Epistemic policy networks in the European Union’s CBRN risk mitigation policy

This paper offers insights into an innovative and currently flagship approach of the European Union (EU) to the mitigation of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) risks. Building on its long-time experience in the CBRN field, the EU has incorporated methods familiar to the students of international security governance: it is establishing regional networks of experts and expertise. CBRN Centers of Excellence, as they are officially called, aim to contribute to the security and safety culture in different parts of Africa, the Middle East, South East Asia, and South East Europe, in the broadly construed CBRN area. These regional networks represent a modern form of security cooperation, which can be conceptualized as an epistemic policy networks approach. It offers flexibility to the participating states, which have different incentives to get involved. At the same, however, the paper identifies potential limitations and challenges of epistemic policy networks in this form

Media Pluralism: European Regulatory Policies and the Case of Central Europe

In recent years, media pluralism has become the key theme of media policy debates both at the EU and national levels. This article examines normative grounds of media pluralism and considers different approaches to the issue. It also maps out regulatory concepts and responses at the level of EU institutions and outlines the main difficulties of regulatory implications stemming from the lack of a coherent approach. Finally, this contribution briefly studies to what extent the main problems affecting media pluralism in three Central European Member States (Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia) are addressed by national regulatory regimes and whether these provide sufficient framework, subsidiary and complementary to EU rules. It is argued, that media pluralism has to be evaluated in the light of strong requirements of pluralistic democracy, and not simply by reference to some fragmented criteria such as effective competition in media markets.media; Poland; Czech Republic; Slovakia; regulatory politics

The External Relations of the European Union towards the United States: How Relevant is the European Union in Constraining or Replacing U.S. Hegemony?, Jean Monnet/Robert Schuman Paper Series, Vol. 1 No. 3, September 2002

(From the introduction). The study object of this paper is the external relations of the European Union towards the United States. The core question of this essay is not the U.S. hegemony by itself; in fact, both parties agree on a myriad of issues, share common values, and keep intensive and active economic and political exchanges. The 1950s and 1960s were witness to the shining power of the United States and Europe was willing to receive U.S. aid through the Marshall Plan. The problem arises when U.S. policies affect Europe and the EU is not able to provide concrete actions to reverse them. At this point, one inquiry is the focus of the analysis: How relevant is the EU in constraining or replacing U.S. hegemony? A simple answer is insufficient to shed light on this question. Most scholars underline the shortcomings of the EU and the influence of the United States in determining EU external relations. However, the EU in 2002 is quite different from the European Community at the beginning of the 1990s. Although reactive to international and regional, political and economic stimuli, the EU has forged informal and formal practices to provide coordinated positions. Depending on the specific area, the EU’s performance is more or less successful. Whereas in economic issues the EU has been able to respond to the U.S. in trade disputes, in political and security affairs the panorama is mostly discouraging. Accordingly, the hypothesis of this paper is: The more the EU is able to encapsulate the interests of the fifteen member states in a common front, the greater are the opportunities for more beneficial agreements with the United States, and to constrain or replace the actions or inactions of U.S. hegemony. In order to support this proposition, four areas of the transatlantic relationship are examined in this paper. The first part focuses on the current theoretical debate on the transatlantic relationship. Secondly, the paper analyzes the different natures of both foreign policies, emphasizing the problems associated with the European (intergovernmental and supranational) model to design its external relations. The third section describes the relative balance between the US and the EU on economic terms, and considers the benefits of having international institutions to regulate trade practices. Finally, the imbalance in security affairs is depicted, highlighting the new institutional developments in Europe to participate in regional crises with or without (but not against) the United States

A review of Australian approaches for monitoring, assessing and reporting estuarine condition: III. Evaluation against international best practice and recommendations for the future

In this final component of a three-part review, we present a national synthesis and evaluation of approaches for monitoring, assessing and reporting estuarine condition across Australia. Progress is evaluated against objective criteria that together provide a model of international best practice. We critically assess the limitations, inconsistencies and gaps that are evident across Australian jurisdictions, and identify common obstacles to future progress. Major strengths and successes are also highlighted, together with specific examples of best practice from around Australia that are transferable to other States and beyond. Significant obstacles to greater national coordination of monitoring and reporting practices include inconsistent spatial scales of management, pluralistic governance structures and the lack of any overarching legislation. Nonetheless, many perceptible advances have been made over the last decade across Australia in estuarine monitoring and health assessment, and there is great potential for further progress. Finally, we provide a list of recommendations to address some of the most pressing limitations and gaps, and support improved future monitoring, assessment and reporting for Australian estuaries

European integration and the social science of EU studies: the disciplinary politics of a subfield

This article takes the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome as an opportunity to reflect upon half a century of academic discourse about the EU and its antecedents. In particular, it illuminates the theoretical analysis of European integration that has developed within political science and international studies broadly defined. It asks whether it is appropriate to map, as might be tempting, the intellectual 'progress' of the field of study against the empirical evolution of its object (European integration/the EU). The argument to be presented here is that while we can, to some extent, comprehend the evolution of academic thinking about the EU as a reflex to critical shifts in the 'real world' of European integration ('externalist' drivers), it is also necessary to understand 'internalist' drivers of theoretical discourse on European integration/the EU. The article contemplates two such 'internalist' components that have shaped and continue to shape the course of EU studies: scholarly contingency (the fact that scholarship does not proceed with free agency, but is bound by various conditions) and disciplinary politics (the idea that the course of academic work is governed by power games and that there are likely significant disagreements about best practice and progress in a field). In terms of EU studies, the thrust of disciplinary politics tends towards an opposition between 'mainstreaming' and 'pluralist versions' of the political science of EU studies. The final section explores how, in the face of emerging monistic claims about propriety in the field, an effective pluralist political science of the EU might be enhanced

The EU as a global-regional actor in security and peace: the EU-GRASP final integrative report

This report is a final product of a research project, called EU-GRASP that aimed at a better understanding of the EU’s role in regional and global peace and security issues. Undertaking this was a fascinating and challenging task, especially as the subject matter was, for various reasons, a real moving target

The New Age of Hybridity and Clash of Norms: China, BRICS and Challenges of Global Governance in a Post-liberal International Order

This article sketches an analytical framework to account for new patterns of global governance. We characterize the emergent post-liberal international order as a new age of hybridity, which signifies that no overriding set of paradigms dominate global governance. Instead we have a complex web of competing norms, which creates new opportunities as well as major elements of instability, uncertainty and anxiety. In the age of hybridity, non-Western great powers (led by China) play an increasingly counter-hegemonic role in shaping new style multilateralism – ontologically fragmented, normatively inconsistent, and institutionally incoherent. We argue that democracy paradox constitutes the fundamental issue at stake in this new age of hybridity. On the one hand, global power transitions seem to enable ‘democratization of globalization’ by opening more space to the hitherto excluded non-Western states to make their voices heard. On the other hand, emerging pluralism in global governance is accompanied by the regression of liberal democracy and spread of illiberalism that enfeeble ‘globalization of democratization.

AFRICA'S UNFINISHED BUSINESS: BUILDING SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SYSTEMS

This paper addresses four questions: · What lessons can be drawn from the "rise and decline" of NARS in Africa? · What can African research managers learn from some of the successful reforms of NARS in Asia and Latin America over the past 10 to 15 years? · What are the major challenges facing the NARS in the ASARECA region in the coming 10-20 years? · What are the critical reforms and the incentives needed to develop pluralistic, accountable, productive and financially self-sustaining NARS in AFRICA?Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,