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32781. From Yugoslavia to Iraq: Russia's Foreign Policy and the Effects of Multipolarity

Author:
Vadim Kononenko
Publication Date:
06-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Finnish Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
The aim of this study is to analyze the evolution and political implications of Russia's doctrine of multipolarity. Multipolarity emerged as one of the earliest doctrinal solutions to the post-Soviet Russian foreign policy dilemma, and has remained essential for Russia's strategic behavior since the early 1990s. The multipolarity doctrine describes the post-Cold War world and Russia's place in it. As I argue in this study, Russian “multipolarity” – (the idea of the multipolar world; the vision of Russia as one of its 'poles'; and the understanding of the principles of international politics in the strict terms of realpolitik) is not an ideological resource for Russia's foreign policy but rather, a result of learning how to secure the country' s international status given the scarcity of foreign policy resources available, and the drastic change in the international institutional position of Russia. To sum up the central argument of this study: the multipolarity of Russian foreign policy – both a doctrinal strategy and foreign policy practice – has evolved as a template-like foreign policy approach to solve Russia's strategic dilemma since the demise of the Soviet Union: how to secure its place in the new international structure and compensate for the loss of the international arrangements that disappeared with Soviet might and the bipolar international system as a whole.
Topic:
Foreign Policy and Diplomacy
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Russia, Iraq, Europe, Middle East, Asia, Soviet Union, and Balkans

32782. Western strategies and the prospect of reforms in the Middle East

Author:
Heidi Huuhtanen
Publication Date:
07-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Finnish Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
Reforms in the Middle East have been on the agenda of almost all relevant international organizations and political actors during the recent years. This has been due to the concentration after 9/11 on the domestic conditions in the Muslim world as a source of radicalization. Concentration of domestic problems is a positive step as it has broadened the discussion of sources of security threats and questioned the current policies towards Middle East states and societies. In the public debate the security threat posed by Muslim terrorism to the international community is still largely analyzed out of the domestic context. Western policies and the Israel-Palestinian conflict are seen as the primary reason for radicalization. Muslim relations to the West as well as the issue of Israel surely have their part to play in the domestic setting of the Middle Eastern states and societies, but most analysts and even Islamists themselves agree, that American and Israeli politics – or indeed any other external factors – explain very little of the support for Islamism or radicalization. Instead the radicalization originates in specific political and socio-economic problems in the Muslim countries and the phenomena must be therefore seen as part of intra-Muslim political grievances. External reasons can only add to these already existing internal problems.
Topic:
Civil Society and Development
Political Geography:
Middle East and Israel

32783. Dialogue of Civilisations? The Case of Nepad

Author:
Henri Vogt
Publication Date:
07-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Finnish Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
This paper has two parallel aims. First of all, it seeks to present and critically discuss some central aspects of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) initiative. A programme of the African Union and officially launched in October 2001, NEPAD is a comprehensive, ambitious framework for changing the negative course of development in Africa and for ending the increasing marginalisation of the continent in the global era. In the words of its founding document, 'the Programme is anchored on the determination of Africans to extricate themselves and the continent from the malaise of underdevelopment and exclusion in a globalising world' (§1).
Topic:
Development, Government, International Cooperation, International Organization, International Political Economy, and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:
Africa

32784. The emperor has some clothes on: fairy tales, scary tales and Weapons of Mass Destruction

Author:
Toby Archer
Publication Date:
07-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Finnish Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
The debate on the invasion of Iraq revolved around so-called “Weapons of Mass Destruction” (WMD). Thousands of lives were lost, hundreds of billions of dollars spent, alliances fractured, and international relations thrown into turmoil. The debates raged over whether WMD were there or not; whether the UN inspectors should have more time to find them or not; whether Iraq having or seeking WMD justified invasion or not, amongst other issues. There were a myriad of differing positions on the value of the war, but the idea that WMD are a distinct and special class of weapons has remained essentially uncontested.
Topic:
Politics, United Nations, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Political Geography:
Iraq and Middle East

