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2471. The European Citizens'Initiative: Next Big Thing or New False Good Idea ?

Author:
Franklin Dehousse
Publication Date:
07-2013
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
EGMONT - The Royal Institute for International Relations
Abstract:
One innovative element of the Lisbon Treaty was the creation of a European Citizens' Initiative (ECI). At the time, this was sometimes hailed as a fundamental change in the European institutional system. A few years after the entry into force of the Treaty, however, much less is heard about this “first truly transnational instrument of modern direct democracy”, this “revolution in disguise”, this “very innovative and symbolic” provision5. This could seem surprising at first sight. Since the entry into force of the Treaty, the implementation of this provision has been remarkably rapid. Meanwhile, new arguments have risen concerning the lack of democratic legitimacy of the European Union, and the lack of connection between the European institutions and the citizens.
Topic:
Civil Society, Democratization, Regional Cooperation, Treaties and Agreements, and Governance
Political Geography:
Europe

2472. Assessing the Single Supervisory Mechanism: Passing the point of no return for Europe's Banking Union

Author:
Stijn Verhelst
Publication Date:
06-2013
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
EGMONT - The Royal Institute for International Relations
Abstract:
Europe's financial and sovereign debt crises have become increasingly interconnected. In order to break the negative feedback loop between the two, the EU has decided to create a common supervisory framework for the banking sector: the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM). The SSM will involve a supervisory system including both the national supervisors and the European Central Bank (ECB). By endowing the ECB with supervisory authority over a major part of the European banking sector, the SSM's creation will result in a shake-up of the way in which the European financial sector is being supervised. Under the right circumstances, this could be a major step forward in addressing Europe's interconnected crises.
Topic:
Debt, Economics, Regional Cooperation, Monetary Policy, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
Europe

2473. Money for Structural Reforms in the Eurozone:making sense of contractual Arrangements

Author:
Xavier Vanden Bosch
Publication Date:
05-2013
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
EGMONT - The Royal Institute for International Relations
Abstract:
Both the Commission's proposal for a 'Competitiveness and Convergence Instrument' and the 'contractual arrangement' presented by President Van Rompuy share a common concept: associating EU money with national structural reforms under a binding arrangement.
Topic:
Economics, Markets, Regional Cooperation, Labor Issues, Monetary Policy, and Reform
Political Geography:
Europe

2474. In the Eye of the Beholder: How Leaders and Intelligence Communities Assess the Intentions of Adversaries

Author:
Keren Yarhi-Milo
Publication Date:
10-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Security
Institution:
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:
How do policymakers infer the long-term political intentions of their states' adversaries? This question has important theoretical, historical, and political significance. If British decisionmakers had understood the scope of Nazi Germany's intentions for Europe during the 1930s, the twentieth century might have looked very different. More recently, a Brookings report observes that “[t]he issue of mutual distrust of long-term intentions . . . has become a central concern in U.S.-China relations.” Statements by U.S. and Chinese officials confirm this suspicion. U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke noted “a concern, a question mark, by people all around the world and governments all around the world as to what China's intentions are.” Chinese officials, similarly, have indicated that Beijing regards recent U.S. policies as a “sophisticated ploy to frustrate China's growth.”
Political Geography:
United States, China, and Europe

2475. The Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on International Migration

Author:
Khalid Koser
Publication Date:
10-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
Institution:
School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University
Abstract:
Economic and financial crises never fail to impact international migration patterns, processes, and policies. The Great Depression (1929-33) resulted in massive repatriations of Latin Americans from the United States and the introduction of highly restrictive immigration policies in a number of industrialized countries, including France and Canada. The Oil Crisis (1973) resulted in severe restrictions on labor migration, a concomitant growth in asylum applications and irregular migration in Europe, and the emergence of new flows of labor migration to new industrial centers in Asia and Latin America. As a result of the Asian financial crisis (1997-99), several Southeast Asian countries introduced policies of national preference and sought to expel migrant workers. The Russian financial crisis (1998) accelerated rates of emigration from Russia, in particular of Russian Jews and the highly-skilled. The gravity of the Latin American financial crisis (1998-2002) also resulted in a significant exodus, in particular from Argentina.
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, Europe, Canada, Asia, France, Argentina, and Latin America

