The end of the Cold War has been accompanied by renewed enthusiasm over the potential of security institutions in Europe. West Europeans, the US and former communist states see them as an indispensable instrument of collective security. Yet, institutions failed to prevent post-communist conflicts, most notably in Yugoslavia. For the future, there is a need for improved coordination among interlocking institutions. This study is both a critical assessment of ongoing institutional changes and an analysis of the agenda for the future.

This book takes a new approach to answering the question of how NATO survived after the Cold War by examining its complex relationship with the United States. A closer look at major NATO engagements in the post-Cold War era, including in the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, reveals how the US helped comprehensively reshape the alliance. In every conflict, there was tension between the United States and its allies over mission leadership, political support, legal precedents, military capabilities, and financial contributions. The author explores why allied actions resulted in both praise and criticism of NATO's contributions from American policymakers, and why despite all of this and the growing concern over the alliance's perceived shortcomings the United States continued to support the alliance. In addition to demonstrating the American influence on the alliance, this works demonstrates why NATO's survival is beneficial to US interests.

Twenty-six key officials and experts analyze the NATO decision to expand into Central-Eastern Europe. Contributors include the NATO Secretary General Solana, President Clinton, former Soviet leader Gorbachev, former Supreme Allied Commander in Europe Joulwan, several active and former foreign ministers and deputy foreign ministers, other high officials, and prominent academics from the United States and Europe. Particular attention is paid to the rationale, pros and cons, and the impact on Russia, Ukraine, the European neutrals, the new NATO members, and the remaining hopefuls.

The volume begins by presenting the offical NATO explanation of the 1997 decision to expand into Central-Eastern Europe and examines the problems the decisions might well create. Next are essays providing a critique of the decision, mainly from the standpoint of the West's future relations with Russia. Polish, Czech, and Hungarian officals then describe their countries' positions and expectations as new NATO members, after which the credentials of six candidates for the next round of NATO enlargement are analyzed. After discussing the impact of NATO enlargement on the European neutrals and the Nordic states, the volume concludes with a presentation of major arguments for and against the enlargement and the known or presumed motivations of the main actors related to NATO enlargement.

This book investigates whether treaty interpretation at the ECtHR and WTO, which are sometimes perceived as promoting 'self-contained' regimes, could constitute a means for unifying international law, or, conversely, might exacerbate the fragmentation of international law. In this regard, the practice of the ICJ on treaty interpretation is used for comparison, since the ICJ has made the greatest contribution to the development and clarification of international law rules and principles. Providing a critical analysis of cases at the ICJ, ECtHR and WTO, both prior to and since the adoption of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, the book reveals how the ECtHR and WTO apply the general rules of treaty interpretation in patterns which are similar to those used by the ICJ to address difficulties in interpreting the text of treaties. Viewed in the light of the ECtHR's and WTO's interpretative practices, both the VCLT's general rules of interpretation and the ICJ's interpretative practice serve to counteract the fragmentation of international law.

In this important new book, Giandomenico Majone examines the crucial but often overlooked distinction between the general aim of European integration and the specific method of integration employed in designing an (ill-considered) monetary union. Written with the author's customary insight and precision, this highly topical and provocative book reviews the Union's leaders' tradition of pushing through ambitious projects without considering the serious hurdles that lie in the way of their success. Regional and European integration topics are discussed, including credibility of commitments, delegation of powers, bargaining and influence activities, adverse selection and moral hazard. The author also offers a deeper examination of the specific crisis of monetary integration, arguing that it might be more effectively achieved with inter-jurisdictional competition and suggesting how integration should be managed in the globalized world.

This study examines the history and politics of Turkey-EU relations since 1959, exploring the complex interaction of geostrategic and normative concerns which have resulted in the current lack of accession progress and Turkey's slide to authoritarianism.

