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This paper investigates the strategic narratives (SN) used by post-Soviet countries in the Security Council Open Debates on Women, Peace and Security (WPS). Drawing on the analysis of 117 diplomatic statements read in these multilateral spaces, I examine how these countries manifest their identities and national interests while actively contributing to the global WPS framework. I argue that while system and issue SN are similar among these countries, the national SN show their specificities. This is highly visible when the different dimensions of the agenda are linked to the national contexts, knowing that many of the post-Soviet countries have protracted conflicts on their territory. Overall, the paper contributes to the WPS literature and opens news ways of research by showing the theoretical and empirical relevance to pay more attention to these countries as they are significant actors in the global WPS normative architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the post-WWII period, the claims over the savoirdévelopper were numerous, coming from diverse ideological and institutional origins, and dealing with multiple topics, from rural welfare to community development, from education to health and labour. Many were the competing arguments and plans to intervene about those topics in various geographic spaces. Among the international actors participating in the promotion of a developmentalist agenda with global impacts, two interimperial organizations were particularly active, sometimes cooperating, sometimes rivalling with the specialized agencies of the United Nations system: The International Institute of Differing Civilizations (INCIDI, 1949) and the Commission for Technical Co-operation in Africa South of the Sahara (CCTA, 1950). Associated to projects of imperial and colonial resilience in contexts characterized by mounting anti-colonial pressures, both organisations contributed to the growing internationalization of social policies, gathering numerous experts in various conferences, in Europe and in Africa, promoting the production and transfer of original knowledge, publishing diverse reports and enquiries with considerable reach, and even sponsoring specific interventions on the ground. These dynamics were meaningfully, and frequently, shaped by disputes about the motivations and applications of social policies that occurred at the imperial metropoles. This paper addresses these two institution’s roles in the internationalization of social policies, analysing some of their major meetings, key publications, and significant projects, taking the topics of education, ‘social’ and ‘rural welfare’ and, mostly, labour as main observatories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at demonstrating the methodological and epistemological added value of secondary analysis of qualitative data (SAQD) in political science research on defence issues. Although mainly under-used, the SAQD is of convincing interest for researchers working on defence issues, as the collection of first-hand qualitative data can be complex on this type of research topics. Starting with an epistemological and methodological reflection on the SAQD’s method itself, the article proposes an application of this approach to political science research on defence issues. It also highlights, in a reflexive manner, the inevitable challenges and pitfalls to be taken into account and proposes a reflexive use of SAQD as well as perspectives particularly on the issue of storing the primary qualitative data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2006, the Conservative government has consistently supported the state of Israel. This support creates a lot of controversy because it is interpreted as a break with the traditional Canadian position on the Israel-Palestine conflict. In this paper, we examine the position of Conservatives Joe Clark and Brian Mulroney, in order to evaluate how the Conservatives' current position, under Harper, is different from those of the past. Finally, the paper reviews the explanations that have been suggested to understand the current Conservative support and we conclude that if there is break, there is also some continuity between Harper and other Conservatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the motives that pushed the Chinese leaders to build the Great Firewall and the political functions attached to it. The paper argues that the immaterial wall is a way to preserve an authoritarian regime with little legitimacy because mainly based on fast economic growth. From this perspective, the purpose of the Great Firewall is not to ban access to Internet but to prevent certain western ideas to spread, so perceived as threatening the regime's stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reviewing the academic literature about the "culture war" debate in the United States, this paper shows that there is no consensus among experts of American politics regarding the thesis that there is a "culture war" under way in the United States and that the American society is polarized on social and moral issues such as abortion, gun control or gay rights. The paper then explains why the arguments debunking the "myth of a polarized America" are relatively absent in the U.S. and Qudbec media coverage of American politics. The last part of the paper argues that the reproduction of this myth has negative consequences for both U.S. and Qudbec societies, but also for Qudbec-U.S. relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the key theoretical and meta-theoretical issues at stake in the analysis of the political and economical dynamics of