This book examines the functions of conferences within Arctic governance, as a third dimension between sovereign states and formalized cooperative arrangements. It analyzes conferences against the background of three main empirical topics. Firstly, the functions of conferences for different actor groups, both Arctic rights holders and emerging non-Arctic state actors claiming stakeholder status. From this, the book also analyzes how conferences contribute to altering the actor composition of Arctic governance as a whole. Secondly, conferences as agenda setting arenas - whether conference activities can contribute to influencing the broader agenda in the region, and conferences as arenas for agenda setting - whether participants can bring with them topics that are picked up and brought into other processes. Thirdly, the book considers the space for conferences within broader governance architectures, as links between units in the regime complex. The book further presents an in-depth case study of the two largest conferences on Arctic issues: the Arctic Frontiers and Arctic Circle Assembly. It illustrates the diverse functions conferences can have for elements within a broader governance system, beyond serving as meeting places and networking arenas. Therefore, it is a must-read for researchers, students, and policy-makers interested in a better understanding of Arctic governance in particular, and International Relations in general.

The European Social Fund has often been overshadowed by more visible European Union social and economic policies. It is, however, integral to the construction and development of the EU and has played a central role in the impact of the EU on individual member states.Based upon a study of the ESF and a range of social policy documents from the Treaty of Rome to the Treaty of Amsterdam, this analysis examines the connections between the ESF and other areas of EU policy. The European Social Fund and the EU will be of particular use to anyone interested in social and economic regeneration across the European Union.

This book assesses the many changes that have occurred within the European Parliament and in its external relations since the Lisbon treaty (2009) and the last European elections (2014). It is undoubtedly the institution that has evolved the most since the 1950s. Despite the many crises experienced by European integration in the last years, the Parliament is still undergoing important changes in its formal competences, its influence on policy-making, its relations with other EU institutions, its internal organisation and its internal political dynamics. Every contribution deals with the most recent aspects of these evolutions and addresses overlooked topics, providing an overview of the current state of play which challenges the mainstream intergovernmental approach of the EU. This project results from research conducted at the Department of European Political and Governance Studies of the College of Europe. Individual research of several policy analysts of the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) have contributed to this endeavour.

The Routledge Handbook on the European Neighbourhood Policy provides a comprehensive overview of the EU's most important foreign policy instrument, provided by leading experts in the field. Coherently structured and adopting a multidisciplinary approach, this handbook covers the most important themes, developments and dynamics in the EU's neighbourhood policy framework through a series of cutting-edge contributions. With chapters from a substantial number of scholars who have been influential in shaping the study of the ENP, this handbook serves to encourage debates which will hopefully produce more conceptual as well as neighbourhood-specific perspectives leading to enriching future studies on the EU's policies towards its neighbourhood. It will be a key reference point both for advanced-level students, scholars and professionals developing knowledge in the fields of EU/European Studies, European Foreign Policy Analysis, Area studies, EU law, and more broadly in political economy, political science, comparative politics and international relations.

The financial sustainability of the welfare state, its efficiency in covering new risks and to effectively reallocate resources in a fair way are now classic issues for debate. This book explores the more understated question of the democratic legitimacy of a 'quasi' European policy in a field which is subjected to the contradictory impact of ever tighter European economic governance. With the wide vision of a comparative perspective and the deep knowledge of social policy scholars, the authors of this book offer inspiring insights into different facets of democratic governance which are likely to inform European decision makers in the coming decade.' - Agnes Hubert, member of the Bureau for European Policy Advisors - European CommissionThe welfare state in Europe has been reformed gradually over the past two decades, with the intensification of the economic and monetary union and the addition of fifteen new members to the EU. This book explores the pressures that have been placed on the welfare state through a variety of insightful and thought-provoking contributions. As the standard of living has increased, aspirations and financial constraints have required major rethinking. There is considerable disparity between European countries in how they approach the welfare system, with differing concern over aspects such as income, employment and the ability to participate in society. Choices over welfare lie at the heart of the democratic system; this book explores the tensions this has produced and the innovative responses in policy content and institutions. The Changing Welfare State in Europe has a wide appeal, which will have relevance to economists, scholars in public and social policy, public and private finance experts, policymakers and also academics with an interest in the impact of financial and economic development. Contributors: T. Altman, C. Cheyne, K. Lyons, D.G. Mayes, A. Michalski, Z. Mustaffa, C. Shore, M. Thomson

