This book examines the first five years of Polish EU membership. The combination of Poland's potential power as a major, and possibly controversial, player in both the region and Europe as a whole, and the apparent salience of Euroscepticism in domestic electoral politics at the core of the Polish government and party system presented the possibility that Poland would be a 'new awkward partner' in Europe. However, although Poles may have voted for EU-critical parties in large numbers no 'Eurosceptic backlash' has emerged. In fact, far from being a 'new awkward partner', Poland has tried to portray itself as the 'new heart of Europe' and it certainly came to be increasingly perceived as such in Brussels and by its European allies. This book focuses on two linked questions. Firstly, what impact has Poland had upon the EU as a new member state? Secondly, how has becoming an EU member impacted upon public attitudes towards the EU and Polish domestic politics, particularly on its party and electoral politics? Szczerbiak provides the first detailed empirical case study of the impact of Poland's EU membership on its politics and of Poland's impact on the EU. The book also makes broader theoretical contributions to our understanding of EU relations with its member states. As a result of the above, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of European Politics, political science and European integration.

Parliamentary cabinets are supposed to be collective bodies, taking their decisions on the basis of agreements among all the members. Yet much has been made of the growth of the role of prime ministers, not just in Britain, but all over Western Europe. Much has also been made of the trend towards letting cabinet decisions be taken by committees or even by individual ministers.;These are the issues which this study examines, on the basis of the replies of over 400 cabinet ministers across Western Europe. The result is an empirical analysis of a subject on which what has been known so far has tended to be speculation.;Other works by Jean Blondel include "Voters, Parties and Leaders", "An Introduction to Comparative Government", "Comparative Legislatures", "Political Parties", "The Discipline of Politics", "World Leaders", "The Organisation of Governments", "Government Ministers in the Contemporary World", "Political Leadership" and "Cabinets in Western Europe". Ferdinand Mueller-Rommel is the author of "New Politics in Western Europe", "Cabinets in Western Europe" and "Gruene Parteien in Westeuropa".

This volume provides a short and accessible introduction to the organization that serves as the primary coordinator of the work of the UN system throughout the developing world -the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The book: traces the origins and evolution of UNDP, outlining how a central UN funding mechanism and field network developed into a more comprehensive development agency evaluates the UNDP's performance and results, both in its role as system coordinator and as a development organization in its own right considers the return of the UNDP to a more central role within the UN development system, in order to review the successive attempts at UN development system reform, the reasons for failure and the future possibilities for a more effective system with the UNDP at the centre. Offering a clear, comprehensive overview and analysis of the organization, this work will be of great interest to students and scholars of development studies, international organizations and international relations.

While acknowledging the ability of the European Union to advance towards greater political and economic integration, this book questions the wisdom of the European "project." Economic and monetary union is a risky venture even for the convergent countries of the continent--let alone divergent Britain--as the uncertain birth of the Euro proves. Political union, moreover, remains an elite aspiration that weakens democratic accountability and lacks popular legitimacy. The likelihood is that the full scope of EU integration will also reveal profound limits.

Peacekeeping is a security concept that is very representative of the current interventionism, multilateralism, human rights, and humanitarian ideas. UN peacekeeping plays an important role in international security and includes various activities that go beyond the original roles assigned to UN armed forces (e.g. humanitarian aid, election supervision, disarmament, mine clearance, civilian protection, and peacebuilding). The problem is to define the economic efficiency of these operations and to develop some recommendations in the context of an economic globalization process. Although UN peacekeeping has shortcomings, it must be considered essential for organizing and defending the world politico-economic order. UN peacekeeping is a political activity, but its production strongly depends on nations' economic considerations. Governments make political decisions that also take into account the economic gains they expect to obtain from their contribution to any specific mission. With low means and inadequate strategies to meet the challenges, UN peacekeeping must pay particular attention to resolving the problems of free riding and of prisoner's dilemma in contributions that delay deployments and create significant financial problems. Understanding how peacekeeping can be most cost-effectively carried out, while considering the importance of legitimacy in interventions, is essential. This book believes that regional organizations can ease the UN's financial responsibility by managing conflicts in their regions. But, to be most effective, they must involve the UN in their interventions. This book also emphasizes UN peacekeeping trust funds as the key to better financial effectiveness. It strongly recommends that NATO be empowered by the UN with the role of global peace police, and proposes the establishment of a UN high-ranking team of international specialists in peacekeeping issues. This research should be of interest to students and researchers looking at international and political economics, as well as international relations, defence, security and peace studies.

