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2. Disenchanted Conscription: A Military Recruitment System in Need of Justification
- Author:
- Anna Leander
- Publication Date:
- 06-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- The Economist's point of view is a widely shared one. It also seems warranted by current trends in policy-making in developed democracies. The US, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Spain, and Portugal have abolished or are phasing out conscription. Even France, mother of citizens armies through the revolutionary levée en masse, just saw (literally as the event was broadcasted as a main feature of the evening television news) its last conscript leave the armed forces. The Nordic countries and Germany have not abolished conscription, but conscripts make up a shrinking share of the armed forces, which governments plan to shrink even further. For many observers this confirms that they simply lag behind. They will soon be brought to reason and abolish conscription. But this is a simplistic understanding of what determines the fate of conscription.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, Government, and Peace Studies
- Political Geography:
- United States, United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, and Portugal
3. Infringement of the European Convention on Human Rights by Belgium
- Author:
- Joanna Apap
- Publication Date:
- 02-2002
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies
- Abstract:
- The judgment in the case of Conka v. Belgium of 5 February 2002 by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg whereby Belgium was founded guilty of infringing the European Convention on Human Rights, has much wider implications than one might think on a first reading.
- Topic:
- Government, Human Rights, and International Organization
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Belgium
4. Health Not Wealth
- Author:
- Daniel Gros
- Publication Date:
- 04-1999
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies
- Abstract:
- Health, and not wealth, should be the decisive criterion when considering the prospects of the Central and Eastern European candidates for EU membership and the capacity of the EU to enlarge. Viewed from this perspective, the outlook is promising. The CEECs are still very poor, compared to most of the existing EU members, but they are also much more dynamic. Their growth rates are generally expected to remain around 4-5% for the foreseeable future, compared to about 2-3% for the EU. This still implies that full catch-up in terms of GDP per capita will take decades, rather than years, but full catch-up is not the relevant goal if one is concerned about enlargement. Experience in the EU has shown that problems are much more likely to arise from established rich member countries with stagnant economies (Belgium in the 1980s and part of the 1990s) than poor, but more dynamic states (e.g. Portugal and Ireland today). The fact that most of the so-called 'periphery' is now experiencing stronger growth than the 'core' confirms that EU integration benefits poorer countries even more.
- Topic:
- Government
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Belgium, Portugal, and Ireland