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11. Is Leviathan Back? Circassian Ethnic Mobilization After the 2012 Presidential Elections in Russia

Author:
Marat Grebennikov
Publication Date:
11-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
This article explores the hypothesis that on-going instability in the North Caucasus can no longer be explained by its violent history of colonization. Instead, instability is carefully negotiated by ethnic elites, who do not see the North Caucasus as an indispensable part of the Russian Federation and who can only make a public show of action on the eve of crucial political campaigns: the 2012 presidential elections and the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Focusing on the question of ethnicity and its relation to federal politics in the North Caucasus, the main argument of the article is while Circassian ethnicity and ethnic politics in general, have been partly the outcome of the authoritarian rule of the Russian Imperial and Soviet legacies, the way ethnicity has been and is being politicized by the ethnic, federal, and international actors, have created serious grounds for the rise and the consolidation of Circassian nationalism in the North Caucasus.
Political Geography:
Europe

12. Olivera Simic, Regulation of Sexual Conduct in UN Peacekeeping Operations (Berlin: Springer, 2012)

Author:
Rajeesh Kumar
Publication Date:
11-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Reports of sexual abuse and exploitation by UN peacekeepers were a black mark in the history of United Nations Peacekeeping. The metamorphosis of peacekeepers to perpetrators has been part of almost all the discussions on peacekeeping in the last two decades. In the 1990s the discussions centred on the absence of rules and procedures for preventing sexual exploitation by the peacekeepers. The discussions have forced the United Nations to make some regulatory measures to prevent such actions and to form laws to penalize peacekeepers who violate these codes of conduct. The culmination of all these developments was the formation of Secretary General's Bulletin (SGB) commonly known as Zero Tolerance Policy (ZTP) in the year 2003. In the meantime, the discourse over the sexual exploitation has taken a new shape by debating pros and cons of the new rule.
Topic:
United Nations
Political Geography:
Europe

13. Damien Cahill, Lindy Edwards, and Frank Stilwell (eds.), Neoliberalism: Beyond the Free Market(Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Author:
Emmanuel Kipole
Publication Date:
11-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Apparently capitalism and neo-liberalism have elevated the market to a position of omnipotence as a spontaneously occurring best resources' distributor. However, neo-liberalism as a philosophy that informs capitalism has always sparked divergent opinions as to its core spirit and practice. Neo-liberalism has always been netted into different perspectives. Although the consensual bottom-line of neo-liberalism philosophy is the free market, there is no consensus on its interpretation, contextualization and practices. As a whole, there is optimism in neo-liberalism the same as there is skepticism.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, America, and Europe

14. J.G.A. Pocock, Political Thought and History: Essays on Theory and Method (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 2009)

Author:
Mark Castelino
Publication Date:
11-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
J.G.A. (John) Pocock is a renowned historian of political ideas and is most associated with the so-called “Cambridge School” of political thought whose founding members in the 1960's also include Quentin Skinner and John Dunn. This volume is a collection of essays arranged more-or-less in chronological order of publication that are “concerned with relations between history and political theory” (ix) and encompasses the full length of Pocock's half-century-long writing career. As such, it is very instructive for getting a grasp of a major author in a significant current of contemporary political thought.
Political Geography:
Europe

15. Nermin Abadan-Unat, Turks in Europe (London: Berghahn 2011)

Author:
Patrick Hein
Publication Date:
11-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
In his 2010 best-selling book Germany Is Doing Away with Itself former German Central Bank executive member Thilo Sarrazin denounced the structural integration unwillingness of the Turkish community in Germany. The book sparked a fierce controversy especially among young, liberal, German-speaking Turks who feltCEU Political Science Journal. Vol. 8, No. 2 267 deeply offended by Sarrazin's allegations. The German unease with Islam and Turkey has cast a shadow over bilateral relations between the two states. With the rise of radical Islam and ongoing human rights violations in Turkey, tensions have been on the increase.
Topic:
Government
Political Geography:
Europe, Turkey, and Germany

