Supporting regional integration has become a cornerstone of the European Union's relations with other regional groupings across the world. The policy has evolved considerably from modest beginnings in the 1980s to increasing commitments in both quantitative and qualitative terms in more recent years. This study examines the motivations that underpin this policy evolution, drawing on rich evidence from EU interregional relations with Mercosur, the Andean Community and Central America. By carefully tracing EU support for regional integration from the 1980s until today, Tobias Lenz argues that the underlying policy motivations of relevant EU actors have shifted from considerations of geopolitics to a geoeconomic impetus. This development has been accompanied by and interacted with a strategic rivalry with the United States. This study is of interest to students of EU external relations and comparative regionalism.

International parliaments are on the rise. An increasing number of international organizations establishes 'international parliamentary institutions' or IPIs, which bring together members of national parliaments or - in rare cases - elected representatives of member state citizens. Yet, IPIs have generally remained powerless institutions with at best a consultative role in the decision-making process of international organizations. Why do the member states of international organizations create IPIs but do not vest them with relevant institutional powers? This study argues that neither the functional benefits of delegation nor the internalization of democratic norms answer this question convincingly. Rather, IPIs are best understood as an instrument of strategic legitimation. By establishing institutions that mimic national parliaments, governments seek to ensure that audiences at home and in the wider international environment recognize their international organizations as democratically legitimate. At the same time, they seek to avoid being effectively constrained by IPIs in international governance. The Rise of International Parliaments provides a systematic study of the establishment and empowerment of IPIs based on a novel dataset. In a statistical analysis covering the world's most relevant international organizations and a series of case studies from all major world regions, we find two varieties of international parliamentarization. International organizations with general purpose and high authority create and empower IPIs to legitimate their region-building projects domestically. Alternatively, the establishment of IPIs is induced by the international diffusion of democratic norms and prominent templates, above all that of the European Parliament. Transformations in Governance is a major academic book series from Oxford University Press. It is designed to accommodate the impressive growth of research in comparative politics, international relations, public policy, federalism, and environmental and urban studies concerned with the dispersion of authority from central states to supranational institutions, subnational governments, and public-private networks. It brings together work that advances our understanding of the organization, causes, and consequences of multilevel and complex governance. The series is selective, containing annually a small number of books of exceptionally high quality by leading and emerging scholars. The series is edited by Liesbet Hooghe and Gary Marks of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and Walter Mattli of the University of Oxford.

Why do international organizations (IOs) look so different, yet so similar? The possibilities are diverse. Some international organizations have just a few member states, while others span the globe. Some are targeted at a specific problem, while others have policy portfolios as broad as national states. Some are run almost entirely by their member states, while others have independent courts, secretariats, and parliaments. Variation among international organizations appears as wide as that among states. This book explains the design and development of international organization in the postwar period. It theorizes that the basic set up of an IO responds to two forces: the functional impetus to tackle problems that spill beyond national borders and a desire for self-rule that can dampen cooperation where transnational community is thin. The book reveals both the causal power of functionalist pressures and the extent to which nationalism constrains the willingness of member states to engage in incomplete contracting. The implications of postfunctionalist theory for an IO's membership, policy portfolio, contractual specificity, and authoritative competences are tested using annual data for 76 IOs for 1950-2010. Transformations in Governance is a major academic book series from Oxford University Press. It is designed to accommodate the impressive growth of research in comparative politics, international relations, public policy, federalism, environmental and urban studies concerned with the dispersion of authority from central states up to supranational institutions, down to subnational governments, and side-ways to public-private networks. It brings together work that significantly advances our understanding of the organization, causes, and consequences of multilevel and complex governance. The series is selective, containing annually a small number of books of exceptionally high quality by leading and emerging scholars. The series targets mainly single-authored or co-authored work, but it is pluralistic in terms of disciplinary specialization, research design, method, and geographical scope. Case studies as well as comparative studies, historical as well as contemporary studies, and studies with a national, regional, or international focus are all central to its aims. Authors use qualitative, quantitative, formal modeling, or mixed methods. A trade mark of the books is that they combine scholarly rigour with readable prose and an attractive production style. The series is edited by Liesbet Hooghe and Gary Marks of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the VU Amsterdam, and Walter Mattli of the University of Oxford.