This book offers a deep insight into the genesis and development of the European Commission's energy and climate legislation, focusing on the interplay of politics and science. How does the Commission react when confronted with knowledge? According to the author, the Commission functions as catalyst transforming knowledge into politics.

This book examines the effects of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) of the European Union (EU) on the national foreign policies of Ireland and Austria. Small and neutral EU member states provide a fascinating case-study as the CFSP entails a dilemma for them. Their size may create assumptions that they are more likely to adopt EU policy, yet the traditional position of neutrality may act contrary to Europeanization. By concentrating on this side of the reciprocal relationship between EU and national foreign policy, the book takes a new and innovative approach to investigate prospects for a common European foreign policy, and goes beyond an examination of changes in the national foreign policies of Ireland and Austria to provide an engaging explanation and understanding of Europeanization. Based on a comprehensive conceptual framework, this text investigates three dimensions of national foreign policy; the Europeanization of foreign policy-making, the Europeanization of foreign policy substance and effects on neutrality, to create an accessible and informed insight into the evolution of European cooperation in the field of foreign policy, and the impact on national foreign policy. EU Foreign Policy and the Europeanization of Neutral States will be of interest to students and scholars of European Studies, International Relations and Foreign Policy.

The external trade policies of the European Community are of great importance, both for its own people and for trading partners in the remainder of the world. Yet, the processes by which the European Community of 12 countries attempts to reach agreement have remained somewhat mysterious. What has been the relative influence of principles of policy and of various political, bureaucratic and private interests, at both the Community and the national levels? This volume is based on a number of case studies, and also contains chapters on the formation of attitudes to trade policy in three of the largest countries of the Community - Germany, the United Kingdom and France. J.P. Hayes is the author of "Economic Effects of Sanctions in Southern Africa".

Drawing upon the disciplines of politics, anthropology, psychoanalysis, aesthetics and cinema studies, Salgo presents a new way of looking at the "art of European unification." The official visual narratives of the European Union constitute the main object of inquiry - the iconography of the new series of euro banknotes and the videos through which the supranational elite seek to generate "collective effervescence," allow for a European carnival to take place, and prompt citizens to pledge allegiance to the sacred dogma of the "ever closer union," thereby strengthening the mythical sources of the organization's legitimacy. The author seeks to illustrate how and why the federalist utopia turned into a political soteriology after the outbreak of the 2008 crisis.

We are in the middle of a fundamental transformation of the global order which is challenging the supremacy of the USA, and to a certain extent of Europe, in economic and also in normative terms. The financial crisis has further accentuated this shift in the post-Cold War architecture, with emerging economies becoming an engine of globalisation. The chapters in this volume shed light on the role of higher education and its internationalisation in this context, focusing on the different regions of the world. The new role of international organisations like UNESCO is also examined. The empirical findings of these studies are part of a new research agenda in higher education studies, one that goes beyond a ?higher educationism? limiting itself to a simple description of institutional changes in this sphere in the light of internationalisation. The different case studies advance an interdisciplinary perspective, drawing on accounts from critical and postcolonial theory, international relations and international political economy. This perspective sheds light on the strategic selectivity of the transformation and the struggles related to this major transformation of higher education and its contribution to a new global architecture.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Globalisation, Societies and Education.

For over forty years the European Community has been taking shape and developing its foundations to become the European Union. This book is a collection of pragmatic ideas and experience about the Europe of the future as seen by a citizen who is heavily involved in its construction. In this book, Mr Baron raises critical questions about the future needs and challenges of the Union, including a single currency, common citizenship, a foreign and security policy, enlargement to the east and the great issue of employment and welfare.