neoliberal governance on the basis of feminist critiques. More particularly, it problematizes the gendered and racialized dimensions of the changing processes of social reproduction in this context. It stresses the density of the power relations constitutive of these processes and, more significantly, argues that gender relations are not constituted independently of these specific dynamics of power. On the contrary, the paper argues that they must be understood as a constitutive dimension of these transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the current research on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) points to an alliance that is deeply troubled, largely irrelevant, or is bound to collapse. Nearly all of this research focuses on the transatlantic differences over Iraq, the wide differences in military capabilities between the United States and its allies, or the perceived negative impact of alliance expansion. Within recent literature, no research examines Congress's role in shaping the alliance's evolution. This paper examines Congress's views toward NATO across four issue areas; alliance expansion, NATO'S role in Afghanistan, NATO's assistance to the African Union in Sudan, and NATO's role in Iraq after Operation Iraqi Freedom. This paper finds that Congress devoted little attention to shaping NATO's transformation, and was surprisingly disengaged on NATO'S mission in Afghanistan. While examples of congressional entrepreneurship were evident, Congress was mostly deferential to the president. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper begins with a definition of dumping, and then offers an overview of anti-dumping measures and their economic impacts. First, it describes the concept of dumping and explains that anti-dumping measures are quite ineffective. Next, it documents the raise of anti-dumping measures over time. It demonstrates that, nowadays, developing countries are using this protectionist tool as much as traditional industrial countries. Finally, the paper comments the WTO regulation in order to examine the effectiveness of dispute settlement cases involving anti-dumping measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the political ideas of Stephen Harper and the controversial philosopher, Leo Strauss. It focuses specifically on these thinkers' shared fear of the United Nations, using Strauss ' more penetrating and systematic thought to clarify the deeper assumptions underlying Harper s attitude toward the institution. The first such assumption is the belief that western nations 'supportfor the UN is symptomatic of a weak-willed liberalism that is unwilling to face its enemies. No less important, however, is the assumption that it is precisely through the encounter with a deadly enemy that the nation-state can be returned to moral and political health. These views, I argue, help to explain an era in Canadian foreign policy that has been marked by strained relations with the UN and an abiding preoccupation with the threat of terrorism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is there such a thing as Canadian neoconservatism ? Even though many analysts in Canadian foreign policy use this term to describe the Harper government and the « Calgary School », they fail to conceptualize precisely the political object in question. Some go as far as saying that this ideology was imported from the United States. This paper s goal is, first, to show the « recognition » that American neoconservatives give to their Canadian counterparts and vice versa, thus illustrating the ideological proximity between these two neoconservatisms. However, the second portion of the article consists in proposing a generic definition of neoconservatism, to show that if it is warranted to speak of a Canadian neoconservatism to describe the Harper government and the « Calgary School », it is not a sign of American influence. Rather, Canadian neoconservatism has its own particularities and tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to propose a periodization of the international policy between Québec and the United States from a framework of analysis developed by Peter Hall. This framework covers two levels of analysis : the first level is interested in public policy instruments, while the second focuses on the paradigm of public action. From these two main criteria, we propose a periodization into five periods. The first period (1867-1960) is characterized by the absence of structured paradigm and the virtual absence of instrument with the exception of a commercial and tourist office in New York. The second period (1960-1976), reflects a desire to develop Québec's largest presence in the United States with the creation of many instruments as the paradigm of public policy is gradually being built. The third period (1976-1980) is characterized by an awareness of the Québec sovereignists of the importance of the United States. This period is noted for a significant paradigm shift. The fourth period (1980-2001) is marked by the free trade turn. The last period (2000 to present) is characterized by the importance of the new challenges that extend the paradigm of public policy such as security issues after 9/11, but also the energy and environmental issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a unique comparison between the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) in the 2000s, this paper invites to revisit the issue o f change within international organizations (IOs). Using a sociological perspective, it suggests to analyze IOs' reforms through a continuum of organizational strategies -- from survival policies to claims for autonomy -- implemented by agencies to justify their existence and actions. Two moments of the life o f the UNHCR and the ILO are compared : the intervention, in December 2004, o f the UNHCR in favor o f victims o f natural disasters following the tsunami in Southeast Asia, and the launch, in June 1999, of the Decent Work Agenda, by the ILO's Director General. