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16321. Fit for Purpose? The European External Action Service one year on

Author:
Steven Blockmans, Natalia Alonso, and Tidhar Wald
Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
The first anniversary of the European External Action Service (EEAS) finds the European Union (EU) in the midst of an economic, financial, and identity crisis that has aggravated the ongoing decline in Europe's stature on the global scene as new political and economic actors emerge. The new diplomatic service provides the EU with an opportunity to address its shortcomings in foreign policy by bringing greater coherence to external policy making; by enhancing consistency across EU instruments; and by adopting a more comprehensive and strategic approach to global challenges.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Economics, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Europe

16322. Left Behind by the G20? How inequality and environmental degradation threaten to exclude poor people from the benefits of economic growth

Author:
Kate Raworth, Caroline Pearce, and Richard Gower
Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
In 2010, the G20 committed themselves to promoting inclusive and sustainable economic growth. They argued that 'for prosperity to be sustained it must be shared' and also endorsed 'green growth', which promises to decouple economic expansion from environmental degradation. But G20 countries have some way to go to match this commitment. This paper assesses their record, and points the way forward.
Topic:
Climate Change, Economics, International Organization, International Trade and Finance, and Poverty

16323. A Dangerous Delay: The cost of late response to early warnings in the 2011 drought in the Horn of Africa

Author:
Debbie Hillier and Benedict Dempsey
Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
The 2011 crisis in the Horn of Africa has been the most severe emergency of its kind this century. More than 13 million people are still affected, with hundreds of thousands placed at risk of starvation. One estimate suggests that 50,000–100,000 people have died. This crisis unfolded despite having been predicted. Although brought on by drought, it was human factors which turned the crisis into a deadly emergency.
Topic:
Development, Non-Governmental Organization, United Nations, and Famine
Political Geography:
Africa

16324. Stepping up Growth Policies

Author:
Stefano Micossi
Publication Date:
03-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
The eurozone is in recession and will show negative growth in 2012; GDP will fall sharply in Greece and Portugal, and there is substantial risk that Spain and Italy will follow suit (the Commission's recent forecasts seem overly optimistic and complacent; the IMF is more downbeat). But fiscal policies are uniformly restrictive throughout the eurozone and much of the Union, and the hopes that fiscal consolidation could spur growth by improving household and business confidence are not materialising. In reality, domestic demand has been hit too hard by fiscal consolidation, and investment throughout the Union remains well below pre- crisis levels. Credit is tight due to the deteriorating quality of borrowers and the ongoing deleveraging in banking.
Topic:
Economics, Foreign Exchange, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
Europe and Greece

16325. Sector-specific Activities as the Driving Force towards a Low-Carbon Economy: From the Asia-Pacific Partnership to a Global Partnership

Author:
Noriko Fujiwara
Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
From 2006 to 2011, the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (APP) provided a non-legally binding framework based on a public–private partnership to support projects towards clean development and climate objectives in seven countries in the region. Three of the eight sectoral APP task forces (on power generation and transmission, cement and steel) are to continue their activities under the Global Superior Energy Performance partnership (GSEP), with a stronger focus on energy efficiency and environmental performance, and participation expanded to the global scale. This decision was based on the official view that the APP activities were successful and could lead to other successes in similar initiatives with similar working formats.
Topic:
Climate Change and Environment
Political Geography:
Europe, Asia, Australia, and Asia-Pacific

16326. A call for hermeneutical perspectives on climate change and conflict: the case of Ethiopia and Eritrea

Author:
Peter Haldén
Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Relations and Development
Institution:
Central and East European International Studies Association
Abstract:
Over the past decades research on the possible connections between climate change and armed conflict has blossomed. However, this field has failed to establish any clear causal connections between environmental degradation or climate change and conflict in the past. Seemingly assuaging some of the fears concerning climate change and conflict, this research does not allow us to conceptualise, much less operationalise, that actors may break with past patterns and act in new ways in relation to the wholly novel set of phenomena of climate change. Analytical or theoretical deficiencies may be important on their own in 'purely' scholarly terms, but the practical implications of these deficiencies create an urgent need for other kinds of analyses. If we cannot adequately understand the connection between the effects of climate change and conflict, we might be caught by surprise by conflicts and miss opportunities to prevent them.
Topic:
Climate Change
Political Geography:
Ethiopia and Eritrea