Increasingly flexible labour markets and reforms of old-age pension systems are still ranking high on the political agenda of European countries. This volume investigates whether, and to what extent, the interplay between pension reforms and the spread of 'atypical' employment patterns and fragmented careers has a negative influence uponeconomic security in old age. The volume, therefore, analyzes the flexibility-security nexus by focusing on the post-retirement phase, thus extending the conventional narrow concept of 'flexicurity'. The book also questions whetherreforms of public and private pension schemes compensate or aggravate the risks of increasingly flexible labor markets and atypical employment careers after retirement? Around this overarching research question, the various contributions in the volume employ the same analytical framework in order to map, and then compare, the developments in seven European countries - Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, and the UK - which present different labour market arrangements and various degrees of flexibility, as well as diverse pension systems.

This book unfolds an exploratory journey intended to scrutinise the suitability of entanglements and relations as a mode of thinking and seeing peacebuilding events. Through a reflection upon the UN's limited results in the endeavour towards securing lasting peace in war-torn scenarios, Torrent critically engages with three relevant debates in contemporary peacebuilding literature, including the inclusion of 'the locals', the achievement of organisational system-wide coherence and the increasingly questioned agential condition of peacebuilding actors. Inattentive to the relational vulnerability of involved stakeholders, it is suggested that the UN seeks to secure a totalising modern distory, defined in the book as a story that undoes other stories. Whilst affirming the entangled ontogenesis of actors and processes in the conflict-affected configuration, Entangled Peace also delves into a cautionary argument about what the author refers to as entanglement fetishism, namely the celebratory, normative, deterministic and exclusionary projection of a relational world. Inspired by Alfred North Whitehead, Entangled Peace is an invitation to speculate over the peacebuilding milieu, and by extension the broader theatre of the real, as radical openness, in which events emanate from the collision of an infinite multiplicity of possible worlds.

This book reviews Southeast Asia's National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) as part of an emerging assessment of a nascent regional human rights architecture that is facing significant challenges in protecting human rights. The book asks, can NHRIs overcome its weaknesses and provide protection, including remedies, to victims of human rights abuses? Assessing NHRIs' capacity to do so is vital as the future of human rights protection lies at the national level, and other parts of the architecture-the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), and the international mechanism of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR)-though helpful, also have their limitations. The critical question the book addresses is whether NHRIs individually or collaboratively provide protection of fundamental human rights. The body of work offered in this book showcases the progress of the NHRIs in Southeast Asia where they also act as a barometer for the fluid political climate of their respective countries. Specifically, the book examines the NHRIs' capacity to provide protection, notably through the pursuit of quasi-judicial functions, and concludes that this function has either been eroded due to political developments post-establishment or has not been included in the first place. The book's findings point to the need for NHRIs to increase their effectiveness in the protection of human rights and invites readers and stakeholders to find ways of addressing this gap.

This study explores the relationship between the European Community and one of the most important EFTA countries, Norway. The book recounts the steps leading to the signing of the European Economic Area agreement that will extend the EC's single internal market to the EFTA countries, explores the political dimension of Norway's relations with the EC, examines the economic dimension of the relationship, and considers Norwegian integration--past, present, and future.

A study in EU legitimacy from the perspective of EU citizens. It argues that legitimacy is empirical: "legitimacy only exists if people "feel" that it does." The book points out that the EU is a unique and dynamic institution, hence legitimating factors are also evolutionary. The book shows that liberal democracy has not established EU legitimacy - hence it looks at new forms of input and performance to examine prospects for new forms of legitimating the EU.