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As implemented by some African States in a non-penal or even extra-judiciary approach of justice, post-conflict processes would certainly nurish international criminal law, which presents currently a very western, individualistic and formal character In this paper, the author summarizes pros and cons of both (penal and not penal) reactions to « the worst crimes », and describes their legal articulation. May criminal law recognize its alternatives ? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The International Criminal Court's (ICC) supposed "neo-colonialism" has been the focus of much discussion based on the fact that the Court's Prosecutor has been almost exclusively interested in cases dealing with the African continent. This paper will try to go beyond the issue of a neo-colonialism as seen exclusively through a critique of the over-representation of African indictees. It argues that if there is a form of neo-colonialism at work it is down to more subtle post-colonial treatment of Africa through the categories of international criminal justice. One needs to situate the relationship between international criminal justice and Africa within a "temps long" of the introduction of modern penal thought and practices on the continent from colonization to the construction of the post-colonial state, particularly as seen in the exclusion/instrumentalization/hybridization of forms of traditional justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many observers were surprised by the scope of the bicentennial celebrations of the war of 1812-1814 organized by the Conservative government. This paper approaches this enterprise as part of an attempt to reconstruct Canada 's national and international identity around a neo-conservative and neocontinentalist world-view. However, an examination of the centennial celebration of this same war, scheduled for 1915, shows that the Harper government 's project is not unique and that this conflict has been previously reinterpreted in order to promote an alternative vision of Canada 's place in the world, this time around liberal values. Indeed, the plans laid out by the Canadian Peace Centenary Association aimed at celebrating the community of identity uniting the "English-speaking peoples" and the peace that North America experienced thanks to rational methods of conflict resolution, notably through a program of popular education. As such, the CPCA was a vehicle for an alternative conception to the imperialist ideas that dominated at the time, and H prefigures the emergence of a more nationalist conception of Canada 's place in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Occidental nation-states' democratic principles have been progressively influencing the way they conduct their international relations. Parliamentary actors, for instance, have been organizing transnational forums in order to debate their perspectives on foreign policy. In Latin America, nevertheless, this trend is limited by the presidential tradition and the intergovernmental character of regionalism. How, thus, can the creation of a parliament in Mercosur in 2006 be explained? This paper aims to evaluate the reasons for the Mercosur Parliament's construction beyond official discourse. The analysis, based on the theoretical framework of the «3 Is» and qualitative interviews, identifies factors related to institutions, interests and ideas which have had a joint role in this political outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at analyzing the emergence of European militaries capabilities--understood as a tool incorporated in a wider security continuum -- as the expansion of European bureaucratic struggles towards new arenas. Drawing on sociological work in EU studies and in International Relations, it presents an account of the EU-UN cooperation as a central locus enabling the construction of CSDP. The argument is articulated through a dual-dynamic of internationalization and autonomization, and on the role-played by the former High Representative for CFSP, Javier Solana, and his staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we introduce the main strengths of Raymond Aron's political judgment concerning the "friend-enemy" polarity. In light of that question, we revisit Aron's political philosophy in order to show its "intention" and the way it accounts for to the tension between domestic politics and international relations, norm and exception, the "meaning " of politics (friendship) and the permanent possibility of war (enmity). Aron's critical analysis of Carl Schmitt's criterion of the "political" turns out to be a particularly revealing example of Aron's approach. The article then identifies the "lessons" to be drawn from the Aronian outlook concerning the understanding of the nature of the political world, its changing configurations and its genuine seriousness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The West, and especially Europe, often understands globalization as a new process that will eventually challenge the domination of traditional politics. This paper will attempt to question the idea of a gradual disappearance of war in human affairs, using Raymond Aron s thoughts on the subject. In the first part we will see how the concepts of "procès" (process) and "drame" (drama) provide a method