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141. Europe as a Symbolic Resource. On the Discursive Space of Political Struggles in Poland

Author:
Artur Lipiński
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Kolleg-Forschergruppe (KFG)
Abstract:
The aim of this paper is to reconstruct the structure of discursive positions pertaining to the relationship between Poland and the European Union (EU). Such a problematization draws on the assumption that Europe is always understood in relation to the nation state and, in turn, the image of the latter is explicitly referred to or can be inferred from the vision of the EU. The analysis of the empirical data has revealed three discursive positions which organize the production of meaning and govern the strategies of representation. The first position represents the EU as a chance for the further modernization of Poland. The second position perceives the EU as the game of interests between sovereign nation states. The task of the nation state is to benefit from cooperation within an extra-state structure and to retain maximum sovereignty at the same time. The third identifies the EU as “a threat” hostile to the nation state and its interests. The chain of equivalence connects the EU with almost all negative social phenomena. The discursive analytical assumptions adopted in the paper help to show how the same topics and words (chance, threat, interests, nation, state, sovereignty, “Europe of fatherlands”, and modernization) acquire different meanings in the context of particular interpretations of other words.
Topic:
Nationalism, Regional Cooperation, Sovereignty, and Territorial Disputes
Political Geography:
Europe and Poland

142. The Kosovo Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice and its Political Consequences

Author:
Pál Dunay and Steven Haines
Publication Date:
10-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Abstract:
Ever since NATO's Operation Allied Force in 1999 resulted in a withdrawal of Serb forces from Kosovo and the establishment of governance arrangements for the province that included an important external presence (with UN, EU, NATO and OSCE missions) as well as Kosovo's own Provisional Institutions of Self Government, the precise future status of Kosovo has been in doubt. Two extreme options were favoured by Serbia and Kosovo, respectively: either for Kosovo to continue as a part of Serbia or for it to achieve independent status (most likely by attaining statehood). On 17 February 2008, a group of Kosovo leaders issued a Declaration of Independence. Serbia responded with a request that the UN General Assembly seek an opinion on the legality of Kosovo's action from the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The Court delivered its Opinion on 22 July 2010. What did the Court say and what are the political consequences of its Opinion?
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, International Law, and Sovereignty
Political Geography:
Europe, Kosovo, United Nations, and Balkans

143. Staatlichkeit und Governance im Zeitalter der europäischen Expansion. Verwaltungsstrukturen und Herrschaftsinstitutionen in den britischen und französischen Kolonialimperien

Author:
Dominik Nagl and Marion Stange
Publication Date:
02-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 700
Abstract:
Strukturell „begrenzte Staatlichkeit“ und nicht staatszentrierte Modi des Regierens sind keine Phänomene, die erst seit dem ausgehenden 20. Jahrhundert zu beobachten sind. Aus diesem Grund plädiert dieses Working Paper für die Übertragung des Governance-Begriffs auf vor- und frühmoderne Gesellschaften. Anknüpfend an die neuere Diskussion um frühneuzeitliche Staatlichkeit steht hier nicht die mehr oder weniger monolithische Sicht auf einen sich mit Macht durchsetzenden monarchisch-absolutistischen Staat im Vordergrund, als vielmehr die Vielfalt staatlicher Dynamiken und der daran beteiligten Akteure. Das Working Paper fragt daher nach den historisch kontingenten Entwicklungspfaden zentralisierter Herrschaftsausübung. Hierdurch soll insbesondere die Heterogenität dieses Entwicklungsprozesses beleuchtet werden, der durch eine Ungleichzeitigkeit von nebeneinander bestehenden traditionellen und neueren Regierungs- und Verwaltungsstrukturen sowie durch immer wiederkehrende Prozesse der Aushandlung von Autorität gekennzeichnet ist.
Topic:
Government, Sovereignty, Political Theory, and Infrastructure
Political Geography:
Europe

144. Nurturing Instability: Lebanon's Palestinian Refugee Camps

Publication Date:
02-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
The vast Palestinian refugee population is routinely forgotten and ignored in much of the Middle East. Not so in Lebanon. Unlike in other host countries, the refugee question remains at the heart of politics, a recurrent source of passionate debate and occasional trigger of violence. The Palestinian presence was a catalyst of the 1975-1990 civil war, Israel's 1982 invasion and Syrian efforts to bring the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) to heel. Virtually nothing has been done since to genuinely address the problem. Marginalised, deprived of basic political and economic rights, trapped in the camps, bereft of realistic prospects, heavily armed and standing atop multiple fault lines–inter-Lebanese, inter-Palestinian and inter-Arab–the refugee population constitutes a time bomb. Until the Arab-Israeli conflict is resolved, a comprehensive approach is required that clarifies the Palestinians' status, formally excludes their permanent settlement in Lebanon, significantly improves their living conditions and, through better Lebanese-Palestinian and inter-Palestinian coordination, enhances camp management.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Political Violence, Ethnic Conflict, Human Rights, Post Colonialism, Sovereignty, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
Middle East and Arabia

