This edited book fills a gap in the literature on EU-Asia relations. The European Union and Asia are two regions undergoing significant changes internally while at the same time developing stronger relations with each other. In the context of an emerging multi-polar world, Europe and Asia are seen
as major actors, making their relations increasingly crucial for the understanding of global politics. The Handbook is distinctive because it constitute a thoroughly comprehensive collection of more than 40 contributions from a variety of disciplines and perspectives, bringing together leading authors in their respective fields. Contributors come from Europe, Asia, North America and Australia, thereby providing a genuinely global perspective on this important topic.
The Handbook is structured along several key dimensions in the relationship, ensuring that bilateral relations, multilateral contexts, institutional aspects, the comparative dimension and the global perspective, are all covered - a unique set of contributions. In addition, sections look specifically at political, economic and cultural relations between the two regions.

An exploration of how the EU is influenced by multilateral institutions. There has recently been a dramatic increase in interaction between the EU and multilateral institutions. This book shows that international institutions shape EU policies, as well as acting as a source of preferences and strategies for EU stances internationally.

1. R.C. Mehrotra, Jaipur, India Present Status and Future Potential of the Sol-Gel Process 2. J. Fricke, A. Emmerling, Wuerzburg, FRG Aerogels - Preparation, Properties, Applications 3. S. Sakka, T. Yoko, Kyoto, Japan Sol-Gel-Derived Coating Films and Applications 4. H. Schmidt, Saarbruecken, FRG Thin Films, the Chemical Processing up to Gelation 5. M. Henry, J.P. Jolivet, J. Livage, Paris, France Aqueous Chemistry of Metal Cations: Hydrolysis, Condensation and Complexation 6. R. Reisfeld, Jerusalem, Israel, C.K. Joergensen, Geneva, Switzerland Optical Properties of Colorants or Luminescent Species in Sol-Gel Glasses

The Handbook provides a comprehensive range of contributions on the relations between the EU and Asia - two regions undergoing significant changes internally yet also developing stronger relations in the context of an emerging multi-polar world. It collates some 40 contributions from various disciplines by contributors from throughout the world.

The possibility of stimulated light emission was discussed by Einstein in 1917, eight years before the quantum-mechanical description of energy levels of many-electron systems. Though it is imperative to use samples having optical properties greatly different from the stan dard continuous spectrum of opaque objects ("black body" radia tion) it is not always necessary to restrict the study to monatomic entities. Thus, spectral lines can be obtained (in absorption and in emission) from lanthanide compounds, containing from one to thir teen 4f electrons going from trivalent cerium to ytterbium, that are nearly as sharp as the ones from gaseous atoms. However, the presence of adjacent atoms modifies the simple picture of an isolated electron configuration, and in particular, it is possible to pump excited levels efficiently by energy transfer from species with intense absorption bands, such as the inter-shell transitions of other lanthanides and of thallium(I), lead(II) and bismuth(III) or the electron transfer bands of the uranyl ion or other complexes. On the other hand, it is possible to diminuish the mUlti-phonon relaxation (competing with sharp line luminescence) by selecting vitreous or crystalline materials with low phonon energies. Obviously, one cannot circumvent the conservation of energy by lasers, but they may have unprecedented consequences for the future by allowing nuclear fusion of light elements, effects of non-linear optics and time-resolved spectroscopy, besides the more conventional applications of coherent light beams with negligible angular extension."

An exploration of how the EU is influenced by multilateral institutions. There has recently been a dramatic increase in interaction between the EU and multilateral institutions. This book shows that international institutions shape EU policies, as well as acting as a source of preferences and strategies for EU stances internationally.

This book shows how globalisation and international trade create environmental injustices between different parts of the world. Richer nations are able to shift their environmental loads onto poorer areas of the world-system, where labour and natural resources are cheaper and environmental legislation less of an obstacle. The chapters discuss recent approaches to ecological unequal exchange and environmental load displacement that use biophysical metrics rather than money to measure the uneven flows and the environmental impacts of international trade. The approaches discussed include social metabolism and material flow analysis; energy analysis; world-system and social network analysis; ecological footprint analysis; life cycle analysis; and the use of a "green" index of human development.