to analyze historical developments. Then, in a second part, we will apply such concepts to three general causes of conflict (namely passions, economic interests and principles) to show that pacifistic hopes must be refrained. Even the pacification in Europe does not mean an end of war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent hydrocarbons fields discovered in the Brazilian coast are about to completely change the energy strategy of Brazil. This paper aims to analyze the technological, financial and environmental challenges that Brazil will face in the coming years, but also how the country is working to ensure its international insertion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fences of Ceuta and Melilla are an appropriate model to study to what extent governments could harmonize between stated purposes and hidden objectives. Although Spanish government has constantly stated that fences of the two enclaves aim only to stop irregular migration, comprehensive view of various aspects of the issue leads us to conclude the existence of other objectives behind this policy. Spain's policy of fencing the two enclaves' borders reflects a contradictory process in the region. While Mediterranean sphere has witnessed during the last two decades an increasing number of cultural and economic cooperation projects, new real and virtual walls have been built in the region to achieve "Fortress Europe". The paper tries, first, to show the controversial aspects of Ceuta and Melilla fences as the de facto EU southern border. Second, it aims to highlight the changing roles of the two enclaves'fences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than twenty years after the fall of the Berlin wall, a number of cities live with walls or fences which impose spatial and political divisions. This paper intends to focus on the partition of the city of Mitrovica (Kosovo), which dates back to the NATO intervention in 1999. The partition of this city is emblematic of the division of Kosovo in two distinct communities. The project of building a wall within Mitrovica, proposed by the NATO in 2001 encompasses the paradox of the entire intervention in Kosovo: the international goal of promoting a multiethnic Kosovo came to be seen as a policy of ghettoization of the various communities, contributing to the identity crisis that NATO originally wanted to subdue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically examines the purposes and objectives of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (01F). While analysts debate whether the OIF is a hegemonic or counter-hegemonic instrument of statecraft, we argue that it is an institution founded upon the principle of geopolitical ownership of a distinctive geocultural space. Its prime task, with regards to conflict resolution, is to help transfer responsibilities and capabilities from Northern to Southern member states. From this perspective, we contend that the OIF has progressively taken charge of a distinct and necessary geocultural role with regards to international security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Liberia's reconstruction by external actors and it analyses in particular Liberia's Governance and Economic Management Assistance Programme (GEMAP), a program which implies co-signatures by international experts for state expenditures. The paper argues that Liberia is in a paradoxical situation between conditioned partnership and co-sovereignty with its international partners, which is neither voluntary, nor clearly imposed. The author adopts a theoretical framework based en path-dependency to enhance the understanding of this phenomenon. She analyses the basis and the functions of GEMAP to illustrate this situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The latest episodes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict bring further evidence that this conflict cannot be understood solely in political terms. In this paper, we review a significant set of psychological scientific articles that specifically examine this conflict, and we argue that such psychological insights may renew perspectives towards its understanding and, perhaps, resolution. After having set the issue in our introduction, we proceed in three steps, which correspond to the three kinds of insights that we argue could be gained from psychology. First, we consider the perceptions of the conflict by its actors. Second, we consider the dynamics of identity and aggressive behaviour. Third, we consider the effects of violence on mental health. Eventually, a conclusion sums up these insights and opens up the debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is one among many other countries that have recognised the necessity in aligning national scientific progress with that of global development. As China is striding along the path of scientific development with determination and initial success, a key concern confronted by international scientific community is how China will transform existing global scientific atlas. Based on a project carried out in six Chinese cities, this paper mainly employs Ulrich Beck's cosmopolitan theory in examining China's life sciences 'development in the last decade to investigate how Chinese stakeholders have developed a (cosmopolitan) sensibility to rival ways of scientific reasoning, and in what way Chinese stakeholders have contributed to the cosmopolitanization of science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tries to evaluate the contributions of the theoretical researches of the "new political economy" and the "international political economy" in the field of European integration. The former starts from the