This book addresses the interactions between Germany's energy transition and the EU's energy policy framework. It seeks to analyze the manifold connections between the prospects of the proclaimed "Energy Union" and the future of Germany's energy transition, and identifies relevant lessons for the transformation at the EU level that can be learned from the case of Germany, as a first-mover of transforming energy systems towards renewables. The various repercussions (political, economic and systemic) from the national transition are explored within the EU context as it responds to the German transition, taking into account both existing frictions and potential synergies between predominantly national sustainability policies and the EU's push towards harmonized policies within a common market. The book's overall aim is to identify the most critical issues, in order to avoid pitfalls and capitalize on opportunities.

This book looks at the centerpiece of the international women's rights discourse, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and asks to what extent it affects the lives of women worldwide. Rather than assuming a trickle-down effect, the author discusses specific methods which have made CEDAW resonate. These methods include attempts to influence the international level by clarifying the meaning of women's rights and strengthening the Convention's monitoring procedure, and building connections between international and domestic contexts that enable diverse actors to engage with CEDAW. This analysis shows that while the Convention has worldwide impact, this impact is fundamentally dependent on context-specific values and agency. Hence, rather than thinking of women's rights exclusively as normative content, Zwingel suggests to see them as in process. This book will especially appeal to students and scholars interested in transnational feminism and gender and global governance.

This collected volume of essays focuses on two complementary themes - firstly, the theoretical approaches to the study of European political cooperation (EPC) and secondly, the empirical analysis of EPC activity. The volume does not argue one particular approach to the study of EPC, but rather presents competing and often conflicting theoretical perspectives. At the empirical level, a future research agenda is suggested and it is argued that EPC research should become comparative in nature.

"The CIS, the EU, and Russia" focuses on the difficulties facing Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus with regard to their integration into both the CIS and the encroaching EU. It analyzes the links between the integration mechanisms of the CIS and EU and the various state policies towards, and the elite interests in, the territory of the former Soviet Union.

The analysis of UNESCO's audio-visual archives for their digitization has brought to light a forgotten album of 38 contact sheets and accompanying texts by Magnum photographer, David "Chim" Seymour - a reportage made in 1950 for UNESCO on the fi ght against illiteracy in Italy's southern region of Calabria. A number of his photographs appeared in the March 1952 issue of UNESCO Courier in an article written by Carlo Levi, who had gained worldwide fame with his novel Christ Stopped at Eboli (1945). L'analyse des archives audio-visuelles de l'UNESCO en vue de leur numerisation a permis de decouvrir un album oublie comprenant 38 planches-contact et des textes d'accompagnement du photographe de Magnum David " Chim " Seymour - un reportage realise en 1950 pour l'UNESCO sur la bataille contre l'analphabetisme en Calabre, une region du sud de l'Italie. Un certain nombre de ses photographies ont ete publiees dans le numero de mars 1952 du Courrier de l'UNESCO avec un article de Carlo Levi, dont le roman Le Christ s'est arrete a Eboli (1945) lui avait valu une renommee internationale

How do crises produce changes in specific European Union foreign policy areas, and how should we conceptualise these policy changes? This book provides a novel analytical framework that serves to investigate the way in which the EU changes its foreign policy after crisis. Ikani adapts the existing theorising of foreign policy change to a single framework applicable to the EU context, providing readers with a toolbox to both explain the process of change and measure the policy change that follows. The framework is developed through an investigation of two important EU foreign policy change episodes, taking place after the Arab uprisings and the Ukraine conflict, and test-driven in three recent cases of EU foreign policy change after crisis. The volume presents a novel typology of EU foreign policy change, advancing on the fields of foreign policy analysis, public policy studies and International Relations. In doing so, it explains both the decision-making process leading to policy change, and the variation in change outcomes following this process. Further to offering those researching the EU foreign policy response to crisis with timely and empirically rich accounts of five recent change episodes, this book adds to the literature by suggesting two forms of EU foreign policy change, symbolic change and constructive ambiguity, which unlike previously argued form frequent and important outcomes of the decision-making process. -- .

