Search

The political crisis in Macedonia deepens and it is far from finding a proper and longlasting solution. The opposition and position parties after the December 11 elections accuse each other for corruption and treason, which prevents the formation of the government and its focusing towards Euro-Atlantic processes and democratic principles. In addition, in this paper we are going to emphasize the role of the political elites and their political ethics, taking in consideration their responsibility for the long lasting transition of the country and their failure to fulfill the recommendations of the European Commission for opening accession negotiations. For better explanation of the abovementioned and for creating a clearer picture regarding the development in Macedonia, we are going to analyze the role of the international community in facilitating negotiations for ending the political crisis that threatens the democracy and the stability of the country and the region, taking into consideration the effects of the crisis on the country's economy and worsening of the interethnic relations. For reaching the desired results within this paper, we are going to analyze the Przino agreement and its implementation by the signatory political parties, the follow up on this agreement and the currents political situation, which involves the president of the country and the Albanian political factor in Macedonia. In the end of this paper, we will give our recommendations for possible solutions of the crisis for ending the instability in the country and will providing more opportunities and prosperity for its citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference paper about democracy and defense policy in Brazil is presented which was prepared for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, from August 30-September 2, 2012. The paper discusses topics including goals of Brazil's foreign policy, Brazil's civilmilitary relations, and the role of the Brazilian legislature in defense issues.

The United States contracts foreign democracy assistance work out to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Although this is a long-standing practice, rooted in development assistance norms, the efficacy of such delegation remains to be determined due to inconsistent and methodologically flawed evaluation practices. This paper examines the manner in which nongovernmental organizations - as democracy assistance contractors - seek to deliver on their commitments to donor states and evaluate the effectiveness of their democracy assistance endeavors. The paper finds that NGO democracy assistance practices seek direct impact in terms of capacity building at the individual level, yet report on impact at the state level. NGO evaluations that ignore individual level change undermine the ability of states to hold NGO contractors accountable. A new approach to democracy assistance evaluation is proposed that seeks to increase NGO accountability through a shift in focus to individual level analysis and data collection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International efforts to promote peace and democracy in conflict areas create a great deal of local resistance. International and domestic actors enter into a bargaining relationship whereby each attempts to promote its own values, norms and practices, extract most concessions from the other side and resist giving in to pressures. The end result is a condition of hybrid peace governance, one in which liberal and illiberal norms, institutions and actors exist alongside each other in a context where violence, actual or potential, may continue to play an important role. Such a hybrid political, economic and social order is a far cry from the liberal idea of peace based on legitimate and accountable democratic institutions, the rule of law, human rights, free media, market economy and an open civil society. This paper accounts for the emergence of hybrid peace governance and develops a typology based on the war-peace and liberal-illiberal spectra. Furthermore, this paper discusses the implications of hybrid peace governance, and in particular whether it may avoid the pitfalls of top-down liberal peacebuilding and provide new opportunities for a more sustainable, locally engrained version of peace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of UN peacebuilding efforts in post-conflict countries has grown dramatically in recent years. However the politics of contributing peacekeeping forces to these UN operations still tends to be taken for granted. Where do peacekeepers come from, and what is the politics involved in countries contributing armed forces to the UN? These are some of the questions that this paper sets out to answer. As the global deployment of UN peacekeepers is now famously second only to that of American armed forces, understanding the dynamics of peacekeeping contribution has become a necessity. This paper sets out to understand UN peacekeeping contribution in the aggregate, and to understand the place of such contributions in the context of global governance. This paper also offers a critique of existing theories of peacekeeping contribution. The implications of these massive new deployments of military personnel are sketched out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the declining Austro-Hungarian Empire, Otto Bauer's work "The Nationalities Question and Social Democracy" (1907) appeared, within the Marxist political thought about the concept of nation, as a theoretical proposal about the issue of peripheral nationalisms. On the eve of the First World War, the Habsburg monarchy was facing a crisis of identity, in which Czechs, Croats, Poles and others were aspiring to more autonomy, and in some cases, to independence. It was in this context that Bauer presented socialism as a solution to the question of nationalities, particularly in Austro-Hungarian Empire. It is the aim of this paper to analyse Bauer's theory of nation, not merely within Austro-Marxism thinking and the political context of the Habsburg Empire in early 20th century, but more particularly with the aspiration of highlighting constructive ideas of multiculturalism presented by this author, applied to potentially explosive situations in terms of ethnic or nationalist conflict. Furthermore, which features of his theory can be linked to political and institutional nation-building processes? Does