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57691. Enhancing the EU's Response to Violent Conflict: Moving Beyond Reaction to Preventive Action

Author:
Philip Wilkinson, Stefan Lehne, and Catriona Gourlay
Publication Date:
12-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Security Information Service
Abstract:
Quoting the words of Alva Myrdal in her 1982 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Mrs Theorin noted that we are living in an age of “instrumentalised, de - personalized violence.” In the post - cold war era the battlefield has moved to the village, the street and the home. Most recent and ongoing wars occur within a state rather than between states, with civilians being the prime targets and victims of violent conflict. The international community too often avoids its responsibilities, failing to commit peacekeepers, while others sidestep the United Nations (UN) in pursuit of their own interests. Faced with such inconsistencies in the international community's willingness to intervene, non - violent methods must be given priority. The most important part of the EU's new Rapid Reaction Force is not the missiles, tanks and soldiers, but rather the advantage in civilian crisis management that it presents. The central part must be a civilian peace service based on voluntary civilian organisations trained and competent to serve in crisis management scenarios. We need to incorporate civil society unless we want it to become a shadow of NATO. Two thousand years ago Cicero remarked that there are two ways of resolving conflict: through negotiation or through violence. The first is for human beings, the other for wild beasts. We should have a clear vision of conflict prevention that recognises that there are two ways of solving conflicts: through negotiations and through violence. We are not beasts, but humans. And we must seek to solve conflicts through negotiation, not killing.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution
Political Geography:
America, Europe, and Middle East

57692. The Saviour and Other Europes—Identity, Interests, and Geopolitical Images of Europe in Estonia

Author:
Pami Aalto
Publication Date:
04-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Studies Association
Abstract:
It is no secret that research on integration within the European Union (EU) is not any more limited to the traditional dispute between intergovernmentalism and neo-functionalism. The debate between these two branches of research is now joined by International Relations (IR) constructivism, comparative politics approaches, and approaches treating the EU as “new governance” (Christiansen et al. 1999: 537). The issue of EU enlargement, moreover, enforces us to enlarge the research agenda horizontally, too, in order to make EU integration comprehensible. One of the metaphors depicting this enlarged research agenda is the “Europe of concentric circles”, with Brussels and EU institutions as the centre (Joenniemi 1993: 209- 12). For Ola Tunander (1997: 32), the emerging perception in the EU centre is that it represents a “Cosmos” of order and peace. This “Cosmos” is surrounded by a concentric circle of less integrated EU members, then a circle of relatively stable states eager for joining the EU, an outer circle of states less prepared to do so, and finally, a periphery representing “Chaos”; a final frontier of Europe which is definitely not about to join the EU in the foreseeable future. Ole Wæver (1997), for his part, speaks of a “Europe of three empires”. The EU is the most important empire, but it is accompanied by the “empire of the Tsars” -- Russia and its sphere of interests -- and the “empire of the Ottomans” -- Turkey with its sphere of interests.
Topic:
Globalization, International Political Economy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Europe and Israel

57693. The Paradox of Disconnected Coalitions

Author:
J. Steven Brams, A. Michael Jones, and Marc D. Kilgour
Publication Date:
04-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Studies Association
Abstract:
The paradox of disconnected coalitions is that "disconnected" coalitions can arise from the "connected" (i.e., single-peaked) preferences of as few as five or six players. Two models of coalition formation are analyzed in which the paradox can occur, in both of which players coalesce when they all find each other mutually acceptable: Fallback (FB): Players seek coalition partners by descending lower and lower in their preferences until a majority coalition emerges. Build-Up (BU): Same as FB, except that when nonmajority subcoalitions form, they fuse into composite players, and the descent restarts.
Topic:
International Relations and Diplomacy

57694. The Effectiveness of International Environmental Regimes: What About the Environment?

Author:
Tom Cioppa and Hans Bruninckx
Publication Date:
03-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Studies Association
Abstract:
When we make the claim that an international regime is effective, what exactly do we mean? Is effective performance defined in terms of "solving" problems, or is it the attainment of specific goals, or both? Maybe it lies in the establishment of such things as monitoring and/or compliance mechanisms to assist with members' adherence to international conventions? Or, perhaps, it is determined through the modification of actor (usually state) behavior in some larger sense?
Topic:
Environment, International Cooperation, International Law, and International Organization

57695. The New WTO-Round and Eastern Enlargment of the EU: Overlapping Negotiations and the Role of the EU-Commission in Agricultural Policy

Author:
Manfred Elsig
Publication Date:
03-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Studies Association
Abstract:
This paper focuses on three overlapping negotiations, namely the Berlin summit (Agenda 2000), the Seattle summit (New Trade Round) and the pre-accession negotiations with Poland (Accession). By looking at agricultural policy the paper identifies a weak and isolated Commission in relation to the Council and Member States. With the help of level-analysis, developed by Putnam, possible strategies of the main negotiators as well as linkages among issue-areas are highlighted. It is shown that linkages block rather than press negotiations ahead. In particular the paper concentrates on the Agenda 2000 negotiations and its influence on the length and scope of the other negotiations. It focuses on developments that shift win-sets over time as well as factors determining the outcome equilibrium inside the win-sets, as exemplified in the accession negotiations. The paper ends with a look at new institutionalist approaches (historical institutionalism and agent-theory) and shows that these help explain the variance of the agent's (Commission) activity in 1999 compared to its more active role played during the Uruguay-Round.
Topic:
International Organization and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe

57696. ARPA Does Windows: The Defense Underpinning of the PC Revolution

Author:
Glenn Fong
Publication Date:
03-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Studies Association
Abstract:
Personal computer (PC) technologies that have revolutionized our everyday lives whether at the office or at home have been deeply rooted in public sector initiatives as well. As communities throughout the country, and countries around the world rush to clone their own Silicon Valleys, the governmental underpinnings of the original Valley's success should not be overlooked.
Topic:
Defense Policy, Government, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States

57697. Reassessing the Logic of Anarchy: Rationality versus Reflexivity

Author:
Ewan Harrison
Publication Date:
03-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Studies Association
Abstract:
Drawing on the insights of constructivism and recent attempts to develop a liberal model of international relations, this paper compares neorealism, institutionalism and liberalism in terms of their competing conceptualisations of the composition and dynamics of the international system. It argues that prominent institutionalists have mistakenly interpreted neorealism as a rationalist model of the international system in order to develop their own arguments countering its central propositions. Rather than relying on rational actor assumptions, neorealism instead adopts a reflexive logic focusing on processes of identity construction and socialisation arising from the generative consequences of international anarchy. Thus whilst neorealism and liberalism differ fundamentally in terms of their assessment of the nature and long term consequences of international anarchy, they may actually be closer to each other in terms of their conceptualisation of system composition and dynamics than neorealism and institutionalism. On the basis of this argument, the paper rejects a 'linear' understanding of the relationship between neorealism, institutionalism and liberalism in which institutionalism is seen as providing the point of synthesis on a spectrum than runs between neorealism and liberalism. Instead, it proposes a 'triangular' understanding of the relationship between these three models of the international system in which the debates between neorealists and institutionalists constitute its rationalist leg, and debates between neorealists and liberals constitute its reflexivist leg. Understood in these terms, liberalism's focus on the generative consequences of international anarchy and the overall trajectory of identity construction and socialisation within the international system is likely to be more productive in the search for a general synthesis of competing theories of international relations than institutionalists' attempts to refine rationalist models.
Topic:
International Relations

57698. Globalization and Its Impact Across Sectors

Author:
Gerald A. Hendrickson
Publication Date:
03-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Studies Association
Abstract:
Globalization is not a topic that immediately attracts the attention of most public administrators. However, understanding the implications of globalization for labor markets across economic sectors can affect the way public sector managers approach personnel planning. This paper attempts to enhance this understanding in three ways. It will carefully examine some of the issues around globalization, subject the ideas from the dominant perspectives to empirical testing and propose alternative hypotheses. In the end, the mission of this paper is to provide some insight into the kind of labor environment that public sector managers will encounter as their plans come to fruition in the future.
Topic:
Economics, Globalization, and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
United States

57699. The New Voting Weights in The Council of the European Union

Author:
Madeleine O. Hosli
Publication Date:
03-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Studies Association
Abstract:
The recently started Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) of the European Union (EU) aims at introducing selected institutional revisions. Among these is the issue of how to allocate voting weights among the member states in the Council of the EU, especially in view of upcoming major rounds of enlargement. The paper analyzes implications of different options to re-weight votes -- the 1997 "Dutch Proposal", a shift to the square root rule, and the introduction of a double-majority clause — on the distribution of a priori voting leverage among EU governments. It also assesses the a priori probability that winning coalitions can be formed with enlarged EU membership (i.e., relative "effectiveness") for different voting schemes. In these evaluations, it is assumed that the distribution of preferences among EU governments is not known, especially as regards decisions to be taken in the future.

57700. Nuclear Arsenal Games: Size Does Make a Difference

Author:
Carolyn C. James
Publication Date:
03-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Studies Association
Abstract:
The purpose of this article is to present and establish the significance of the Nuclear Arsenal Game (NAG). The NAG investigates behavior within dyads experiencing a crisis. It assumes that nuclear and quasi-nuclear states act according to the size and potential of their own nuclear force structure and that of their opponent. This paper will argue that the size and potential damage an arsenal poses, set in relation to an enemy state's second strike capability, determines actor preferences within a crisis situation. These preferences include the option of launching a first strike and risking retaliation in kind. The specific objective of this study is to propose a nuclear index for use in empirical studies and offer a game-theoretic model of crisis interaction based on the Theory of Moves (TOM) that encompasses these respective types of nuclear states; and indicates whether preferences and predicted behavior adhere to the assumptions of Classical (or Rational) Deterrence Theory.
Topic:
Security and Nuclear Weapons