16327. International organisations and policy diffusion: the global norm of lifelong learning

Author:
Anja p. Jakobi
Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Relations and Development
Institution:
Central and East European International Studies Association
Abstract:
This article analyses the role of international organisations in global policy diffusion, drawing on the example of lifelong learning, a currently widely appreciated concept in education policy. I explain this success based on a sociological institutionalist framework, arguing that lifelong learning has become a global norm in education policy. For this purpose, I conduct a quantitative study of 99 countries from 1996 to 2004, showing how the idea of lifelong learning has been disseminated by international organisations and how states have reacted to this development. I first outline the theoretical framework, highlighting in particular the crucial role of international organisations. In a further step, I present the data and methods. In the third part, I analyse the activities of several international organisations on lifelong learning. In the fourth step, I show how lifelong learning has spread, distinguishing the idea of lifelong learning and reforms linked to it. Fifth, as the quantitative analysis shows, international organisations like the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the European Union can explain a large part of dissemination when it comes to the idea of lifelong learning, but reforms are more dependent on national preconditions like the wealth of a country. In the conclusions, I sum up the article's main findings and outline further research areas linked to global diffusion processes.
Topic:
International Organization
Political Geography:
Europe

16328. Aid allocation of the emerging Central and Eastern European donors

Author:
Balázs Szent-Iványi
Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Relations and Development
Institution:
Central and East European International Studies Association
Abstract:
In the past decade, a number of Central and Eastern European countries have emerged as new donors of foreign aid. Although these countries already had certain forms of development-related cooperation with Third World countries during the Cold War, the pre-1989 experiences are difficult to compare with their current, (re-)emerging aid policies. There is a clear pressure, related mostly to membership in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the European Union (EU), for these new donors to align themselves with the norms and principles of the international development aid regime. Many special characteristics are observable, however, in the Central and Eastern European donors, which predict that they will behave differently than the members of the OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC), the 'club' of advanced donor countries. In part, this may be related to the fact that their foreign aid policies are still in their infancy, but it is also undeniable that their motivations for giving aid are somewhat different than those of the Western donors. It is logical to assume that the consequences of these different motivations are identifiable in the quality and allocation of aid provided by the emerging donors.
Topic:
Foreign Aid
Political Geography:
Europe, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Slovakia

16329. Introduction to the sociology/ies of international relations

Author:
Anne-Marie D'Aoust
Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Relations and Development
Institution:
Central and East European International Studies Association
Abstract:
The study of the history of the discipline of International Relations (IR) has come a long way since Stanley Hoffmann's 1977 seminal article 'An American Social Science: International Relations'. With its focus on the development of IR in the United States, Hoffman's analysis sparked an incendiary debate that still goes on today about the discipline's origins, nature, goals, and assumptions. His insights hinged on fundamental questions about our work as IR scholars, ranging from the kind of valid scientific inquiries IR scholarship represents and/or requires (scientific dimension) to the aims of IR scholarship (normative dimensions), as well as the intellectual and social milieux in which IR scholars evolve and the practices they use and enact (sociological dimensions).
Topic:
International Relations and Development
Political Geography:
United States and America

16330. From epistemology to practice: a sociology of science for international relations

Author:
Christian Bueger
Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Relations and Development
Institution:
Central and East European International Studies Association
Abstract:
Without question there is no shortage of reflexivity in the discipline of International Relations (IR), to the extent that after several 'grand debates' and numerous 'turns', it seems to have reached a certain intellectual 'surfeit'. One of the reasons is certainly that many of the questions concerned are not logically solvable, and that debates on reflexivity tend to become affective if not religious from time to time. Another reason is that debates are often scholastic, and have nothing to do with either the social life of the researchers or the objects studied. This surfeit should not, however, be an argument for refraining from reflexive exercises. After all, standards of reflexivity are what distinguish scientific practices from those of other knowledge producers. Instead, this observation should lead us to reconsider the connection between the abstract, theoretical, conceptual and the practical everyday. Therefore, this contribution argues for an extended understanding of reflexivity centred on practice and taking advantage from works in the sociology of science.
Topic:
International Relations and Sociology