For over 25 years, The Annual Review of United Nations Affairs (ARUNA) has been the print source for researchers needing a comprehensive document collection that highlights the work of the United Nations' six principal organs each year. Recognized as the only print and bound collection for these documents, ARUNA is an essential reference for academic researchers and policy-makers. Coverage spans important resolutions and decisions, focusing on the significant documents and collaborative work of the United Nations. Selected reports of intergovernmental bodies and expert groups are also included and documents are grouped together by subject matter for easy reference. Each year, a new guest author provides an introduction to the set, analyzing the major themes covered throughout that year. ARUNA provides an in-depth view to an organization that today has more the 63,000 employees located in nearly 175 countries and is responsible for implementing the decisions of the governing bodies. This particular edition (2006-07): The past year has been one of the most tumultuous and challenging in the U.N.'s history and, indeed, in the modern history of the entire globe. This year's edition of ARUNA presents the story of that tumult as well as the story of the U.N.'s efforts to resolve both global conflicts and internal controversy. Specifically, this year's set of volumes includes documents related to the U.N.-based World Food Programme, whose management provoked an international scandal last year. However, most the 2006-07 edition of ARUNA focuses on the more critical issues affecting millions of lives around the world in the past year: the Darfur genocide, climate change, the Palestinian refugee crisis, West Africa's political and social instability. By providing the full text of both the resolutions addressing these topics and the U.N. reports concerning them, ARUNA 06/07 delivers a unique resource for students, scholars, and practitioners. The series' topic-based organization of the materials and subject index lend invaluable guidance to all researchers. This year, Dr. Edward Luck , the Director of the Center on International Organization of the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, is contributing an introductory essay that will illuminate this year's varied and troubling world events. This particular volume (Vol. 2): This volume consists solely of G.A. resolutions from the second half of the G.A.'s 61st session (January to September of 2007). This collection of recent resolutions focus primarily on the following topics: BLHuman Rights abuses by the governments of Myanmar, Israel, and Iran. BLThe use of torture by officers and agents of a government. BLAfrica: development, infectious diseases, U.N. intervention in regional conflicts, the U.N.'s Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Central Africa, U.N. funding of the Sierra Leone and Rwanda tribunals, and cooperation between the U.N. and the African Union. BLCombatting poverty worldwide. BLCombatting the defamation of Islam by media sources. BLCombatting denials of the Holocaust. BLThe imperative that governments observe human rights principles while conducting the global war against terrorism. BLThe imperative that U.N. peacekeepers refrain from sexual exploitation. BLClimate change and natural disasters. BLGlobalization, development in the poorest countries, fair trade practices, and the fight aganst poverty generally. BLThe U.N.'s internal management of its own financial practices. For more specific information regarding this title please contact Customer Service at +44(0)1536741727. About this Volume This particular edition (2006-07): The past year has been one of the most tumultuous and challenging in the U.N.'s history and, indeed, in the modern history of the entire globe. This year's edition of ARUNA presents the story of that tumult as well as the story of the U.N.'s efforts to resolve both global conflicts and internal controversy. Specifically, this year's set of volumes includes documents related to the U.N.-based World Food Programme, whose management provoked an international scandal last year. However, most the 2006-07 edition of ARUNA focuses on the more critical issues affecting millions of lives around the world in the past year: the Darfur genocide, climate change, the Palestinian refugee crisis, West Africa's political and social instability. By providing the full text of both the resolutions addressing these topics and the U.N. reports concerning them, ARUNA 06/07 delivers a unique resource for students, scholars, and practitioners. The series' topic-based organization of the materials and subject index lend invaluable guidance to all researchers. This year, Dr.Edward Luck , the Director of the Center on International Organization of the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, is contributing an introductory essay that will illuminate this year's varied and troubling world events. For more specific information regarding this title please contact Customer Service at +44(0)1536741727.

