' which it had pursued with the West, a total of 6–7.6 million personnel depending on the method of counting (2.5–3.7 million from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO, and 3.5–3.9 million from the Warsaw Treaty Organization, WTO) stood in arms within the European theatre. This included some 915 000 forces stationed outside their national borders inter alia from Canada, the Soviet Union and the United States. In the same area there were 80 400 main battle tanks, 76 300 armoured combat vehicles (ACVs), 67 700 heavy artillery pieces, 11 160 combat aircraft and 2615 attack helicopters—as well as many millions of smaller and lighter weapons. Aimed at each other as part of the East–West strategic confrontation, the USA and the USSR in 1990 deployed 10 563 and 10 271 strategic nuclear warheads respectively, while the United Kingdom possessed 300 and France 621. In addition, significant proportions of European territory (especially in the 'front-line' states such as the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, GDR) were taken up by military bases, exercise areas and other facilities such as airfields and pipelines. Large sectors of industry and of scientific, technological, and research and development (R) work were devoted to the needs of military defence. The resources involved were shut out from peaceful, civilian use more emphatically than would normally be the case today, because the bitterness of the strategic confrontation—and the associated risks of espionage and subversion—imposed a degree of secrecy often creating a situation where the citizens of a given state did not know what was happening on their own territory.
Topic:
NATO, Politics, and Sovereignty
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, and Ukraine

1256. Black Sea Defense Ministers Forum (Event Summary)

Author:
Victor Bannykh, Victor Gaiciuc, Armen Kirakossian, and David Tevzadze
Publication Date:
05-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:
On May 2, the Black Sea Security Program held a public forum at the Kennedy School of Government that featured leading representatives from the governments of Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. This panel was moderated by Graham Allison, chair of the Caspian Studies Program at Harvard.
Topic:
Security and Defense Policy
Political Geography:
Ukraine, Moldova, Eastern Europe, Asia, Armenia, and Georgia

1257. Ukraine and the West: Policies for Progress

Author:
Oleksandr Pavliuk and John E. Tedstrom
Publication Date:
07-2002
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
EastWest Institute
Abstract:
A limited window of opportunity has opened to advance democratization, the rule of law, and market economics in Ukraine. This unique situation is the result of economic growth since 2000, strong voter support for reformers in the March 2002 parliamentary elections, and a rearrangement of the strategic landscape since September 11, including positive shifts in Western relations with Russia. How Ukrainian leaders make use of this opportunity will have serious implications for Ukraine's integration with European and Euro-Atlantic institutions. To achieve success, Ukraine will have to deliver on substantive domestic reforms and demonstrate a genuine openness to integration. Leadership from the West is equally imperative; clear indications of the West's desire to see Ukraine succeed at home and in European integration will have a strong positive influence at the grassroots, which will in turn be decisive in the 2004 presidential elections. By contrast, if the West disengages now or fails to formulate a clear concept of its relations with Ukraine, voters will be less likely to support presidential candidates who advocate a European choice and the domestic change it requires. As a result, the likelihood that non-reformers will prevail in the 2004 presidential elections would increase, thereby jeopardizing Ukraine's long-term stability and its contributions to regional and global security.
Topic:
NATO, Democratization, and Economics
Political Geography:
Ukraine and Eastern Europe

1258. Ukraine's Security Sector Reform: Is Progress Conditioned by the Interest of Society

Author:
Leonid Polyakov
Publication Date:
10-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
The Ukrainian people are making a conscious and sincere bid for democracy, but at the same time, Ukraine has a still weak democratic system of governance. In practice it means that transparency, accountability and other essential elements in the maintenance of a democratic society in general, and in the functioning of security structures, in particular, are officially declared in Ukraine, but not consistently enforced.
Topic:
Security, Civil Society, and Development
Political Geography:
Europe and Ukraine

1259. U.S. Policy on Caspian Energy Development and Exports: Mini-Case and Paradigm

Author:
Graham T. Allison and Emily Van Buskirk
Publication Date:
05-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:
The date is July 1, 2001. Real world history and trends occurred as they did through March 19, 2001 — except for the hypothetical departures specified in the case below. Events after March 19 that are not specified in this case are assumed to be straight - line projections of events as they stand on March 19. Assume, for example, that sporadic violence continues in the Middle East at the current level of intensity; Britain and the U.S. are nearing the end of their review of UN sanctions against Iraq, and will soon make recommendations on refocusing the sanctions to make them “smarter”; as expected, Mohammad Khatami was reelected as President of Iran on June 8 with a mandate for continued reform; the price of oil is $25/barrel; events in Chechnya and Ukraine, and negotiations over Nagorno - Karabagh will continue as before.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Security, Democratization, and Energy Policy
Political Geography:
Britain, Russia, United States, Iraq, Ukraine, Middle East, Asia, and United Nations

1260. Jewish Life in Ukraine at the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century: Part Two

Author:
Betsy Gidwitz
Publication Date:
04-2001
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
Abstract:
Local Jewish volunteer leadership in Ukraine is most likely to emerge in the federated community organizations established and nurtured by a small number of community rabbis, such as Rabbi Kaminezki in Dnipropetrovsk (Philanthropic Fund of the Dnipropetrovsk Jewish Community) or Rabbi Bleich in Kyiv (Kyiv Municipal Jewish Community), who endorse multiple Jewish community institutions. (Rabbi Vishedski of Donetsk supports a similar effort.) Federated Jewish organizations in Ukraine resemble North American Jewish federations in that they are associations engaged in community planning, fundraising, and budgeting for Jewish welfare, educational, and identity-building needs. Among their most important differences from North American federations is that, to date, each is closely associated with one particular rabbi and his synagogue. As noted, Rabbi Kaminezki has thwarted the activation of other Jewish religious and educational organizations in Dnipropetrovsk. In Kyiv, Rabbi Bleich is more welcoming to other Jewish religious groups, at least in theory; in practice, other Kyiv Jewish religious institutions are so weak (e.g., the Progressive and Masorti movements) or so confrontational (e.g., the Chabad congregation associated with Rabbi Asman) that significant collaboration is impractical.
Topic:
Security and Religion
Political Geography:
Ukraine, Middle East, Eastern Europe, and North America