principle of individual rationality assuming as exogenous the identities and the preferences of agents; the latter analyses the institutional and collective dynamics, in particular the interstate conflicts and compromises or the constructivist power of institutions over the identities and preferences of the agents. The article shows why and how the two political economics must be taken together, in particular to analyze three topics: the institutional products; the organization of powers; the fiscal and social competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aires at measuring the institutional transformation of international organizations following the adoption of the translational governance paradigm, which endeavour, by improving civil society participation, to answer the critics about their illegitimacy, inefficiency and iniquity. We have studied the civil society's integration in the internal functioning of the International Labour Organization and the World Trade Organization, as well as their official discourse on participation during the last decade. Our findings indicate that, in spite of an obvious rhetorical inflation on participation, the principles of efficiency and representative legitimacy remain the most decisive democratic imperatives of transnational governance, at the expense of equity between different sectors of civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper surveys the epistemological debate in International Relations and reassesses criticisms of positivism. Critical approaches have often failed to specify the problem of positivism. It thus remains unclear whether there is a path beyond it. This article focuses on the poststructuralist contribution to this debate, which comes closer to correctly identifying why positivism reifies international relations. Indeed, poststructuralists have correctly identified how the role of difference in the construction of meaning illustrates why our theories are always independent from the world they supposedly describe, although not arbitrary. The article moves away from a construction and argues that recognizing the centrality of difference can instead offer a field on which to conceptualize a new form of analytical and critical rigour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gross human rights violations are often amongst the main causes of armed conflicts. More of these abuses occur during the armed conflict itself. It is widely believed that punishing the crimes that occurred during a conflict constitutes one of the essential measures of effective conflict resolution and post-conflict peace-building. However, when no decisive victory is achieved by any party and the conflict must hence be resolved through negotiations, warlords who are responsible for some of these crimes refuse to agree on any ceasefire except on the condition of an amnesty. The main aim of this article is to find an answer to the dilemma created by this situation : achieve peace and ensure justice for the victims altogether. This paper deals with this tricky issue, focusing on three specific African countries : Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Uganda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an analysis of the modus operandi of the contemporary historical block while focusing on the issue of Internet governance. It develops a multidisciplinary theoretical framework inspired by the Critical Legal Theory and the Neo-gramscian perspective in order to show the significance of such a diffuse form of power which state-centered perspectives bide the subtlety of. It sheds light on the power that can be obtained from the regulatory control of communication systems, and of the instrumentalization of law in reproducing the social status quo favorable to dominant actors within the international system. It however argues that Internet not only reinforces the power of the dominant classes but also potentially empowers counter-hegemonic social forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to explore the implications of the multilayered patchwork of investment agreements for theories of global governance and international relations. In particular, it examines more closely the concept of intersecting regime and its applicability to the case of international investment rules. It argues that rules on investment constitute a specific kind of intersecting regime that has not yet been considered in that literature. The case study describes the problem of overlapping rules in the governance of foreign direct investment in the hemisphere and demonstrates how these overlaps are due to competing legalization projects stemming from different political visions about the regulation of foreign investment ; how it is manifested in sets of overlapping and contradictory norms and rules ; and discusses the effects of this institutional overlap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the authors recast the contributions of two poststructuralist theorists of International Relations, Michael Dillon and Julian Reid, to the critique of global liberal governance. Thus, they locate these contributions in the context of the liberal moment of the last decade of the 20th century. Questioning Dillon and Reid's problématique evolving around theories of biopower, war and strategy, the authors expose this project's tensions by focusing on its critique of liberal categories, on the ambiguities inherent to a so-called complex epistemology, and finally on the functionalism of their model. In conclusion, they present the sketch of an alternative conceptualisation which aims at overcoming these theoretical limits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]