Recent years have seen the rise of EU State aid law as a crucial component of the European economic constitution. To date, however, the literature has neglected the contribution of this area of EU law to the internal market. This book fills the gap in understanding the economic constitution by exploring the significance of State aid law in addressing questions that go to the core of the internal market project. It does so by examining the case law relating to three different activities that Member States engage in: market participation, market regulation, and funding for Services of General Economic Interest. Each of these areas offers insights into fundamental questions surrounding the economic constitution, such as the separation between the State and the market, the scope for Member States to engage in regulatory competition, and the tension between market and non-market concerns. (Series: Hart Studies in Competition Law - Vol. 2)

"If one wants to understand why, from its modest beginnings, the European Parliament has become a major player in EU decision-making, look no further than this book. It presents, to date, the theoretically most compelling, methodologically disciplined and empirically richest account of parliamentary self-empowerment over time, across key functions and policy areas. This volume will be a main point of reference for work on the European Parliament, the dynamics of inter-institutional politics, and EU integration more generally for years to come."-Berthold Rittberger, Professor of International Relations, University of Munich, Germany "Anyone interested in the rise of the European Parliament as a significant actor in the EU should read this book. It offers a fascinating insight into the strategies used by the Parliament to achieve its aims and the conditions for its success or failure. It ranges widely across time and policy areas to give a comprehensive analysis of the Parliament's changing institutional position."-Michael Shackleton, Professor of European Institutions, Maastricht University, The Netherlands, and former EP official This book analyses the European Parliament's strategies of self-empowerment over time stretching across cases of new institutional prerogatives as well as substantive policy areas. It considers why and how the Parliament has managed to gain formal and informal powers in this wide variety of cases. The book provides a systematic and comparative analysis of the European Parliament's formal and informal empowerment in two broad sets of cases: on the one hand, it examines the EP's empowerment since the Treaty of Rome in three areas that are characteristic of parliamentary democracies, namely legislation, the budget, and the investiture of the executive. On the other hand, it analyses the European Parliament's role in highly politicised policy areas, namely Economic and Monetary Governance and the shaping of EU trade agreements.

"European Foreign Policy in an Evolving International System" provides the reader with an updated assessment of European Foreign Policy 15 years after Maastricht. The contributions analyse the level of policy convergence achieved by EU member states in crucial areas and regions of the world. The book comprises 14 chapters, organised in four sections: (1) The EU in the International System; (2) The EU and the Great Powers; (3) The EU and the Management of Conflicts in the Near Abroad; (4) The EU's Regional Policies.

The UN has suffered from its earliest days as a result of persistent financial problems, which left it on the edge of apparent bankruptcy. This book looks at the history of the regular and peace keeping budgets. It focuses on the role of the US, simultaneously the UN's biggest contributor of funds and its largest debtor. It examines possible solutions against the background today of the UN attempting to reform itself to meet the challenges posed by globalization and an increasing number of civil wars.

Among Jews in the Diaspora, recent years and especially recent months have seen a growing disenchantment with Israeli politics and with Israel's claim as the only legitimate basis for Jewish existence. At the same time, European Jews have begun to reassert their own traditions in contrast to both America and Israel. As the case of German Jewry makes clear, much of this return of Diaspora comes from the Jewish periphery: women, Russian Jewish immigrants, Jews not recognised by Jewish law and Gays and Lesbians. But German Jews are also facing the involvement of non-Jewish Germans in Jewish culture, as both a boost and as an irritant. Ten internationally distinguished scholars are addressing these and other issues.

"A firsthand account of the perils of American diplomacy at the UN during Jeane Kirkpatrick's tenure, written from Gerson's position as her expert in international law." - Kirkus Reviews Allan Gerson, legal counsel to former United States Ambassador to the United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick, elaborates on the crucial role Kirkpatrick played in re-establishing the USA's prestige in world affairs. Additionally, Gerson argues that Kirkpatrick had key influence in frustrating Soviet expansionism, thereby contributing to the liberation of Eastern Europe.

This book explores the work of the European Ombudsman and her or his contribution to holding the EU institutions, bodies, offices and agencies to account, through examination of complaints on maladministration, own-initiative inquiries and other proactive efforts. It considers the Ombudsman's current institutional and constitutional position and her or his 'method' of dealing with complaints, and unravels the depth of subject matters that fall under the Ombudsman's remit. A separate chapter focuses on transparency and access to documents. The last part of the book critically reflects upon the present mandate and practice of the Ombudsman, and discusses a number of possible proposals for improvement. This work has interdisciplinary appeal and will engage scholars in law, political science and public administration, as well as EU and national policy-makers.