As the UN celebrates its 50th anniversary, it has become embroiled in controversy sparked by its recent extensive involvement in operations which go beyond traditional peacekeeping. This book brings together leading scholars and practitioners who explicate the issues at the heart of the controversy and recommends changes for the organization and its member states. In dedicated analyses as well as case studies, the authors focus on issues of sovereignty and intervention, national commitments to non-traditional missions, and operational efficiency and effectiveness when undertaking such missions.

This book provides a systematic approach which explores the domestic, regional, and systemic factors shaping Germany's role in NATO. Initially intended as stock taking of West Germany's interest and role in NATO over a forty-year period, this book has been transformed by events into a retrospective of what NATO has meant for West Germany and its partners between 1949 and 1989, and what NATO may mean in the future for a unified Germany, for a Europe spanning the Atlantic to the Urals, and for the USA.

The conflict in South Ossetia in the summer of 2008 and the Ukrainian energy crisis in early 2009 served to highlight the tensions that continue to influence EU-Russia relations in regard to the region comprising the former republics of the Soviet Union or the a ~shared neighbourhooda (TM).

This book draws together research which examines the objectives of EU and Russian foreign policy and the complexities of the security challenges in this region. Although both actors have a shared interest in cooperating to create conditions of peace and stability, we have in recent years observed the development of growing competition between the EU and Russian foreign policy agendas.

This book was based on a special issue of Europe-Asia Studies.

The Kosovo war has concentrated new attention on the transatlantic relationship and its principal institution, NATO. Europeans argue over the future of their Union, suggesting a struggle over control of Europe's future. The threat of a transatlantic trade war shows the struggle overflowing to affect the Atlantic relationship that has secured Europe's peace for fifty years. Distinguished experts consider the arguments over NATO and the EU in order to assess the state of the vital Atlantic relationship and its future.

The role of the European Union in global politics has been of growing interest over the past decade. The EU is a key player in global institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) and NATO. It continues to construct an emerging identity and project its values and interests throughout contemporary international relations. The capacity of the EU to both formulate and realise its goals, however, remains contested. Some scholars claim the EU's soft power? attitude rivals that of the USA's hard power? approach to international relations. Others view the EU as insufficiently able to produce a co-ordinated position to project upon global politics. Regardless of the position taken within this debate, the EU's relationship with its external partners has an increasingly important impact upon economic, political and security concerns on an international level. Trade negotiations, military interventions, democracy promotion, international development and responses to the global economic crisis have all witnessed the EU playing a central role. This has seen the EU become both a major force in contemporary institutions of global governance and a template for supranational governance that might influence other attempts to construct regional and global institutions.

This volume brings together a collection of leading EU scholars to provide a state-of-the-art overview covering these and other debates relating to the EU's role in contemporary global governance. The Handbook is divided into four main sections:

Part I: European studies and global governance ? provides an overview and critical assessment of the leading theoretical approaches through which the EU's role in global governance has been addressed within the literature.

Part II: Institutions ? examines the role played by the key EU institutions in pursuing a role for the EU in contemporary international relations.

Part III: Policy and issue areas ? explores developments within particular policy sectors, assessing the different impact that the EU has had in different issue areas, including foreign and security policy, environmental policy, common commercial policy, the Common Agricultural Policy, development policy, accession policy, the Neighbourhood Policy and conflict transformation.

Part IV: The global multilevel governance complex and the EU ? focuses on the relationship between the EU and the institutions, regions and countries with which it forms a global multilevel governance complex, including chapters on the EU's relationship with the WTO, United Nations, East Asia, Africa and the USA.

The editors are Jens-Uwe Wunderlich (Aston University) and David J. Bailey (University of Birmingham). Jens-Uwe Wunderlich's research and teaching focuses on international relations theory, European integration and globalization and on comparative regionalism; he has recently published Regionalism, Globalisation and International Order?Europe and Southeast Asia (Ashgate) and A Dictionary of Globalization (Routledge, 2007). David Bailey has published on trends in European governance in the Journal of European Public Policy, Comparative European Politics, and Journal of European Social Policy.

