Britain cannot and should not imitate the Swiss model of sectoral bilateralism with the EU

In this blog post, Joachim Blatter (University of Lucerne) explains why Britain cannot and should not imitate the Swiss model of sectoral bilateralism. He also outlines where the British and the Swiss could join forces for re-inventing transnational governance and democracy in Europe after Brexit. Britain cannot imitate the Swiss model of sectoral bilateralism In Switzerland, direct forms of democracy are ..

Transnational attention, domestic agenda-setting and international agreement: modeling necessary and sufficient conditions for media-driven humanitarian interventions

"Interventions based solely or partially on humanitarian grounds are rare; but, over the course of the last two decades, they have become increasingly common phenomena of international politics. Nevertheless international relations theories have thus far not been able to adequately account for their occurrence. The authors present a theoretical framework to explain humanitarian interventions as a result of a multilevel process driven by media attention and political entrepreneurship. They argue that drawing the developed world's public attention to a humanitarian crisis does not suffice to prompt international political reaction to it-it is only a necessary but not a sufficient condition. They therefore develop a consistent, detailed, and falsifiable theoretical model that systematically traces the necessary steps from the spaces of a humanitarian tragedy through the domestic arenas of potentially intervening states to the international arena where agreements on interventions must be reached. The authors take Putnam's two-level game as a template for their model, but they exchange Putnam's interestbased approach with an information-driven approach. The authors examine the structural prerequisites for domestic 'windows of recognition,' deduce logical consequences of these 'windows of recognition' for the possibility to reach an international agreement to intervene, and describe the functions and roles of peace entrepreneurs who try to overcome structural constraints." (author's abstract)"Ausschließlich bzw. primär humanitär motivierte Interventionen stellen zwar seltene, aber in den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten zunehmend häufiger auftretende Ereignisse dar, die mit den etablierten Theorien der Internationalen Beziehungen nur schwer zu erklären sind. Die Autoren entwickeln in diesem discussion paper ein konsistentes, detailliertes und falsifizierbares theoretisches Modell, das sowohl auf die Möglichkeiten als auch auf die anspruchsvollen Voraussetzungen für humanitäre Interventionen verweist. Ausgangsthese ist, dass die Aufmerksamkeit der globalisierten Medien eine notwendige, aber keine hinreichende Bedingung für eine humanitäre Intervention darstellt. Im Sinne einer Kausalkette werden weitere Zwischenbedingungen herausarbeitet, die von einer humanitären Tragödie über mediale Aufmerksamkeit und politischem agenda-setting in potentiell intervenierenden Staaten bis hin zu einer internationalen Interventionsentscheidung führen. In Anlehnung an und gleichzeitig in Abgrenzung zu dem interessenbasierten Konzept eines Zwei-Ebenen-Spiels von Putnam wird ein informationszentriertes Modell entwickelt, in welchem das Zusammenspiel von kognitiven Prozessen und normativen Strukturen in transnationalen, nationalen und internationalen Arenen beleuchtet wird. Trotz des informationszentrierten Ansatzes ist das Modell nicht strukturdeterministisch, sondern verweist auf die spezifischen Möglichkeiten von politischen Unternehmern, durch die Verknüpfung von verschiedenen Arenen in diesem Mehrebenenprozess Einfluss zu nehmen." (Autorenreferat

Zurück ins Mittelalter? Westfälische Souveränität als nationalstaatliche Monopolisierung der Außenpolitik ; historische Entwicklung und Unterschiede in den Bundesstaaten Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz

'Der Aufsatz untersucht die historische Entwicklung der rechtlichen Regelungen im Bereich der außenpolitischen Kompetenzen in den Föderalstaaten Deutschland, Schweiz und Österreich seit dem Westfälischen Frieden von 1648. Die aktuellen Diskussionen zur Außenpolitik von subnationalen Einheiten werden dadurch in einen längeren historischen Kontext gestellt. Zumindest in Bezug auf den strukturellen Indikator 'Monopolisierung der gate-keeper-Position zwischen Innen- und Außenpolitik durch die nationalstaatlichen Exekutiven' zeigt sich, dass die aktuellen Thesen von einem Wandel des Westfälischen Systems souveräner, territorial exklusiver Nationalstaaten und einer Entwicklung zurück zum mittelalterlichen System überlappender Herrschaften wenig Bestätigung finden. Die vergleichende Untersuchung verdeutlicht aber auch, dass sowohl beim Übergang von der mittelalterlichen zur modernen Ordnung wie auch bei den aktuellen Veränderungstendenzen bereits bei so 'verwandten' Staaten wie Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz erhebliche Unterschiede in Bezug auf die Dauer und die Stabilität des nationalstaatlichen Monopols in der Außenpolitik festzustellen sind.' (Autorenreferat)'The article provides a two-dimensional comparison of national rules concerning the distribution of competencies among national and sub-national administrations in the field of foreign affairs in the federal states of Germany, Switzerland and Austria. A first comparative dimension is the development over time. Starting with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 three stages are differentiated in all three countries - before the national monopoly in foreign affairs, during the uncontested time of a national monopoly and current challenges to the monopoly. An uncontested monopoly in foreign affairs indicates the strength of the gate-keeper-position of the national executives between the international and the domestic political realms. The existence of such a gate-keeper-position is a basic structural feature of the modern political system of sovereign nation states ('the Westphalian Order'). In terms of general changes over time, the study shows only weak support for the hypothesis that we are currently witnessing a massive change in the Westphalian Order and a 'return to medieval times' with multiple and overlapping authorities in international affairs. The comparison between the three countries reveals remarkable differences in respect to duration and uncontested stability of the national monopoly in the field of foreign affairs. The specific paths of transformation from the medieval order to the modern order in the various nation states influences clearly the strength of the current challenges to the monopoly of the national executives in foreign affairs.' (author's abstract