Bauer's theory can still have interest for the study of the national question? These are the questions to which this paper will try to give an answer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey's accession to the European Union has been the subject of much debate and controversy across regions. However, diverse governmental and non-governmental actors, interviewed by us in May 2010, emphasized the distinction between the EU accession process from actual membership and the profound impact that this process has already had on the country. This paper draws on interviews and meetings conducted with political officials and civil society actors at the national and local level and members to explore how the EU process affects democratization efforts in Turkey, particularly in the Kurdish region. The paper applies the two-level game to explore how domestic debates regarding identity issues, women's empowerment, the role of religion in politics and local development are all framed as essential to democratization in an effort to appeal to wider domestic and international audiences. While many different political and civil society actors coopt the term "democracy" in presenting their own demands, they are quick and forceful to downplay the democratic credentials of political opponents. We work to parse out the different stakeholders, their unique and shared perspectives on democracy, their individual investment in the EU process and commitment to actual accession. We focus on the following question: what is the impact of the EU accession process on democratization in Turkey? We present our argument using evidence from interviews conducted at the national and local level in Turkey, newspaper accounts, EU reports, and additional secondary sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the intellectual origins of NATO operational planning doctrine and how it has migrated to other international organisations such as the EU and the UN. It argues that some of the key concepts it contains - centres of gravity, decisive points, lines of operations and end-?states - are increasingly difficult to apply in the modern crisis response operations armed forces are tasked to undertake. In this sense, doctrinal ideas stretching back to the days of Clausewitz are coming near their point of culmination not because they are invalidated but because political guidance no longer allows for them. The paper concludes with some thoughts on the implications of this state of affairs in terms of the strategic instrumentality of crisis response operations and the structure of politico-?military relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As global security concerns in which technology plays ambivalent roles are proliferating, it is timely to revisit the post-war decades when liberals and realists alike sought to grasp the impact of technology on international politics. Combining intellectual history, science and technology studies, political theory, and International Relations (IR) theory, this paper examines visions of technology in liberal and realist thought with a particular view to their role in bolstering arguments for global (security) governance. While liberals are often seen to emphasize the role of nonmilitary technological innovation in growing interdependence, which they interpret as both a motivation for and a harbinger of wider spatial security architectures, realism's engagement with (military) technology is often reduced to a weapons-astools approach. Recent scholarship has complicated these beliefs. Exploring the fertile but often disregarded overlap between the liberal and realist traditions, this paper analyses the conceptions and roles of technology in the political thought of Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) and John H. Herz (1908-2005). Particularly in the wake of the nuclear revolution, both scholars developed a distinct global orientation in which the interrelations between technology, modernity, democracy, freedom, and individuality were critical. It is argued that Russell and Herz's visions of technology and (global) politics are (i) insightful and of considerable contemporary relevance, (ii) that their resemblance and common liberal ancestry call for a less rigid attitude to the "isms" of IR theory, and (iii) that in important ways they anticipated contemporary critical and reflexive approaches to technology and politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both Russia and Venezuela are rentier states; their economies rely on windfall profits from oil and gas. The majority of literature argues that for rentier states high oil profits tend to result in poor economic performance, unbalanced growth, weakly institutionalized states, and authoritarian regimes. Thad Dunning's Crude Diplomacy argues that some Latin American countries such as Venezuela have experienced an increase in democracy when crude prices rise. Dunning argues that the positive relationship has to do with a political bargain between the elite and society, particularly the role of minimal taxes on the elite in non-oil sectors and increased spending by the government on social programs. This paper applies Dunning's hypothesis to Russia and asks: What factors enable some resource abundant states to utilize their natural resources to promote democracy? Does Dunning's hypothesis work for Russia? I will consider the 2000s through the financial crisis of 2008, when Presidents Chavez of Venezuela and Vladimir Putin of Russia consolidated their power amid high oil profits. The first section of the paper reviews the debate in the rentier state literature. The second section places Dunning's work on Venezuela within this literature. The third section explores Russia's policies concerning taxes and social welfare spending. The paper concludes by comparing the experiences or Russia and Venezuela. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China’s hosting of Olympic Games has caused great controversy. Facing criticisms and pressure from international community, Chinese government must defend China’s national interests on the one hand and demonstrate its respect for human rights and democracy, its commitment to the improvement of human rights conditions and the promotion of democracy, and its responsiveness to international public opinions on the other hand. Chinese government assigns different priorities to different national interests and adopts different foreign policies accordingly. This paper is aimed to explore the foreign policies taken by Chinese government toward issues of different importance. Yet Chinese government is by no means the sole actor on the arena. Driven by patriotic enthusiasm, Chinese people not only exert great pressure on Chinese government to make it take hard-line foreign policies, but also take action to defend China’s national interests themselves. Consequently, Chinese government must react to domestic demands when making foreign policies. This paper is also designed to investigate the interaction between Chinese government and Chinese people in “Olympic Diplomacy”. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey's decision on its role in the Iraq war in 2003 illustrates the power -- and limits -- of parliaments as actors in foreign policy. Traditionally, national assemblies are not seen as important players in the foreign policies of parliamentary democracies. Instead, the cabinet is generally considered the locus of policymaking authority. Parliaments are seen as forums for debate, and if the government enjoys a parliamentary majority, legislatures are expected to support the cabinet, if they are brought into the process at all. In Turkey, the president and the military have also been considered more important actors than parliament. But the March 1, 2003 vote by the Turkish parliament to not allow the United States to use Turkey as a base challenges this conventional wisdom on parliamentary influence (in addition to interest-based explanations of foreign policy). This paper examines this decision in the context of the role of legislatures in the foreign policies of parliamentary democracies and explores the relationships between parliamentary influence, leadership, intraparty politics, and public opinion. This paper uses this case to offer ideas on when and how parliaments are influential in foreign policy. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I examine the impact of global civil society in world politics through investigating its effect on Intergovernmental Organization (IGO) democracy. In so doing I first clarify the conceptual framework of the democratic deficit in IGOs given that there is no academic consensus in defining the concept. Based on a minimalist definition, I employ the outside-in model and the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) to explore the influence of global civil society over improving the democratic deficit in IGOs. I argue that weaknesses of global civil society decrease its role in improving IGO democracy, though it does have a positive impact in the process. In particular, three important factors in global civil society contribute to the lagging democratic development in IGOs: different levels of knowledge and expertise in NGOs; the marginalization of women, southern, and rural NGOs; the accountability problem of NGOs themselves. The paper highlights the strengths and weaknesses of global civil society in changing the landscape of world politics. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Confronting terrorism from within as well as from without is a fraught and complex task for any government. First and foremost, there is the crucial challenge of holding the balance between public safety and fundamental democratic liberties and values. Terrorism shapes interactions among political actors over long periods of time through a dynamic process in which violence alters the conditions under which it initially occurs. Many consequences are unintended, but it is rare that the government's responses in countering terrorism do not alter political institutions, values, and behavior, as well as the overall function of society. This paper will argue that it is critically important to assess the effects, not only of terrorism, but of counter-terrorism on social and political structures as they relate to stability and democracy. It is this paper's view that certain models of counter-terrorism policy and rhetoric can actually do more harm than good. Drawing on the UK's post-7/7 counter-terrorism experiences this paper will try to answer the question of how does a society assess how many of its values should be surrendered in order to increase protection from terrorist attacks, and whether the resulting policies should preserve both value-driven politics, as well as liberal democracy on which these policies are based. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research identifies sources of interpersonal trust in Latin America by exploring why the most developed countries in the Americas, namely Canada and the United States, show higher levels of interpersonal trust than their neighboring countries. The findings of this paper suggest that Latin America's high economic inequality poses a challenge to democracy because it triggers interpersonal mistrust. This paper also finds that in Latin America interpersonal trust, rather than civic participation, ideology or trust in government, promotes citizens' support for the implementation of public policies aimed to close the gap between rich and poor. Taken together, the results suggest a vicious circle between Latin America's historically high economic inequality, low interpersonal trust, and low support for redistributive policies within certain segments of the population, especially the well-off. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to lay the foundations for conceptualizing a normative conception of "the political" in a manner that is consistent with the prospects for the democratization of transnational organizations. In order for theories of transnational justice to establish themselves as critical theories concerned with issues of political justice, they must contain an explicit theory of the political. Without a coherent conception of the political that takes into account transnational relations, claims for political justice lodged on transnational levels cannot be adequately defended. This leaves theories of transnational justice open to criticism by statist theories that privilege a conception of the political that is bound to the sovereign nation-state alone. In this paper, I will argue for a concept of the political that is decoupled from the concept of the sovereign state. This does not mean to say that the sovereign state is not political, but that within the contemporary context, the sovereign state is no longer, if it ever was, the sole site of political struggle. Such a concept of the political would have normative implications for democrats. If the political exists with relation to transnational organizations, democrats must inquire into the condition and prospects for democratic politics beyond the frame of the nation-state. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contrary to a long held belief in post-authoritarian Taiwan in the omnipotence of democracy to ensure the island's autonomy in the face of China, this paper argues that toward the end of the second Chen Shui-bian administration the 'marginal utility' of Taipei's use of democracy in garnering international sympathy has been drastically decreasing; recent examples include its failure to persuade major members of the 'liberal democratic community', the United States in particular, to support or at least acquiesce in its proposed referendum on joining the United Nations under the name of Taiwan held alongside the presidential election in March 2008. The underlying reason, however, is not found in the blame game between Taipei and Washington as to whether the United States is bowing to Chinese pressure at the expense of Taiwan's democratic deepening, or Taiwanese ruling elites' tactic of mobilising mass support is unnecessarily provocative which could end up drawing the US into an unwanted conflict with China. Rather, this paper suggests that the quarrel is indicative of the emergence of a new standard of civilisation based on the degree of democratic-ness in world politics. While mainstream security discourse in Taiwan has been deeply embedded in the binary structure of a democratic, peace-loving Taiwan versus an authoritarian, war-like China, in urging Taiwanese leaders to 'responsibly' strike a balance between promoting their political values and protecting their people's vital interests, senior US officials too unwittingly reproduce the rhetoric of democracy as civilisation. Unable to comprehend the operation of this civilised/barbarian trope in which Taiwan as a 'maturing' democracy (meaning potentially trouble-making) has been located between the West and the rest for the purpose of strategic appropriation, Taipei mistakenly believes that it has occupied the moral high ground vis-a-vis the great powers to 'go it alone' as seen in the UN referendum. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using John B. Thomson's book Political Scandal: Power and Visibility in the Media Age as a model, this paper will examine three late twenteith century scandals, Watergate, Iran-Contra, and the Lewinsky Affair to determine how and under what circumstances scandal impacts on American Foreign Policy. If Thompson is correct, what he labels the media age and other modern developments have created an environment where scandal cannot be marginalized and treated as aberrations. Scandal is part of an accelerating pattern of political discourse that has a particularly powerful impact on liberal democracy and foreign policy creation. Increasingly, foreign policy decisions are distorted by domestic scandal. When we factor in some interesting American cultural variables the problem of scandal and foreign policy becomes even more acute. Using Thompson's scandal typology: money, power, and sex, this paper explores whether some types of scandal have grater impact on foreign policy decisions as well as the manner in which scandal distorts foreign policy decisions in harmful ways. Finally, the paper will explore the question of whether the quickened pace of scandals in the United States in the Bush administration is a harbinger of permanent change in the dynamics of American Foreign Policy. Indeed fear of scandal may become more important than external threat. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is written in response to John Horgan and Michael J. Boyle, whose article, 'The Case Against a "Critical Terrorism Studies"', appeared in the last issue of the journal Critical Studies on Terrorism. The paper addresses the claim that the call for a greater emphasis on state terrorism by liberal democratic states in terrorism studies constitutes a 'reinventing of the wheel'. I show that there continues to be a selective application of definitions of terrorism so that state terrorism in which liberal democratic states are complicit continues to be widely ignored. This results in considerable gaps in the literature, which I identify. I argue that the absence of state terrorism by liberal democratic states from debate results from a complex range of factors that influence scholars across the social sciences, which I discuss in detail. I then show that a credible research agenda exists and is already being pursued by Critical Terrorism Studies scholars, and that that this goes well being simply reinventing the wheel. I make the case that headway can be made through collaborations that transcend disciplinary boundaries. Finally I show that where work on state terrorism by liberal democratic states is concerned, an explicit aim is to explore the use of state terrorism within the broader context of the foreign policy objectives of liberal democratic states. Those objectives have consistently involved widening access to resources and markets in the global South, and competing for political and economic dominance. I show that a priority of those working on state terrorism by liberal democratic states should be to offer alternatives to foreign policy practices that involve state terrorism and other forms of repression. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to initiate the discussion by exploring to which extent it is possible to talk about security governance in Mercosur—the Common Market of the South created in 1991 by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.For the discussion of security governance in the Southern Cone, this paper distinguishes between three types of security issues that have been the subject of regional security policy coordination. Firstly, when Mercosur was an integration project and prior to its foundation, leaders opted for a broad definition of security that encompassed the success of the democratic transitions and domestic civil-military relations, as well as insertion in the world economy. A second set of security issues is formed by more traditional threats, which indeed have long been part of the Latin American security agenda. These are the issues associated with the use or threat of violence and military force, territorial integrity and sovereignty, and questions of armaments, balances of power and nuclear development. Finally, especially since 9-11 but also before then, a new set of issues have been incorporated into the regional security agenda. Among these are the so-called new threats to security, which include 'transnationalised' domestic threats such as drugs traffic, illegal traffic of weapons, criminal networks with transnational connections, environmental issues, and others. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the concept ‘interiorization’ (Poulantzas, 1974)provides us with a subtler understanding of the interrelated spatial fixesof the contemporary IPE that overcomes the more or less Kautskian/Leninistand Supranational/Intergovernmental dualisms that continue to characterisethe field. With regards to the economic structure, the concept allows usto grasp how it is possible for European capitalism to be subsumeddirectly within the social relations of US capitalism whilst stillmaintaining independent bases of competition. With regards topolitico-ideological structures, the concept allows us to understand why atransnational neo-liberal hegemony at the same time is a distinctly UShegemony, whereby the US state increasingly displaces externalities on therest of the world, including Europe, without this undermining theconsensual aspects of transnational relations. In a concluding section,the paper also demonstrates that the concept of interiorization is centralto the (terminal?) crisis of European social democracy: A Europeanbourgeoisie ‘interiorized’ with American capital is increasingly alienatedfrom European social formations and as a result is not amenable to theclass compromises which social democracy presupposes. This in turnundermines the capacity of social democracy to perform a ‘politics ofmediation’ over a wide range of cleavage structures. This undermining isdangerous as it has been essential to the very essence of European (socialand Christian) democracy in the post World War II period (cf. vanKersbergen, 1995). ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the contentious issues of Turkey's accession to the EU. While it is clear that all candidate countries have to fulfill the formal criteria of joining the EU there seem to exist also informal criteria that in the case of Turkey cause some hesitation as regards Turkey's accession to the EU. The paper takes under review arguments that are most often voiced in connection with strong reluctance to Turkish membership in the EU: the Muslim faith, not being a European country, geopolitical risks, size of the country, democracy and human rights and the issue of Cyprus. Each argument is analyzed separately and shows how it may be viewed from a different perspective and how drawbacks may also be seen as advantages. The paper argues that Turkish accession to the EU would be an asset to the EU and that the EU bears a responsibility towards the world at large and especially towards its neighborhood. EU's enlargement is in the end a political decision and Europe's political elites bear the primary responsibility for European unification and peace and development in the region. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been credited for developing a diplomatic code of conduct that has helped sustain relative stability since the 1960s. This code of conduct has eventually become one of the foundations for regional order and institution-building in the wider Asia-Pacific. But these norms or the ASEAN Way have also allowed the subregion’s post-colonial states to engage in “state-building” projects focusing on internal security and economic development which have sometimes been at the expense of basic human rights.But much has changed over forty years. There is a small, yet growing transnational civil society network in the area and some Southeast Asian states are making the (painful) transition to democracy. Moreover, ASEAN’s current rhetoric emphasizes the hope of creating a “caring” and “people-centered” organization. The words democracy and rule of law have likewise found their way in various recommendations and in some official declarations. Yet the prospect of ASEAN’s democratization and the creation of an effective regional human rights mechanism remain unclear if not bleak. Through an approach that brings together insights from political science, sociology, history and area studies, the paper examines the processes and mechanisms of institutional change at the national and regional levels in Southeast Asia. It also scrutinizes the growing tensions between the changing state in Southeast Asia and ASEAN. ASEAN had, for the longest time, been an elite-driven organization. Its norms and principles have allowed its members to proceed along different state-building trajectories relatively unencumbered by demands from its neighbors. Yet by allowing its member countries to “diverge”, ASEAN and its members are faced with the growing challenge of coordination, cooperation and harmonization of policies and values in the midst of growing extra-regional and domestic demands. The paper traces the institutional foundations for denying human rights in selected Southeast Asian states and looks at their effects on a proposed regional mechanism for human rights in the subregion. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is now considered important for IR to better understand how states as complex collectives come to act on the world stage. Toward that end, this paper examines how the United States reached a collective decision to attack Iraq and what it means and does not mean to call that decision a collective one. In the process, the paper will illustrate how a critical realist perspective permits a synthesis of two approaches normally considered opposed: political economy and discourse analysis. The decision-making process will be shown to have been a de-centered one, dependent on rhetorical maneuvers among elite actors within a field of structured power relations and against a background of public inattention. The picture will hardly accord with the traditional IR conception of nation states as simple rational actors pursuing clear national interests. Called into question as well is the traditional Kantian confidence in the moral behavior of democracies. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]