2476. Immigration and National Security: Comparing the US and Europe

Author:
Terri E. Givens
Publication Date:
10-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
Institution:
School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University
Abstract:
In the aftermath of the economic crisis of 2008, the United States administration officials emphasized that economic security needed to go hand in hand with national security. Immigration is an often overlooked yet major component of both economic and national security. Much is made of capital flows, trade agreements, treaties, and military action in the broader scheme of international relations. However, the flow of people, particularly people from a variety of ethnic and national backgrounds, has always played a key role in international relations, including on security issues.
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

2477. More Barbwire or More Immigration, or Both? EU Migration Policy and the Nexus of Border Security Management and Neolibreal Economic Growth

Author:
Peo Hansen
Publication Date:
10-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
Institution:
School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University
Abstract:
Since the late 1980s a growing number of scholars, journalists, and NGOs have been employing the metaphor fortress Europe to depict what are allegedly disastrous migration policies enacted within the framework of the European Union. Today, fortress Europe has matured into a politically footloose charge, which means that Brussels and member state governments no longer enjoy the luxury of brushing it aside as the mere cry of the idealistic and hyperbolic do-gooders on the left. Rather, the portrayal of the EU as a fortress, dead set on repelling migrants from the less fortunate places of the world, now also holds sway within much of the global news media's neoliberal punditry.
Political Geography:
Europe

2478. Migration and the Demographic System in East Central Europe

Author:
Albert F. Reiterer
Publication Date:
10-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
Institution:
School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University
Abstract:
Complex modern democratic societies formed in the wake of the Second World War face the task of securing three public goods—legitimacy, economic welfare, and a viable sense of collective identity. However, not all people living in such societies are entitled to benefit from these public goods or even engage in the national pursuit of happiness. Indeed, not all humans are considered as belonging to the collective identity of a state, and not all people who cross the borders of a state feel obliged to conform to the expectations of the target country. Thus, while migration is a necessity and an unavoidable phenomenon, it may lead to a host of unintended problems.
Political Geography:
Europe

2479. Managing Population Movements: The Challenge for Diplomacy in Southeast Europe

Author:
Vladimir Grecec and Slobodan Jankovic
Publication Date:
10-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
Institution:
School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University
Abstract:
In the last decade of the 20th century, political, economic, and social changes together with conflicts and globalization induced stronger labor and human mobility in the region of the South East Europe during the first decade of the 21st century. Current financial and economic crises caused a major decline in migration and resulted in significant unemployment among immigrants in OECD countries. These developments have had positive and negative implications for both origin and destination countries. In order to maximize the positive effects and minimize the negative impact, states need to engage in migration management, negotiating relations between origin and destination countries, even regionally.
Political Geography:
Europe

2480. Africa's Turn

Author:
Macky Sall
Publication Date:
10-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Foreign Affairs
Institution:
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
Since it gained independence from France in 1960, the West African country of Senegal has been a bastion of stability and democracy on a continent that has seen relatively little of either. During the presidency of Abdoulaye Wade (2000–2012), however, the Senegalese exception seemed under threat. The elderly Wade grew increasingly authoritarian and corrupt, and he managed to run for a third term even though the constitution prohibited him from doing so. But in March 2012, Senegalese voters dealt Wade a decisive defeat, electing the reformist candidate Macky Sall instead. Trained in France as a geological engineer, Sall had served in a number of government posts under Wade, including prime minister, before publicly breaking with him in 2007. In opposition, Sall created a new political party; served a second term as mayor of his hometown, Fatick; and organized an anti-Wade coalition. Sall spoke with Foreign Affairs senior editor Stuart Reid in Dakar in June, days before U.S. President Barack Obama's arrival in Senegal for a state visit.
Topic:
Governance
Political Geography:
Africa and Europe