32785. EU Emissions Trading: Challenges and Implications of National Implementation

Author:
Jacqueline Karas and Fiona Mullins
Publication Date:
11-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
Emissions trading is central to the European Union's (EU) strategy to meet its climate change commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. However, implementing the EU Directive on emissions trading ('the Directive') is proving extremely challenging for the governments involved. In particular, governments have to prepare National Allocation Plans (NAPs) for distributing emissions allowances to industry within a very tight timeframe. More than 12,000 industrial installations across the EU and accession countries will participate in the trading system.
Topic:
Climate Change, Markets, and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:
Europe

32786. Angola's Future

Publication Date:
11-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
Angola is no longer at war except in its Cabinda province. This report summarizes the British-Angola Forum 2003 conference which focused on whether there was a peace dividend and what the post-conflict priorities for reconstruction and development should be. The opportunities and challenges are many, but many speakers emphasized how slow post-conflict democratic change is. Key issues examined in the British-Angola Forum's 2002 conference were as pertinent as ever. The confrontation between transparency and sovereignty continues to resonate especially.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution and Development
Political Geography:
Africa and Europe

32787. Living with the Megapower - Implications of the War on Terrorism: A report on the series of consultations held at Chatham House July 2002-July 2003

Publication Date:
09-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
Shortly after the attacks on the United States on 11 September 2001, research staff at Chatham House held a meeting to consider how the Institute should respond. The immediate reaction had involved a special issue of The World To day, published in October 2001, and researchers had given numerous media interviews and commentaries, but there was a strong feeling that '9/11', as it soon came to be called, demanded a more measured and analytical response .
Topic:
Security, Foreign Policy, Agriculture, Diplomacy, International Cooperation, International Law, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
United States

32788. L'Éléction présidentielle et les élections législatives françaises de 2002

Author:
Pierre Martin
Publication Date:
03-2003
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
The 2002 presidential and parliamentary elections were marked by stunning outcomes, like the defeat of socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin in the first round of the presidential election and the reelection of incumbing President Jacques Chirac, who garnered more than 80 percent of the votes and defeated the far right candidate, Jean- Marie Le Pen. The presidential election was also marked by a weakening of the communist party, which collected less than 5 percent of the votes, and an exceptional rise of the far right. The number of abstentions was also on the rise. As for the parliamentary elections, they represented a blunt defeat for the left and reinstated the moderate right in power, unified as UMP behind its leader Jacques Chirac. Still, even such major electoral moves were not able to destroy the roots of the party system and electoral order instated after the 1981-1984 years.

32789. France's Double-Talk on Globalization

Author:
Sophie Meunier
Publication Date:
03-2003
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
France has become a worldwide champion of anti-globalization. French intellectuals have long denounced the cultural and economic shortcomings of US-led globalization, while French politicians, on the Left as on the Right, load their speeches with rhetoric critical of a phenomenon that gets a lot less attention in other European countries and in the United States. Yet, at the same time, France is a country whose economy and society have adapted well to this much-criticized globalization. Why this double-speak? Why this disjuncture between words and actions? This article explores this paradox, analyzes the role that France's double discourse on globalization has played in producing the surprising outcome of the 2002 elections, and reflects on the options open to the main political parties today.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
United States, Europe, and France

32790. Creating a Tourist's Paradise: The Marshall Plan and France, 1948 to 1952 [Dossier: Promoting American Tourism in Postwar France]

Author:
Brian A. McKenzie
Publication Date:
03-2003
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
This article examines the promotion of American tourism to France during the Marshall Plan. The paper assesses the cultural and economic goals of the tourism program. Economic aid provided by the United States was essential for the post-war reconstruction of the French tourism industry. Furthermore, transatlantic air carriers adopted new guidelines for tourist class airfares at the urging of U.S. officials. The paper also examines marketing strategies and the creation of tourism infrastructures that facilitated transatlantic tourism. Representatives from the French tourism industry visited the United States to study American hotels and they agreed to adopt practices and rebuild French hotels in ways that would be congenial to American tourists. The paper demonstrates that French and American officials and tourism professionals Americanized the French tourism industry during the Marshall Plan.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
United States, America, and France