Field-induced hexagonal to square transition of the vortex lattice in overdoped La{1.8}Sr{0.2}CuO{4}

We report on a small angle neutron scattering study of the vortex lattice in overdoped La{2-x}Sr{x}CuO{4} (x=0.2) up to high magnetic fields (9.5 Tesla) applied perpendicular to the CuO2 planes. At low magnetic fields we observe a crossover from hexagonal to square coordination of the vortex lattice. This field-induced transition confirms the results obtained in slightly overdoped La{2-x}Sr{x}CuO{4} (x=0.17).Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures. to appear in Physica C (proceedings for the M2S-HTSC-VII Conference, May 25-30, Rio de Janeiro

Citizens preference for voting rights in Europe

The European Union (EU) as the flagship of supra-nationalism is in a severe crisis. Its legitimacy is increasingly questioned by populist and nationalist parties which claim that the political elites and procedures have become detached from the people and that immigrants endanger the welfare and the culture of the autochthonous population. In this context, the project investigates the potential of transnational citizenship and voting opportunities as current and future pathways contributing to reduce the distance between the people and politicians and to overcome the dichotomy between migrants and sedentary populations. Based on normative theorizing, current empirical tendencies, and existing ideas, we first develop two proposals for transnationalizing voting spaces on the European and on the national level. The first proposal lays out how voters from EU member states could vote for parties from other member states in the election to the European Parliament. The second proposal envisions that voters from other EU member states could elect (a limited number of) representatives in the national parliament of each EU member state. These proposals build on and expand current trends to allow voting beyond the confines of territory (requirement: residency) and nationality (requirement: citizenship). Second, with the help of a pan-European Electronic Voting Advice Application (VAA), we will gather information not only about the current extent of transnational voting (by external and dual citizens) and transnational campaigning of parties. We will also find out whether and where people and parties are willing to support and use those further opportunities for transnational voting that we lay out in our two proposals. VAAs play a double role in our project: Conceptually, they are necessary preconditions for making our proposals viable. Empirically, a VAA that we will set up together with the European University Institute in Florence will create the data for our and further scientific studies.Finally, our project brings together two strands of research: The first strand of research is concerned with citizenship rights and practices beyond the realm of the Westphalian nation state, while the second deals with the design of electoral systems for multi-national polities. We will test whether voters and parties are mainly driven by polity-centered considerations (interest in and identification with particular or multiple nation states or with the EU) or by policy-centered considerations (policy positions and preferences). Altogether, the project will stimulate the discussion about a third transnational pathway for securing the effectiveness and legitimacy of the European Union beyond supranationalism and nationalism. It will tremendously expand our empirical knowledge out the current level of transnational orientations and practices of people and parties in Europe, and at the same time we will find out whether and where people and parties support expanded options for transnational voting. Furthermore, the project will allow us to keep at the forefront of research dealing with VAAs. Finally, the gained insights might be stimulating for other multi-lingual or multi-national democratic systems

Survey among Swiss Abroad

This project is a prolongation of our research project on political attitudes and behaviour of dual citizens in Switzerland („Dual Citizens: Hazard or Vanguard of Citizenship in the (Post-)Westphalian Order?“, SNF project number: 137693, November 2011 to February 2015). The prolongation complements the previous focus on immigrants in Switzerland with a similar study on Swiss emigrants. The project tackles a phenomenon of growing salience, as we are witnessing a dramatic rise of dual citizenship (DC) across the globe. Whereas more and more countries accept DC, in some countries it spurs strong political controversies. The topic is especially important for Switzerland, since more than 10% of Swiss living in Switzerland, and three quarters of Swiss living abroad, are dual citizens. In popular discourses DC is mostly seen as a threat to national cohesion and democracy. In contrast, many intellectuals and scholars conceive of dual citizens as vanguards of citizenship practices above and across nation states, and as an important source for democratizing a globalizing world order. However, the debates on national integration and the discourses on cosmopolitan/ transnational democracy are not only taking place in different discursive fields, the two aspects are also not well connected in empirical research. The research project fills this void by tracing the political involvement of dual citizens in and outside of Switzerland, as well as their transnational and cosmopolitan citizenship practices. Our analysis focuses on the question whether the formal membership of citizens in more than one political community (their citizenship status) influences their political involvement (their citizenship identities and practices) within and beyond their country of residence. To reach this goal we conducted during the prolongation period a survey among the Swiss abroad (with and without dual citizenship), in order to supplement the findings from the first part of the project about various groups of immigrants (and their descendants) in Switzerland. Applying the same questionnaire, we are not only able to collect further data in an efficient way, but also to compare political attitudes and practices of immigrants and emigrants. After analysing the effects of dual nationality for the domestic and supra- and transnational arenas separately in previous publications during the first part of the project, we turn to the question whether political identities and citizenship practices within these multiple arenas are a zero-sum game or whether they are mutually compatible, possibly even reinforcing. Overall, we present and further disseminate additional empirical insights and normative principles that will help scholars and practitioners alike to understand and deal with the challenges and opportunities associated with the spread of dual citizenship

Economic Efficiency and/or Political Innovation? Institutions and Markets in Trans-Boundary Water Management: Lessons from Lake Constance

12 pages. Includes footnotes