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1. Transatlantic Tensions and European Security

Author:
Mary Elise Sarotte
Publication Date:
05-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies
Abstract:
Any nuanced assessment of current transatlantic tensions requires an awareness of their historical context. An understanding of the legacy of the Cold War in particular helps to answer the following questions: (1) What are the sources of current US-European tensions? (2) Has the transatlantic connection sustained mortal damage, or can it endure? (3) What changes of attitude and of focus might help the transatlantic relationship in the future? The argument is as follows: The US-European relationship is under assault not just because of recent US military actions but also because of a longer-term shift away from a successful US Cold War grand strategy that still had much to offer the post-Cold War world. However, cause for alarm is limited, because the history of cooperation, the lack of alternative partners, and the very real nature of external threats means that neither the US nor the Europeans have any realistic alternative to cooperation with each other.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, and Cold War
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

2. Mad Cows and Ailing Hens: The Transatlantic Relationship and Livestock Diseases

Author:
Kate O'Neill
Publication Date:
05-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies
Abstract:
This paper examines how the emergence and spread of animal diseases such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or “mad cow disease”) or avian influenza have shaped the dynamics of transatlantic trade in live animals and meat products. It then compares the responses of the US and the EU, respectively, to looming, potentially long-term threats of epidemics to human and animal health, focusing particularly on recent outbreaks BSE and avian flu. It documents what appears to be a shift away from a sole reliance on trade embargoes to protect animal and public health from disease outbreaks to deeper, institutional responses on the part of the US and EU respectively. However, while it appears that the EU is learning from the US public health establishment, there is little evidence of transatlantic cooperation in this area.
Topic:
International Relations, Disaster Relief, Economics, and Health
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

3. Struggling Over Civil Liberties: The Troubled Foundations of the West

Author:
Abraham Newman
Publication Date:
05-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies
Abstract:
Shared fundamental liberties and democratic principles have long provided the core of what observers of international affairs termed the West. While national institutions and policies have at times varied, they rarely challenged the foundations of the transatlantic partnership. With the rise of information technology and the new security environment, however, local variations in fundamental rights have produced significant international implications. Examining recent transatlantic disputes over privacy and free speech, the paper argues that a new set of international issues have emerged dealing with transnational civil liberties. Once core unifying principles of the transatlantic relationship these basic freedoms have transformed into flashpoints for conflict. After identifying this new trend, the paper argues that the nature of these conflicts is framed by the timing of international interdependence relative to the maturity of national regulatory regimes.
Topic:
International Relations, Democratization, and Diplomacy
Political Geography:
United States

4. The Rise and Fall of the Bush Doctrine: the Impact on Transatlantic Relations

Author:
Justin Vaisse
Publication Date:
04-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies
Abstract:
Between 2002 and 2005, a relatively coherent and profoundly renewed strategic approach to international relations was developed by the Bush administration. Premised on an optimistic assessment of great power relations (”a balance of power that favors freedom”), it emphasized the importance of promoting democracy as a way to solve many of the long-term political and security problems of the greater Middle East. It rested on the view that American military power and assertive diplomacy should be used to defeat tyrannies, challenge a pernicious status quo and coerce states into abandoning weapons of mass destruction and support for terrorism - without worrying too much about legitimacy or formal multilateralism. The Bush doctrine led to tensions with the Europeans, who for the most part shared neither the world view that underpinned it nor its optimism about possible results, especially as far as geopolitical stability, terrorism and weapons of mass destruction were concerned. Then, in 2005, two silent developments took place: the Bush administration, while insisting on staying the course rhetorically (through “transformational diplomacy”), reverted to classical realism in its actual diplomacy - largely for reasons of expediency. China and India, on the other hand, imposed themselves on the global agenda, bringing multipolarity back into the picture of the world to come. While generally closer to European views, the new American realist line remains distinct from the European insistence on strengthening the rules and institutions of global governance.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Terrorism, and Governance
Political Geography:
United States, China, Europe, and Middle East

5. The Unraveling of the Atlantic Order: Historical Breakpoints in U.S.-European Relations

Author:
Charles A. Kupchan
Publication Date:
04-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies
Abstract:
The argument of this paper is that the Atlantic order is in the midst of a fundamental transition. The transatlantic discord that has emerged since the late 1990s marks a historical breakpoint; foundational principles of the Atlantic security order that emerged after World War II have been compromised. Mutual trust has eroded, institutionalized cooperation can no longer be taken for granted, and a shared Western identity has attenuated. To be sure, the Atlantic democracies continue to constitute a unique political grouping. But as scholars and policy makers alike struggle to diagnose the troubles that have befallen the Atlantic community and to prescribe mechanisms for redressing the discord, they would be wise to recognize the scope of change that has been taking place in the Atlantic order.
Topic:
International Relations and Security
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

6. Inevitable Decline versus Predestined Stability: The Structure of Disciplinary Explanations of the Evolving Transatlantic Order

