90 research outputs found

    European Integration – Democracy Promotion by the EU in Eastern Europe

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    There have been a few historical turning points in modern European history. The turning points of 1648, 1815, 1919 and 1945 had great impact on the developments of Europe. The last turning point of 1991 is not an exception to such record. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the liberalization and transition of the former Eastern Europe changed the balance of power and the European landscape. This article stresses the new role of the EU as a norm-provider in determining the future outlook of Europe. Such a new role led to the big bang enlargement in May 2004, which indicated that the Cold War was sent to the historical dustbin. It also shed light on the new role of the EU as the most important hegemonic actor in European politics

    Kosovo’s troubled local elections highlight the problems caused by leaving the territory’s legal status unresolved

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    Kosovo’s local elections on 4 November were overshadowed by violence in several Serbian-dominated areas. Daniel Silander outlines the background to the elections and gives an overview of some of the factors which underpinned the violence. He argues that the on-going indecision over the territory’s legal status has had a damaging effect on Kosovo’s development. This has undermined attempts to strengthen Kosovo’s political system and economy, ensuring that the territory’s population remains deeply divided

    Building Democracy: National and International Factors

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    Based on the promising democratic changes around the world during the late twentieth century, what are the favorable factors for building democracy? In the 1990s, research on democratization mushroomed, exploring how to explain reasons for democracy around the world. The global spread of democracy resulted in numerous conclusions about national and international favorable factors for democracy. More recently, the global democratic upsurge seems to have halted with worrying tendencies toward new forms of authoritarianism, hybrid regimes of both democratic and authoritarian institutions and fragile democracies. Recent studies have argued how authoritarianism has gone global and challenge the previous global spread of democracy. Based on a literature review of the bulk of studies on democracy building, this chapter identifies the main national and international favorable factors for democracy. It is argued that research has had a domestic focus up until the 1990s, but how international factors have come to play an important role in explaining democracy. Today, research must focus on the interplay between national and international factors to democracy building embedding both an actor and a structural dimension

    Foreword

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    Europe 2020: The EU Commission and Political Entrepreneurship

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    This study deals with the European Commission and Communication Europe 2020, which was a result of the global economic crisis of 2007–2008 and forward. Europe 2020 was an initiative to deal with the crisis by promoting smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth. The Commission addressed the crisis as an existential threat to Europe, but also as a window of opportunity to build a new prosperous region. This study explores the political entrepreneurial efforts taken by the Commission as well as assesses the outcome of reforms implemented. The Commission has achieved many targets, although some challenges remain unsolved

    The UN Agenda 2030 and the Climate-Security Nexus in Africa

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    There is a growing bulk of studies on global climate changes and conflicts. It has been argued that climate change may be a triggering factor to conflicts and wars, especially in societies with poor governance. This study explores the climate-security nexus in Africa. It is argued that the global climate change provides profound state and human security challenges to African governments and people. Scarcity of vital resources in food, water, sanitation and health has challenged political and economic structures, infrastructure and integration. This has also been due to poorly governed states with authoritarianism, corruption, ethnic divisions and fragile, dysfunctional institutions. The war in Darfur is a tragic, but illustrative example of the climate change-security nexus of our time

    EU and Agenda 2030 – Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions

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    In 2015, the United Nations (UN) decided on 17 sustainable development goals. Goal 16 focused on peace, justice and strong institutions and on the importance of democracy for global sustainable development. This study explores the status of democracy in Europe and highlights tendencies of authoritarianism in some post-communist states. This happens in a global context of resurgence of autocratization. Although the European Union (EU) continues to be a solid liberal democratic order, challenges in post-communist Europe exist, especially in Hungary as a new authoritarian state within the EU

    State-Building and Democracy: Prosperity Representation and Security in Kosovo

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    The traditional assumption of the state sovereignty norm has been that an international society of states will structure the international order to safeguard the interests of the state. The end of the Cold War era transformed international relations and led to a discussion on how states interacted with their populations. From the early 1990s, research on international relations, war and peace, and security studies identified the growing problem of failing states. Such states are increasingly unable to implement the core functions that define the sovereignty norms. This article explores the state-building process of Kosovo with a focus on the political road taken from independence in February 2008 to the challenges Kosovo faces today. Kosovo still has substantial issues to address regarding core state functions in the development of prosperity, popular representation and security

    Landscape dynamics of northeastern forests

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    This project involves collaborative research with Stephen W. Pacala and Simon A. Levin of Princeton University to calibrate, test, and analyze models of heterogeneous forested landscapes containing a diverse array of habitats. The project is an extension of previous, NASA-supported research to develop a spatially-explicit model of forest dynamics at the scale of an individual forest stand (hectares to square kilometer spatial scales). That model (SORTIE) has been thoroughly parameterized from field studies in the modal upland environment of western Connecticut. Under our current funding, we are scaling-up the model and parameterizing it for the broad range of upland environments in the region. Our most basic goal is to understand the linkages between stand-level dynamics (as revealed in our previous research) and landscape-level dynamics of forest composition and structure
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