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461. The “New World Order”: From Unilateralism to Cosmopolitanism

Author:
Jeffrey Herf and Jürgen Neyer
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Abstract:
On January 26, 2004, the topic of the CES-Berlin Dialogues was “The 'New World Order': From Unilateralism to Cosmopolitanism.” It was the second in a series of four meetings organized in Berlin under the heading “Redefining Justice.” The session was intended to examine successful and failed arenas of cooperation between the US and Europe; political misunderstandings and conscious manipulation; and models for future transatlantic relations. The presenters were Jeffrey Herf, Professor of History, University of Maryland, and Prof. Dr. Jürgen Neyer, Professor of International Political Economy, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, and Heisenberg Fellow of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft at the Department of Political and Social Sciences of the Freie Universität Berlin. Jeffrey Herf was asked to speak on the basic tenets of U.S. foreign policy in the administration of President George W. Bush, and Jürgen Neyer focused on the European view of international relations and conduct in the period since the invasion of Iraq.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, and Politics
Political Geography:
United States, Iraq, Europe, and Berlin

462. Party Competition in Post-Communist Europe: The Great Electoral Lottery

Author:
Abby Innes
Publication Date:
05-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Abstract:
This article suggests that the academic emphasis on rational choice and political-sociological approaches to party development has led to a misleading impression of convergence with Western patterns of programmatic competition and growing partisan identification in the Central European party political scene. As an alternative thesis, the author argues that the very character of 'transition' politics in Eastern Europe and the necessarily self-referential nature of the parliamentary game has structured party systems in those countries, and that the differences between the party systems in this region are critically related to experiences under communism (–a political-historical explanation). The paper argues that, in order to cope with a practical lack of public policy options in major areas such as the economy, parties have had little choice but to compete over operating 'styles,' rather than over substantive (ideologically based) programmatic alternatives. The development of parties incumbent in government since 1989 may be compared to the development of catch-all parties in Western Europe in terms of the competitive logic of weakening/avoiding ideological positions in order to embrace a large constituency. However, successful parties in Eastern Europe lack the 'baggage' of an ideological past and the history of mass membership and a class or denominational clientele – their defining characteristic is that they try to appeal to all of the people all of the time.
Topic:
Education, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe and Eastern Europe

463. A Matter of Degree: The Role of Journalists as Activists in Journalism Business and Policy

Author:
Neil Shister
Publication Date:
04-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
The prevailing view of journalism today draws on strands from a diverse portfolio of political, legal, and commercial theories. Some of the propositions underlying the way we regard the practice of the craft date back to the 18th-century “age of reason;” others are as current as yesterday's Wall Street media deal. “Journalism” is a historical hybrid— more an evolving social construct than a fixed point of reference. As such, it conveys contradictory associations: on one hand a band of swashbuckling iconoclasts daring to “speak truth to power;” on the other hand considerably more temperate, disinterested professionals gathering content to distribute through the “information division” of giant corporations. Each image is exaggerated; neither is wholly wrong
Topic:
Economics, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

464. CERI: The European Union's New Neighbours. Identity-based Strategies and Politics in the Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova

Author:
Alexandra Goujon
Publication Date:
09-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales (CERI)
Abstract:
Since May 1, 2004, the Ukraine and Belarus have become the European Union's new neighbours. Moldova is bound to follow suit with Romania's entrance, scheduled for 2007. Enlargement of the EU to the East has sparked debates on what relations the EU should have with its new border states that are not slated for membership in the near future. The discussion has led to the design of a European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) that blends a regional approach based on shared values with a process of differentiation taking into account the specific characteristics of each country involved. Since their independence, the Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova have developed different identity-based strategies that the new ENP hopes to address while avoiding the creation of new divisions. These strategies in fact oppose those who wish to incorporate European values into their country's political model and those who, on the contrary, reject these values. The relationship between identity and politics is all the more crucial for the EU's eastern neighbours since it involves practices with a low level of institutionalization, in the areas of nation-building, the political system as well as foreign policy. A comparative approach confirms the idea that the EU's new neighbours constitute a regional specificity due to their common past as Soviet republics and their geostrategic position. It also points up the differences between these states as they gradually transform into discrete political spaces with nationalized modes of identification and politicization.
Topic:
International Relations and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe, Ukraine, Moldova, Eastern Europe, and Romania