Why are some regions in the European Union 'winners'of economic integration? And why are others 'losers'? This book explores these important questions and examines the relationship between economic integration, regional convergence, and divergence. In doing so it gives an overview of the most recent evolution of regional disparities in the EU. Central and peripheral regions are analysed as well as those in a re-conversion economic process. The authors address the question of whether regions tend to converge or not from different points of view. They particularly assess the impact of the Monetary Union on regional economies from theoretical and empirical approaches. Other important aspects covered include: the European regional policy, the effects of structural funds and the reforms needed. No doubt, this is an excellent book for anybody interested in learning more about regional trends and prospects in an increasingly integrated world.

This gives accounts of such matters as preparation of the agenda, procedure governing debates, voting, election and appointments, and problems relating to budget and financial administration.

"Although technological innovation is undoubtedly crucial for addressing climate change, low-carbon innovation policies and politics have hardly been studied. This book clearly reveals the promises and pitfalls of European efforts in this field - recommended reading!"-Sebastian Oberthur, Institute for European Studies, Belguim "This compact volume effectively addresses a surprisingly unknown territory in an otherwise well-explored landscape. In doing so, it will provide a useful resource to all who follow the uneven progress of climate and energy policy in the EU context, as well as those who are interested in policies to stimulate technology development more broadly." -Tim Rayner, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of East Anglia, UK The EU Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan) was aimed at accelerating low-carbon innovation by raising, coordinating and concentrating resources to certain low-carbon technologies. At the ten-year anniversary of the SET-Plan, this book examines why it was adopted and what it has achieved. Using an analytical framework developed to capture the 'politics of innovation', the authors trace the history of the Plan from initiation to implementation, and then explain its development as seen from the perspectives of the EU institutions, member-states, industry, the research community and international technology markets. The concluding chapter discusses lessons and prospects for European low-carbon innovation towards 2030 and beyond. This new work fills a void in the literature on EU climate and energy policies, and will appeal to scholars, students and practitioners in these fields.

In today's Europe, some of the world's oldest and traditionally most sovereignty-loving nations have surrendered essential parts of their power to a supranational institution. This book focuses on the way in which the European Union has transformed from a traditional international regime, based on classical international law, to a semi-federal polity where Community law and regulations trump national law and constitutions.

This publication has been a rich source of historical knowledge on developments, trends and achievements of multilateral disarmament for more than 30 years. In early spring of each year, Part I of the Yearbook is published containing an annual compilation of text and statistics on disarmament-related resolutions and decisions of the General Assembly. In early autumn, Part II is published presenting the main topics of multilateral consideration during the year, along with a convenient issues-oriented timeline.

The increase in China's economic and political involvement in Africa is arguably the most momentous development on the continent since the end of the Cold War. This book seeks to detail the origins, structure, workings and activities of The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and its development over the last nine years. Mindful of the growing realisation that Africa is to play an increasingly important role in global energy politics, Ian Taylor provides a clear and detailed overview of an organisation that has been generally overlooked, despite the exponential rise in the importance of the Chinese presence in Africa. Topics addressed include: * The key structures, functions and operations of the FOCAC * The importance and development of the triennial summits, including the focus on cultural exchanges and economic cooperation * The key criticisms and challenges currently faced by the FOCAC * Discussion of emerging issues' -- is it possible to have a "win-win" situation between Africa and China, as the FOCAC suggests? The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation provides a concise introduction to an organisation that will be instrumental in the future of Africa's relationship with the developed world, and will be of interest to students of African and Chinese politics, International Relations and International Organizations.

With the departure of the Soviet and Cubans from Southern Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa no longer comprises a part of the West's core strategic interest. America's experience in Somalia illustrated the folly of addressing with force what was essentially a humanitarian problem derived from the utter failure of the economic development of the third world. The human tragedy in Rwanda highlighted the seemingly interminable demands for external aid. And Liberia has depicted the gruesome realities of human failure in the only African land with at least historic (but non-colonial) ties to the US. This book provides a thorough examination of one dimension of peacekeeping in Africa: ECOMOG'S role in the attempt to bring peace to Liberia and the impact of this operation on the region.

This cutting edge handbook presents the main theoretical and empirical issues involved in current Europeanization research. As a critical review of the state of the art it evaluates the achievements and shortcomings of the growing Europeanization literature. As a reference book at advanced level it also sets the parameters for Europeanization research in the coming years. All 25 chapters are written by the foremost authoritative scholars in the field.