Why do international organizations (IOs) look so different, yet so similar? The possibilities are diverse. Some international organizations have just a few member states, while others span the globe. Some are targeted at a specific problem, while others have policy portfolios as broad as national states. Some are run almost entirely by their member states, while others have independent courts, secretariats, and parliaments. Variation among international organizations appears as wide as that among states. This book explains the design and development of international organization in the postwar period. It theorizes that the basic set up of an IO responds to two forces: the functional impetus to tackle problems that spill beyond national borders and a desire for self-rule that can dampen cooperation where transnational community is thin. The book reveals both the causal power of functionalist pressures and the extent to which nationalism constrains the willingness of member states to engage in incomplete contracting. The implications of postfunctionalist theory for an IO's membership, policy portfolio, contractual specificity, and authoritative competences are tested using annual data for 76 IOs for 1950-2010. Transformations in Governance is a major academic book series from Oxford University Press. It is designed to accommodate the impressive growth of research in comparative politics, international relations, public policy, federalism, environmental and urban studies concerned with the dispersion of authority from central states up to supranational institutions, down to subnational governments, and side-ways to public-private networks. It brings together work that significantly advances our understanding of the organization, causes, and consequences of multilevel and complex governance. The series is selective, containing annually a small number of books of exceptionally high quality by leading and emerging scholars. The series targets mainly single-authored or co-authored work, but it is pluralistic in terms of disciplinary specialization, research design, method, and geographical scope. Case studies as well as comparative studies, historical as well as contemporary studies, and studies with a national, regional, or international focus are all central to its aims. Authors use qualitative, quantitative, formal modeling, or mixed methods. A trade mark of the books is that they combine scholarly rigour with readable prose and an attractive production style. The series is edited by Liesbet Hooghe and Gary Marks of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the VU Amsterdam, and Walter Mattli of the University of Oxford.

Der Autor setzt sich mit einem betriebswirtschaftlich ebenso relevanten wie vielschichtigen Thema auseinander. Er stellt die Frage, wie das Modell der Supply Chain in Handelsunternehmen Anwendung finden kann. Die Auseinandersetzung mit der Supply Chain ist nicht neu, denn in einer zunehmend arbeitsteilig arbeitenden Wirtschaft betrifft die Organisation dieser Arbeitsteilung verschiedene Unternehmensfunktionen gleichzeitig. Im Handel haben sich mehrere spezifische Konzepte entwickelt, die auf eine Optimierung der Beziehung von Handel und Herstellern abzielen und dabei insbesondere Verbesserungen in den Bereichen Logistik und Marketing nutzen. Betriebswirtschaftlich mussen diese Konzepte vor dem Hintergrund einer hohen Relevanz von Netzwerkstrukturen und Kooperationen mit einem spezifischen Instrumentarium unterlegt werden, um Engpasse und Schnittstellen zu erkennen und daruber hinausgehend zu steuern. Der Autor stellt in diesem Zusammenhang auf Portfolio-Konzepte, Ansatze zur unternehmensubergreifenden Prozesskostenrechnung und Kennzahlen ebenso ab wie auf spezifische Scorecard-Losungen und Ansatze zum Controlling von Unternehmensbeziehungen. Die vorliegenden Ausfuhrungen zeigen sehr deutlich, dass in diesem Zusammenhang Nachholbedarf fur die Betriebswirtschaftslehre besteht.

Am 1. Mai 2004 ist das neue Gerate- und Produktsicherheitsgesetz in Kraft getreten. Mit dem vorliegenden Buch wird dem Leser ein Leitfaden an die Hand gegeben, in dem die neuen Bestimmungen systematisch erlautert sowie erste kritische Punkte offengelegt und diskutiert werden.