465. Danish and British Euroscepticism Compared: A Sceptical Assessment of the Concept

Author:
Catharina Sørense
Publication Date:
12-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Abstract:
The aim of the working paper is to examine similarities and differences between Danish and British sceptical or negative public attitudes towards the European Union. It looks at problems involved with defining and measuring the phenomenon of popular euroscepticism, before turning to characteristics specific for the case countries. The conclusion drawn from the comparison is that the phenomenon differs significantly even between two countries often associated for a discernible euroscepticism. In conclusion, the contemporary relevance of the study of popular euroscepticism is discussed with reference to the increasing use of referenda as a means to settle political questions in today's EU.
Topic:
International Relations and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

466. Russian Conservatism in the Putin Presidency

Author:
Sergei Prozorov
Publication Date:
10-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Abstract:
The article seeks to map the emergent discursive field of conservatism in Russian politics in the context of the reshapement of the political space in the Putin presidency. In the course of Putin's first presidential term 'conservatism' became a privileged mode of political selfidentification in the Russian discourse, functioning as the nodal point of the hegemonic project of the Presidency. Yet, in accordance with the Foucauldian understanding of discourse as a system of dispersion, the article demonstrates the way the conservative discourse is internally fractured into two antagonistic strands, identified by their practitioners as liberal and left conservatisms. While the liberal-conservative orientation supports and sustains the depoliticising project of the Putin presidency, which orders and stabilises the effects of the anti-communist revolution, left conservatism functions in the modality of radical opposition to the Putinian hegemony, thereby contributing to the pluralisation of political space in contemporary Russia. In the present Russian political constellation 'conservatism' is therefore less a name for a stable hegemonic configuration than a designator of the field of political struggle over the very identity of postcommunist Russia. The article concludes with a critical discussion of the relation the two strands of Russian conservatism establish to the period of the 1990s as the 'moment of the political' in the Russian postcommunist transformation.
Topic:
Democratization, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, and Asia

467. The Russian Northwestern Federal District and EU's Northern Dimension

Author:
Sergei Prozorov
Publication Date:
07-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Abstract:
The Northwestern Federal District of the Russian Federation has been particularly active in asserting itself as a macro-regional political subject, transcending the administrative borders of the subjects of the Russian Federation. This affirmation of the Northwest as a macro-region is also characterised by the explicit location of the Federal District within the international regional context and the linkage of the newly elaborated strategic development plans with EU policies in the region, particularly the Northern Dimension. This strategic policy discourse is grounded in the problematisation of the existing format of EU-Russian cooperation on the regional level as marked by the passivity of Russian regions vis-à-vis EU policies. The district-level strategies proceed, on the contrary, from the need to assume a more active and assertive position towards the EU that would allow to integrate the policies of the Northern Dimension with the domestic reform vision in Russia. The paper seeks to analyse the international dimensions of the strategic discourse of the Northwestern 'macro-region', elucidate the conflict episodes and conflict issues that are articulated in this discourse and address the wider implications of the emergence of the Northwestern Federal District for the EU-Russian regional cooperation in the border regions.
Topic:
Politics and International Affairs
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, and Asia

468. The Politics of European security

Author:
Jess Pilegaard
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Abstract:
The present anthology offers a comprehensive and balanced analysis of the challenges facing the European Union and the EU member states in their efforts to strengthen the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). The following chapters have been selected to provide the reader with a broader understanding of the central issues affecting the further development of the ESDP. Taken as a whole, the anthology offers an overview of the emerging ESDP and the central challenges facing it. Considered as a reader, the anthology comprises nine chapters offering updated and detailed analytical treatment of subjects ranging from security strategy, via military capabilities and intelligence cooperation, to the challenge of thinking about 'homeland security' in a European context.
Topic:
Security, Foreign Policy, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

469. Reinvigorating European Elections: The Implications of Electing the European Commission

Author:
Julie Smith
Publication Date:
05-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
Europe's voters go to the polls in mid-June to elect 732 Members of the European Parliament. In the past European Parliament (EP) elections have been characterized by low turnout, with an emphasis on national rather than European issues. The evidence suggests that this year's elections will be little different despite the enlargement of the Union on 1 May.
Topic:
Civil Society, Government, Political Economy, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

470. For our eyes only? Shaping an intelligence community within the EU

Author:
Bjorn Muller-Wille
Publication Date:
04-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Union Institute for Security Studies
Abstract:
Developing international and cross–agency intelligence cooperation has become imperative in today's security environment. If the so–called 'new threats' are to be tackled collectively, it is not only desirable but also necessary to make collective threat assessments.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe