Number of results to display per page
Search Results
52172. The Dialectics of Globalisation
- Author:
- Henri Vogt
- Publication Date:
- 01-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA)
- Abstract:
- One of the central objectives of the ever-expanding entrepreneurship of globalisation literature has been to formulate a single, concise definition of the phenomenon of globalisation. Needless to say, this has usually proved a hugely difficult task, if not an impossible one. The strategy of the ensuing pages will therefore be somewhat different. I will start off with an explicit idea of the multiplicity of 'globalisation', that is, from the assumption (or fact) that globalisation covers such a wide range of different issues, attitudes, processes, policies, destinies, and people perceive it in so many different ways that any simple definition of it is doomed to be virtually useless. There is, in other words, no need to bring all these different features and views under a single totalising explication. By contrast, the best way to conceptualise the notion is to do it with the help of all those definitional problems, controversies, disputes and even paradoxes that it seems to entail – that is, with an explicit vagueness of the notion in mind, a vagueness that also implies a great deal of dynamism and continuous change.
- Topic:
- Development, Globalization, International Political Economy, and Nationalism
52173. A Hole in the Wall? Dimensionalism and the EU's "New Neighbourhood Policy"
- Author:
- Hiski Haukkala
- Publication Date:
- 06-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA)
- Abstract:
- The successive rounds of enlargements are a factor shaping the European Union. The previous enlargements have all resulted in the broadening of the EU's agenda, changes in the institutions and decision-making, as well as shaping the way in which the world external to the Union has perceived the European integration and its different manifestations, be they institutions or policies. There is dialectic at work, where the “shadow of enlargement” forces the European Union and its member states to adapt its own dynamic to meet the changing circumstances. This adaptation – together with the growing geographic exposure to new neighbours and regions – in turn create an opening and a demand for further enlargements, which then start the dialectic anew.
- Topic:
- International Organization and International Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- Europe
52174. From Yugoslavia to Iraq: Russia's Foreign Policy and the Effects of Multipolarity
- Author:
- Vadim Kononenko
- Publication Date:
- 06-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA)
- Abstract:
- The aim of this study is to analyze the evolution and political implications of Russia's doctrine of multipolarity. Multipolarity emerged as one of the earliest doctrinal solutions to the post-Soviet Russian foreign policy dilemma, and has remained essential for Russia's strategic behavior since the early 1990s. The multipolarity doctrine describes the post-Cold War world and Russia's place in it. As I argue in this study, Russian “multipolarity” – (the idea of the multipolar world; the vision of Russia as one of its 'poles'; and the understanding of the principles of international politics in the strict terms of realpolitik) is not an ideological resource for Russia's foreign policy but rather, a result of learning how to secure the country' s international status given the scarcity of foreign policy resources available, and the drastic change in the international institutional position of Russia. To sum up the central argument of this study: the multipolarity of Russian foreign policy – both a doctrinal strategy and foreign policy practice – has evolved as a template-like foreign policy approach to solve Russia's strategic dilemma since the demise of the Soviet Union: how to secure its place in the new international structure and compensate for the loss of the international arrangements that disappeared with Soviet might and the bipolar international system as a whole.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy and Diplomacy
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan, Russia, Iraq, Europe, Middle East, Asia, Soviet Union, and Balkans
52175. Western strategies and the prospect of reforms in the Middle East
- Author:
- Heidi Huuhtanen
- Publication Date:
- 07-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA)
- Abstract:
- Reforms in the Middle East have been on the agenda of almost all relevant international organizations and political actors during the recent years. This has been due to the concentration after 9/11 on the domestic conditions in the Muslim world as a source of radicalization. Concentration of domestic problems is a positive step as it has broadened the discussion of sources of security threats and questioned the current policies towards Middle East states and societies. In the public debate the security threat posed by Muslim terrorism to the international community is still largely analyzed out of the domestic context. Western policies and the Israel-Palestinian conflict are seen as the primary reason for radicalization. Muslim relations to the West as well as the issue of Israel surely have their part to play in the domestic setting of the Middle Eastern states and societies, but most analysts and even Islamists themselves agree, that American and Israeli politics – or indeed any other external factors – explain very little of the support for Islamism or radicalization. Instead the radicalization originates in specific political and socio-economic problems in the Muslim countries and the phenomena must be therefore seen as part of intra-Muslim political grievances. External reasons can only add to these already existing internal problems.
- Topic:
- Civil Society and Development
- Political Geography:
- Middle East and Israel
52176. Dialogue of Civilisations? The Case of Nepad
- Author:
- Henri Vogt
- Publication Date:
- 07-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA)
- Abstract:
- This paper has two parallel aims. First of all, it seeks to present and critically discuss some central aspects of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) initiative. A programme of the African Union and officially launched in October 2001, NEPAD is a comprehensive, ambitious framework for changing the negative course of development in Africa and for ending the increasing marginalisation of the continent in the global era. In the words of its founding document, 'the Programme is anchored on the determination of Africans to extricate themselves and the continent from the malaise of underdevelopment and exclusion in a globalising world' (§1).
- Topic:
- Development, Government, International Cooperation, International Organization, International Political Economy, and Regional Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- Africa
52177. The emperor has some clothes on: fairy tales, scary tales and Weapons of Mass Destruction
- Author:
- Toby Archer
- Publication Date:
- 07-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA)
- Abstract:
- The debate on the invasion of Iraq revolved around so-called “Weapons of Mass Destruction” (WMD). Thousands of lives were lost, hundreds of billions of dollars spent, alliances fractured, and international relations thrown into turmoil. The debates raged over whether WMD were there or not; whether the UN inspectors should have more time to find them or not; whether Iraq having or seeking WMD justified invasion or not, amongst other issues. There were a myriad of differing positions on the value of the war, but the idea that WMD are a distinct and special class of weapons has remained essentially uncontested.
- Topic:
- Politics, United Nations, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
- Political Geography:
- Iraq and Middle East
52178. EU Emissions Trading: Challenges and Implications of National Implementation
- Author:
- Jacqueline Karas and Fiona Mullins
- Publication Date:
- 11-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Chatham House
- Abstract:
- Emissions trading is central to the European Union's (EU) strategy to meet its climate change commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. However, implementing the EU Directive on emissions trading ('the Directive') is proving extremely challenging for the governments involved. In particular, governments have to prepare National Allocation Plans (NAPs) for distributing emissions allowances to industry within a very tight timeframe. More than 12,000 industrial installations across the EU and accession countries will participate in the trading system.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Markets, and Treaties and Agreements
- Political Geography:
- Europe
52179. Angola's Future
- Publication Date:
- 11-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Chatham House
- Abstract:
- Angola is no longer at war except in its Cabinda province. This report summarizes the British-Angola Forum 2003 conference which focused on whether there was a peace dividend and what the post-conflict priorities for reconstruction and development should be. The opportunities and challenges are many, but many speakers emphasized how slow post-conflict democratic change is. Key issues examined in the British-Angola Forum's 2002 conference were as pertinent as ever. The confrontation between transparency and sovereignty continues to resonate especially.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution and Development
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Europe
52180. Living with the Megapower - Implications of the War on Terrorism: A report on the series of consultations held at Chatham House July 2002-July 2003
- Publication Date:
- 09-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Chatham House
- Abstract:
- Shortly after the attacks on the United States on 11 September 2001, research staff at Chatham House held a meeting to consider how the Institute should respond. The immediate reaction had involved a special issue of The World To day, published in October 2001, and researchers had given numerous media interviews and commentaries, but there was a strong feeling that '9/11', as it soon came to be called, demanded a more measured and analytical response .
- Topic:
- Security, Foreign Policy, Agriculture, Diplomacy, International Cooperation, International Law, and Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- United States