We are told again and again that the world has become increasingly complex and indecipherable. However, this book reminds us that we are no longer alone in the world, that it is time to move away from the mental categories of the Cold War and stop treating all those who challenge our vision of the international order as guilty "deviants" or "Barbarians." The author challenges the diplomacy of Western states, who want to continue to rule the world against history, and in particular that of France, which too often oscillates between arrogance, indecision, and ambiguity. The power play is stuck. The international order can no longer be regulated by a small club of oligarchs who exclude the weaker ones, ignore the demands of societies, and ignore the demands for justice that emerge from a new world where the actors are more numerous, more diverse and more restive to arbitrary disciplines. For this reason, this book also offers ways to think an international order that would be, if not fair, at least less unfair.

How are institutions formed and how do they change? How do institutions interact to produce action? And how formal do institutions need to be to become effective actors of governance? This textbook provides a thorough examination of institutions from a number of theoretical perspectives to identify their key characteristics. Key features of the fourth edition: Eight consistent questions are used to highlight the similarities and differences between institutions, using both formal and informal examples Two new chapters focus on informal institutions and the process of institutionalization and deinstitutionalization A wide range of theories are highlighted, giving students a broad overview of institutional theory in political science The application of these institutional theories is demonstrated using a variety of international examples. For students of comparative politics, political theory and institutions, this textbook will be an essential guide to understanding and analyzing institutions in political science.

This edited volume addresses the challenges and opportunities facing NATO post-2014, applying an original approach to strategy that produces fresh insights into this hot topic within the international security community. We combine the definitions of the key strategic variables time, position, legitimacy, implementation structure and capabilities in the international relations literature on strategy with the differentiation of strategic processes into the categories of grand, security and theatre strategy in the strategic studies literature. We address NATO's internal dynamics and the role of significant members and partners, and how these influence NATO's conflict management. The volume appeals to academics and practitioners in the military and academia focusing on strategy and NATO. The edited volume demonstrates the usefulness of the concept of strategy for identifying challenges and opportunities in NATOs strategy formulation and implementation and how these can be used for the purpose of more efficient and accurate planning.

This book addresses a timely, yet largely overlooked, issue in political science: the integration of migrants in a multilevel polity. In a context characterised by the increasing salience of migration-related questions, and despite the gradual construction of a European Union immigration policy over the past two decades, no competence was ever created on integration matters. The emergence of a consistent ensemble of soft instruments in this policy realm in the 2000s unveiled an original pattern of EU policy formation. Can there be Europeanization without an EU competence? That is the question this original piece of research tackles. It shows how the way in which the policy emerged at EU level affected policy outputs adopted thereafter throughout the policy cycle. Mixing qualitative and quantitative methods, it explains the development of the EU integration policy and examines its main policy device, the European Integration Fund, from negotiation to implementation.

This book furthers the ongoing theoretical development of the multiple streams framework, assessing its applicability to European Union (EU) policy-making processes. It systematically defines and identifies functional equivalents for all of the framework's core concepts at the EU level and extends the framework in order to explain agenda-setting and decision-making. Furthermore, the book derives a set of explicit hypotheses to empirically assess the extent to which the (modified) framework is able to explain timing, agenda prominence, and policy change (or a lack thereof) for the EU natural gas directives passed in 1998, 2003, and 2009. The analysis documents that the framework is well-suited to explain the EU policy process in general and reveals where additional theoretical refinements are required.

What are the limits of Europeanization? This book explores the impact of the European Union's agenda of structural reform on Greece. This is a setting that welcomes closer European unity, but which apparently struggles to adapt to the demands of adaptation. The book analyses why the domestic system has so often resisted adaptation in these important economic areas by charting policy initiatives over the last decade on privatization, labour market regulation, and pensions. Its findings raise questions about the scope of the EU to coordinate a programme of economic reform, alongside the inclusion and governability of a system that fails to deliver.

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.