Germany is a bridge between Russia and the West, and how Berlin chooses to deal with Moscow will set the tone for how the United States and the rest of Europe manage their own relationships with Russia.
A caucus of democracies and liberal states within the UN could aim to crosscut the UN's deeply entrenched hegemonic voting patterns and support and celebrate the purposes and claims of democracy.
Against the background of the alleged democratic deficit of EU institutions, this case study explores how politicization and emerging transnational public spaces in European protest movements innovate existing practices of discursive or grassroots deliberative democracy in national social movements. I studied the European Social Forum (ESF) process, a transnational participatory democracy platform created by civil society groups and social movement organizations. I explored discourse and decision-making in the small-scale European Assemblies in which hundreds of activists have met six times a year since 2002 to organize the ESFs, and form campaigns on issues such as global and social justice, peace, climate change, migration, health, or education. Comparing activists' democratic norms and discourse practices in these frequently occurring European Assemblies with social forum assemblies at the national level in Germany, Italy and the UK, I arrived at a surprising result: European Assemblies reflect a higher degree of discursive inclusivity, dialogue and transparency in decision-making and discussion compared to national social forum assemblies. In this paper I discuss structural, strategic and cultural changes that occur in the process of a Europeanization “from below”, that is, when social movement activists work together transnationally across a certain time period. I argue that European protest as a form of contentious Europeanization has developed new social practices and actors that innovate existing practices of participatory democracy at the national level, showing the relevance of social movements to democratize European integration.
Almanya‟nın dünyanın en büyük ekonomik güçlerinden biri olması bu ülkenin dış politikasının yönünü dünya açısından önemli kılmaktadır. Bu ülkenin geçmişte gücünü yayılmacı politika yönünde kullanma konusunda sabıkalı bir geçmişe sahip olması bu önemi daha da artırmaktadır. Bu makalede 1990 yılındaki birleşme sonrasında kendisini sınırlayan son bağlardan da kurtulan Almanya‟nın yeniden eski güç politikasına (Machtpolitik) dönüp dönmeyeceği konusundaki tartışmalar ele alınmıştır.
Nikolai Sokov, Dennis M. Gormley, Miles A. Pomper, Patricia M. Lewis, Lawrence Scheinman, Stephen Schwartz, and Leonard S. Spector
Publication Date:
06-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies
Abstract:
In late April 2009, the Policy Planning Staff of the Foreign Ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany requested that the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) undertake studies on four emerging issues in the fields of arms control, disarmament, and nonproliferation, to be completed by June 15, 2009. The four issues were: The need to address the interrelationship between nuclear and conventional arms reduction, if the United States wants to entice others to go along the path to Global Zero. The world after drastic nuclear arms reductions, including the fear of U.S. conventional superiority/global strike capabilities; The need (and promising areas) to make (nuclear) arms control and disarmament a strong component of NATO's new strategic concept; Missile Defense, also covering a possible threat from others than Iran and the need to bring missile defense into the NATO-Russia Council; and Substrategic nuclear weapons, with a description of a way to achieve mutual transparency, reduction, and elimination in Europe.
Topic:
Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, Nuclear Weapons, Treaties and Agreements, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
In principle, Turkey would welcome the global elimination of nuclear weapons. For the current government, the possession of nuclear weapons by other states is a factor that, indirectly at least, reduces Turkey's regional (if not global) aspirations and power. However, in the medium term, it remains deeply ambivalent on the future of nuclear weapons and its own plans regarding nuclear energy and weapons development.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Nuclear Weapons, and Nuclear Power
Non-smoking ordinances are among the most popular albeit controversial public health-care
legislations worldwide. This article provides an empirical assessment of the impact of non-smoking
ordinances on bar and restaurant revenues in German Federal States. By application of panel spline
regression and difference-in-difference strategies, we find negative impact limited to bars in the very
short run. If any, there is a positive impact on total expenditures in the long run, indicating that either
consumption pattern has not changed at all or that any reduction in spending by smokers is compensated for by a corresponding increase by non-smokers. These findings support the German – and similar – non-smoking legislations in the sense that positive externalities resulting from reduced health
care cost are likely to outweigh the risk to businesses in the hospitality sector, at least in the long run.
Arne Feddersen, Sven Jacobsen, and Wolfgang Maennig
Publication Date:
11-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Chair for Economic Policy, University of Hamburg
Abstract:
The major sporting success of one’s countrymen and women is often supposed to promote
the growth of general participation in that sport. This study is the first to analyse the impact of sports
heroes on the membership figures of the corresponding sports association by means of an econometric
analysis. We do so by evaluating the so-called "Boris Becker effect" by simultaneously testing for the
effects of the rise and retirement of the three stars Boris Becker, Stefanie Graf, and Michael Stich. As a
first paradox, our results indicate a negative tennis growth effect associated with the time period of
the ascendency of the sport stars. With the first paradox, their retirement should then have a positive
effect. In this sense, our second result of a statistically negative tennis growth since the declining success of the German tennis stars must be regarded as a second paradox.
International Affairs: A Russian Journal of World Politics, Diplomacy and International Relations
Institution:
East View Information Services
Abstract:
History of the Balkan Slavs can be described as never ending disunity and disagreements frequently developing into mutual repulsion and even enmity. Throughout the last six centuries the states of the Southern Slavs have not merely failed to consolidate - they distanced from one other. Slovenia was developing first under a strong German influence and, from the 13th century on, under the Austrian Habsburgs. Venice dominated over the Adriatic coast, mainly over what is now Croatia. In the 12th century, Hungary established its influence in the continental part of Croatia and later in Bosnia. By the mid-15th century, the Turks had captured Serbia, by the end of the century they established themselves in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Political Geography:
Bosnia, Herzegovina, Yugoslavia, Germany, Serbia, Balkans, Austria, and Slovenia