Author:
Gunther Hellmann
Publication Date:
04-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies
Abstract:
The future of NATO has been a hotly debated topic at the center of IR debates ever since the end of the Cold War. It has also been a very complicated one given the discipline's conceptual and theoretical difficulties in studying change. Most analysts now agree that NATO (and the transatlantic order more broadly) are going through some major changes. Yet while there is consensus that the depth as well as the pace of these changes is more far-reaching than in past decades it is unclear exactly how deep and how far these changes reach. In order to come to grips with these changes most of the chapters in this book are exploring the character as well as the sources of these changes. This chapter approaches the topic by examining how the discipline has dealt with the question of the evolution of the transatlantic order in the past. It argues that IR has not been very well equipped conceptually to deal with the phenomenon in question, ie. large-scale processes of change. In applying a typo-logical framework developed by Paul Pierson the chapter discusses what types of causal accounts have dominated in the IR literature – and what this may tell us about particular strengths, biases and potential blind spots in coming to grips with the evolution of this order. In essence it argues that the structure of the most prominent explanations is often quite similar irrespective of paradigmatic descent. Inspite of major differences – inspite, even, of mutually exclusive predictions – as to the expected path of the order ́s evolution realist, liberal and constructivist accounts heavily rely in equal fashion on causal arguments which emphasize large-scale causal processes which are almost always framed in rather statist structural terms even though they essentially entail slow moving causal processes. This temporal dimension of the causal processes presumably shaping the future of the transatlantic order is seldom spelled out in detail, however. Thus, if one examines the debate as a whole one sees a picture of IR scholarship which essentially oscillates between two extremes: the position that NATO (as the core institution of the transatlantic order) was (and is) certain to survive and the position that it was (and is) certain to collapse. What is more, these extremes on a spectrum of possible positions on the transatlantic order ́s evolution between breakdown on the one hand and successful adaptation on the other are not hypothetical but mostly real. Thus, the debate does not gravitate towards the center (ie. a position which, for instance, envisages a loser but still cooperative relationship) after the usual give and take of exchanging scholarly arguments. Rather it mostly sticks with either of the two extreme positions. The chapter illustrates the problems associated with this point in some details and discusses potential remedies.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, NATO, Cold War, and Politics

7. The Idea of the West:: Changing Perspectives on Europe and America

Author:
Andrew Gamble
Publication Date:
04-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies
Abstract:
America owes its origins to Europe and is unthinkable without Europe, but there has always been a strand of American thinking which has downplayed the connection and wished to assert the exceptionalism of the American experience and the need for America to keep Europe at a distance to involve contamination from its old, corrupt power politics. Europeans were fascinated by the new world unfolding in America, which contrasted so sharply with their own, yet was so intimately related to it. At the same time they regarded America as for the most part a novice and outsider in world politics. Recently roles have been reversed, with many Europeans condemning America as a new Empire, while many Americans accuse Europe of refusing to share the burdens and make the hard choices needed for global leadership. The idea of the West which for four decades united Western Europe under American leadership after 1945 has been undermined. Different current meanings of the 'West' are explored through recent arguments about the nature of the relationship between Europe and America, focusing on narratives of security, modernity and ideology. A number of possible scenarios for the future of this relationship are then outlined.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, and Politics
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

8. Phases of Competition Policy in Europe

Author:
Andreas Resch
Publication Date:
04-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies
Abstract:
In the process of globalization, international convergence of competition legislation has steadily gained importance. Yet, specific aspects of European history gave capital markets, corporate governance and competition policies a special flavor. Historically grown peculiarities have to be taken into account when it comes to evaluate actual policy decisions.
Topic:
International Relations, Globalization, and Markets
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

9. Some Comments Concerning the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory: The Performance of the European Union

Author:
Camela Pérez Bernárdez
Publication Date:
01-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies
Abstract:
On December 8th, 2003, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution to submit the question concerning the legality of Israel's construction of a wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory to the International Court of Justice for an advisory opinion. The Court accepted, and thus entered into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - one of the most far reaching, difficult, and delicate disputes that the international community has faced. The purpose of this paper is two-fold. First, it analyzes the most relevant issues in the Wall case related to jurisdiction and merits. Second, it considers the position of the European Union in terms of the Middle East conflict, and specifically, concerning this advisory opinion.
Topic:
International Relations and International Law
Political Geography:
Europe, Middle East, Israel, Palestine, and United Nations

10. The EU's CAP, the Doha Round and Developing Countries

Author:
Michael Nelson and Michael Halderman
Publication Date:
10-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies
Abstract:
This study analyzes the political economy of European Union policy-making in regard to EU trade in beef and dairy with developing countries. The way the EU makes its agriculture and trade policies involves three levels: the EU member state, the EU itself, and the international trading system. The study also considers a fourth “level,” developing countries, that is affected by EU policy-making. We present criticism from various sources concerning negative international effects of EU agriculture and trade policies. Recognizing the great range of trade-related interests among developing countries, the study analyzes relevant issues of four categories of such countries. EU trade and agriculture policy is strongly influenced by international factors, particularly by multilateral trade negotiations. Change in relevant EU agriculture and trade policy affecting developing countries has been part of or directly linked to - and in the future will require additional reform of - the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Recent reform of the CAP has been affected by and linked to the current Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations conducted under the auspices of the WTO.
Topic:
International Relations and Third World
Political Geography:
Europe