On November 10, 2017, Pope Francis became the first pontiff in the nuclear era to take a complete stand against nuclear weapons, even as a form of deterrence. At a Vatican conference of leaders in the field of disarmament, he made it clear that the possession of the bomb itself was immoral. A World Free from Nuclear Weapons presents the pope's address and original testimony from Nobel Peace Prize laureates, religious leaders, diplomats, and civil society activists. These luminaries, which include the pope and a Hiroshima survivor, make the moral case against possessing, manufacturing, and deploying nuclear arms. Drew Christiansen, a member of the Holy See delegation to the 2017 United Nations conference that negotiated the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons, helps readers to understand this conference in its historical context. A World Free from Nuclear Weapons is a critical companion for scholars of modern Catholicism, moral theology, and peace studies, as well as policymakers working on effective disarmament. It shows how the Church's revised position presents an opportunity for global leaders to connect disarmament to larger movements for peace, pointing toward future action.

This edited volume showcases how the European cooperative banks have continued to evolve amid a new competitive scenario that resulted from the Global Financial Crisis started in Europe in 2008. The cooperative banking paradigm has been put under an unprecedented pressure as a consequence of factors such as the exceptionally low interest rates set by the European Central Bank, low profitability generated by traditional banking services-which are the backbone of the cooperative banking business-and the entrance of fintech companies into the banking market. Furthermore, tightening regulation since the beginning of the crisis has produced an increased capital and liquidity burden which in some cases have forced cooperative banks to reduce lending to their members and customers, putting under question the traditional countercyclical role of cooperative banks in periods of crisis. For these reasons, it is of the utmost value to observe and analyse how cooperative banks have been reacting in the attempt to preserve their unique business model and, at the same time, to keep providing credit to the economy. A number of scholars active in the cooperative banking sector have been involved in this edited volume as contributors.

A-state-of-the-art and comprehensive survey covering all aspects of politics in Western Europe. The volume brings together the very best scholars in the field from the UK, continental Europe and North America.

In this timely and significant study of delegation and agency in the European Union, one of the leading authors in the field examines the role of supranational actors like the Commission, the Court of Justice, and the European Parliament in the process of European integration and in contemporary EU governance.

This Commentary provides the first comprehensive legal article-by-article analysis of the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The Convention is the key international human rights instrument exclusively devoted to persons with disabilities and the centerpiece of international efforts to address inequalities and barriers they encounter to the full enjoyment of human rights. The book discusses the Convention's position within existing international human rights law and within the framework of the United Nations measures to protect the rights of people with disabilities. Starting with the background of all the Convention's articles, including the travaux preparatoires, this Commentary examines each provision's substance and interpretation, and explores the significance of each right, its legal scope and relationship with other international legal norms and principles. A unique contribution also analyzes the Optional Protocol to the Convention. In addition to enriching academic studies of international human rights law, the book provides insights into the practical operation of the Convention's provisions by assessing the practice of the CRPD Committee, the activities of relevant international and regional human rights bodies in enforcing the rights of persons with disabilities and the contracting parties' implementation practices. Relevant European Court of Human Rights, the Court of Justice of the European Union and, if appropriate, other regional jurisdictions' case law, as well as the jurisprudence of domestic courts, are taken into consideration. Contributions from leading scholars and international experts make this book an indispensable resource for lawyers, academics, students, journalists, international organizations, NGOs and other stakeholders wanting to better understand the rights of people with disabilities. Furthermore, it makes a valuable contribution to appraising the impact of the Convention in the legal orders of contracting parties and to charting the way forward in the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities.

Hierarchical relationships-rules that structure both international and domestic politics-are pervasive. Yet we know little about how these relationships are constructed, maintained, and dismantled. This book fills this lacuna through a two-pronged research approach: first, it discusses how great power negotiations over international political settlements both respond to domestic politics within weak states and structure the specific forms that hierarchy takes. Second, it deduces three sets of hypotheses about hierarchy maintenance, construction, and collapse during the post-war era. By offering a coherent theoretical model of hierarchical politics within weaker states, the author is able to answer a number of important questions, including: Why does the United States often ally with autocratic states even though its most enduring relationships are with democracies? Why do autocratic hierarchical relationships require interstate coercion? Why do some hierarchies end violently and others peacefully? Why does hierarchical competition sometimes lead to interstate conflict and sometimes to civil conflict?