145. The Politics of Globalization Studies: From the problem of sovereignty to a problematics of government

Author:
Wanda Vrasti
Publication Date:
10-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
Abstract:
In the interest of convenience, the study of globalization can be grouped into three camps – hyperglobalist, sceptic, and transformationalist approaches (Held et al. 1999). Over the past decade or so, the first two have gradually fallen into disrepute for their empirical weaknesses and their theoretical lack of sophistication. By default, proponents of the transformationalist thesis, although by no means a unified approach, have emerged triumphant by being able to offer increasingly compelling examinations of the changing relation between space and sovereignty.
Topic:
Globalization, Sovereignty, Political Theory, and Governance
Political Geography:
North America

146. Warlords As Bureaucrats: The Afghan Experience

Author:
Dipali Mukhopadhyay
Publication Date:
09-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
Despite his commitment to develop a democratic, modern state, President Hamid Karzai placed many former warlords in positions of power, particularly in the provinces. Many observers, Afghan and foreign alike, have decried the inclusion of warlords in the new governmental structures as the chief corrosive agent undermining efforts to reconstruct the state. Indeed, warlord governors have not been ideal government officials. They have employed informal power and rules, as well as their personal networks, to preserve control over their respective provinces. Informalized politics of this kind is the antithesis of a technocratic, rule-based approach to governance and entails considerable costs, from inefficiency to corruption and human rights abuses.
Topic:
Security, Democratization, Government, Sovereignty, War, and Counterinsurgency
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and Asia

147. Palestine: Salvaging Fatah

Publication Date:
11-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
Why should anyone care about Fatah's fate? The 50-yearold movement, once the beating heart of Palestinian nationalism, is past its prime, its capacity to mobilise withered. Racked by internal divisions, it lost the latest and only truly competitive election in Palestinian Authority (PA) history. It promised to fight for liberation, achieve independence by negotiation and effectively manage daily lives through the PA yet achieved none of this. Those yearning for resistance can turn to Hamas or Islamic Jihad; the address for diplomacy is the PLO; governance depends on Prime Minister Fayyad in the West Bank, the Islamists in Gaza. President Abbas' threat not to run in upcoming presidential elections is the latest sign of a movement and project adrift. Yet Fatah's difficulties do not make it expendable; they make it an organisation in urgent need of redress. A strong national movement is needed whether negotiations succeed and an agreement must be promoted, or they fail and an alternative project must be devised. Fatah's August General Conference – its first in twenty years – was a first step. Now comes the hard part: to define the movement's agenda, how it plans to carry it out, and with whom.
Topic:
Politics, Post Colonialism, and Sovereignty
Political Geography:
Middle East, Palestine, Arabia, and Gaza

148. Moral Responsibilities and the Conflicting Demands of Jus Post Bellum

Author:
Mark Evans
Publication Date:
06-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
Recently, strong arguments have been offered for the inclusion of jus post bellum in just war theory. If this addition is indeed justified, it is plain that, due to the variety in types of post-conflict situation, the content of jus post bellum will necessarily vary. One instance when it looks as if it should become "extended" in its scope, ranging well beyond (for example) issues of "just peace terms," is when occupation of a defeated enemy is necessary. In this situation, this article argues that an engagement by jus post bellum with the morality of post-conflict reconstruction is unavoidable. However, the resulting extension of jus post bellum's stipulations threatens to generate conflict with another tenet that it would surely wish to endorse with respect to "just occupation," namely, that sovereignty or self-determination should be restored to the occupied people as soon as is reasonably possible. Hence, the action-guiding objective of the theory could become significantly problematized. The article concludes by considering whether this problem supports the claim that the addition of jus post bellum to just war theory is actually more problematic than its supporters have realized.
Topic:
Sovereignty

149. Kosovo's Fragile Transition - Europe Report N°196

Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Kosovo has taken first state-building steps, but the international community has not met its commitments to provide adequate support. A rule-of-law mission (EULEX), the EU's biggest ever European security and defence policy (ESDP) operation, was agreed in February 2008 but has only started to deploy. The International Civilian Office (ICO), projected to supervise independence, is a shell. The UN still functions in part as an interim administration, negotiating arrangements for Kosovo Serbs with Belgrade. The Ahtisaari plan, on the basis of which 47 states have recognised Kosovo, has been undermined by the international organisations meant to help implement it. The EU and U.S. are struggling to come to terms with Russia's attempts to portray its support for breakaway regions in Georgia as a mirror image of what they did in Kosovo. Most urgent now is for the EU to make EULEX fully operational before year's end and use its leverage with a Belgrade government that wants membership to begin to make pragmatic accommodations to Kosovo's new status.
Topic:
Development, Sovereignty, and United Nations
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, Europe, Kosovo, Balkans, and Georgia

150. The refugee, the sovereign and the sea : EU interdiction policies in the Mediterranean

Author:
Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen
Publication Date:
03-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
This paper starts from the encounter between a European navy vessel and a dinghy carrying boat refugees and other desperate migrants across the Mediterranean or West African Sea towards Europe. It explores the growing trend in the EU of enacting migration control at the high seas or international waters – so-called interdiction. It is argued that these forms of extraterritorial migration control aim at reconquering the efficiency of the sovereign function to control migration, by trying to either deconstruct or shift correlate obligations vis-à-vis refugees and other persecuted persons to third States. In both instances, European States are entering into a sovereignty game, in which creative strategies are developed in order to reassert sovereign power unconstrained by national and international obligations.
Topic:
Human Welfare, International Law, Migration, and Sovereignty
Political Geography:
Europe and West Africa