16. One Actor, One Too Many Voices? The EU at the UN General Assembly

Author:
Attila Molnar
Publication Date:
09-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
The article tests the assumption that the deepening integration brought on by the European Union's Treaty of Lisbon should have a palpable effect on the dynamics of EU Member States' action at the United Nations. Building on existing scholarly literature, on interviews with diplomats and staff of the European External Action Service at two UN headquarters locations, as well as on a case study of what is arguably the most universal of multilateral bodies, the UN General Assembly, the article asses the "voice of the EU" on the global multilateral scene. It concludes that, in spite of the abundance of theoretical and practical arguments for increasing the unity of European diplomacy, action in the UNGA does not provide grounds fo an overly hasty departure from a state-centric view of EU foreign policy.
Topic:
Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
Europe, United Nations, and Lisbon

17. Josette Baer (ed.), From Post-Communism toward the Third Millennium (Bern: Peter Lang, 2011)

Author:
Klejd Këlliçi
Publication Date:
09-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
From Post Communism toward the Third Millennium is a collection of contributions whose origins are different in style and content. The main aim of the book can be found concisely within the last part of the title 'toward the third millennium'. It offers a consumptive panorama after a period where most of the political transitions in the area were either resolved or had reached a conclusion defined by the membership in NATO or the EU, or had simply come to a standstill.
Political Geography:
Europe

18. Silja Häusermann, The Politics of Welfare State Reform in Continental Europe – Modernization in Hard Times (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010)

Author:
Imre Szabó
Publication Date:
02-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Human imagination is more easily captured by spectacular, one-off events than by more long-term, but equally important processes. Social scientists cannot completely escape this fascination with sudden changes and ruptures either. Usually they are more concerned with revolutions and rapid overhauls of social systems (like the Thatcherite reforms) than with “longue durée” phenomena. Their bias is reinforced by practical considerations as well: when studying interruptive events, it is easier to distinguish between new and old, between “innovators” and “conservatives”. When it comes to long-term transformational dynamics, it may be difficult to recognize change at all. Boundaries between the old and the new are often blurred, and traditional and newly emerging institutions may coexist. What can be even harder is to explore the causes of the change and the role that different political actors played during the process. Despite all these difficulties, there are a few promising works that deal with long-term transformations of socio-political systems. Silja Hä usermann's book, The Politics of Welfare State Reform in Continental Europe – Modernization in Hard Times certainly belongs to this group.
Political Geography:
Europe

19. Nidhi Trehan and Nando Sigona (eds.), Romani Politics in Contemporary Europe: Poverty, Ethnic Mobilization, and the Neo-liberal Order (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).

Author:
Ivana Tomovska
Publication Date:
02-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Romani communities throughout Western, Eastern and Southeast European countries experience poverty, socio-economic marginalization with additional increasing intolerance and discrimination by the majority population. The marginalization involves exclusion from labour markets, exclusion and segregation within the education system, difficult access to services including healthcare services, extreme forms of spatial segregation; in a word, exclusion from the right to exercise active citizenship. In addition, Romani people experience very concrete security issues such as: police brutality, racism, intolerance and violent outbursts against them. With Romani issues on the raise one cannot help but wonder what politics and policy actions are taking place around those issues. Who is creating the politics, what are the roles and degrees of influence by internal movements within the Romani constituencies as well as external influences? Many of these questions are addressed in Nidhi Trehan's and Fernando (Nando) Sigona's Romani Politics in Contemporary Europe.
Political Geography:
Europe

20. Simon Teune (ed.) The Transnational Condition: Protest dynamics in an entangled Europe (New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2010)

Author:
Simon McMahon
Publication Date:
04-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
The Transnational Condition represents a valuable development of the academic literature on social movements and transnationalism. The objective of Simon Teune has been to "take protests in Europe as an example for the crosscutting relevance of transnational exchanges" (p. 2). Protest and activism act as a lens through which we are able to explore how local, national and global (or European) levels of social relations are shaped and integrated. Although the conceptualisation of 'transnationalism' as a set of "pluri-local relations of entanglement beyond national borders" (ibid.) initially seems somewhat vague and imprecise, the case studies that complete the edition clearly illustrate how a tighter definition of boundaries between these levels would fail to capture the fluid and dynamic nature of cross- border exchanges across them. In summary, the editor has brought together a range of texts that successfully "expands the depth of academic focus with reference to political processes on the European continent" (p. 12), whilst also presenting academics of social movements, European integration and communication studies with new avenues for investigation. The result is a collection of studies that does not only inform about the topic at hand, but offers analytical tools for the future development of the field.
Topic:
Communications
Political Geography:
Europe