This volume investigates the nature and changing roles of the non-state armed groups in the Middle East with a special focus on Kurdish, Shia and Islamic State groups. To understand the nature of transformation in the Middle Eastern geopolitical space, it provides new empirical and analytical insights into the impact of three prominent actors, namely ISIS, YPG and Shia Militias. With its distinctive detailed and multi-faceted analyses, it offers new findings on the changing contours of sovereignty, geopolitics and ideology, particularly after the Arab Uprisings. Overall this volume contributes to the study of violent geopolitics, critical security studies and international relations particularly by exploring the ideologies and strategies of the new non-state armed actors.

This contributed volume offers a state-of-the-art, holistic overview of the employment of a Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus approach to implement the seventeen United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a geographical focus on applications in different African regions. The book is divided into three sections, each composed of several chapters contributed by experts in their respective fields. Section I introduces the WEF Nexus and its role in the achievement of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs. It highlights the attempt to connect different spheres of sustainability thanks to the Nexus, taking advantage of the existing interlinkages and interconnections among the Goals. Section II proposes a multi-scale and multi-stakeholder approach to various aspects of the Nexus and reviews existing quantitative tools. This section focuses on the issue of resource control and development aims and spotlights how Nexus dynamics influence the achievement of the SDGs as a whole. Section III applies the WEF Nexus to different African regions, which are balancing a rising population and an economic boom with severe vulnerability in the face of climate change.

This book focuses on current key issues of international security from an actor-centered approach. The volume is divided into 3 sections: the first part analyses an array of security issues in Europe, the second one explores how those security issues play out in the Americas, and the third focuses on Africa. Each of the chapter authors outlines the relevant ideas, interests and institutions. The volume provides an overview of how global, regional, and national actors, differ in their management approaches, capacity levels, and how these differences translate into cross-regional cooperation on security issues.

Two of the world's leading political scientists present the best of their research, focusing on how to build and test a social science of law and courts. Written for a broad, scholarly audience, the book is also recommended for use in graduate and advanced undergraduate courses in law and the social sciences.

This study analyses the reasons for and the broad implications of the post-cold war reforms of arms and dual-use export controls within the European Union. It conceptualizes the arms export policy process as a policy system, involving the interaction of three basic elements-the policy environment, policy stakeholders and public policies. Three national case studies (the UK, Germany and Sweden) explore the major problems and paradoxes of practical regulatory activity.

This book explores the emerging EU-China relationship with a focus on the impact of the Belt and Road Initiative. It takes a narrative approach to understanding the EU-China relationship as a means to highlight how scholars in the EU and China interpret the narrativization of EU-China bilateral relations and to how this bilateral relationship is refracted through relations with third parties. The volume brings together scholars from China and Europe in the fields of Chinese foreign policy, EU studies, and strategic communication. The empirical focus cuts across policy, publics and media, and across history, political economy and diplomacy. The Belt and Road Initiative, alongside the other policy areas addressed in the chapters, offers ways for people in Europe and China to get to know one another in new ways, and for the EU and its member states and the Chinese state to forge new partnerships.

This book challenges the common perception that global politics is making progress on indigenous issues and argues that the current global care for indigeneity is, in effect, violent in nature. Examining the inclusion of indigenous peoples in the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the Arctic Council, the authors demonstrate how seemingly benevolent practices of international political and legal recognition are tantamount to colonialism, the historical wrong they purport to redress. By unveiling the ways in which contemporary neoliberal politics commissions a certain type of indigenous subject-one distinguished by resilience in particular-the book offers a pioneering account of how international politics has tightened its grip on indigeneity.