L'Unione Europea e la prevenzione dei conflitti Quale Europeizzazione?

This article presents the main empirical findings of the analysis of the European Union’s activity for conflict prevention in three case studies – Cyprus, Kosovo and Palestine. After having clarified the meaning of conflict ‘resolution’, ‘prevention’ and ‘Europeanization’, it is proposed a classification of the main foreign policy instruments at the disposal of the Union to intervene before the escalation of the conflicts, during and after it. Then the article focuses on the empirical findings of the Europeanization of the conflicts in the case studies, and therefore not only on the instruments used and on the norms promoted, but also on the mechanisms and the conditions that have enabled or not the Union to exert its leverage

Alternatives to Democracy. Non-Democratic Regimes and the Limits to Democracy Diffusion in Eurasia

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, liberal democracy remained the only ideal model of a political regime applicable worldwide. Then, various students and politicians saw the end of communism as the final and definitive victory of democratic ideology and imagined a future in which democracy would spread everywhere. Democracy spread widely during the 1990s and the early 2000s. The fall of various South American dictatorships and the European Union enlargement caused a transition to democracy in many countries. However, important areas in Eurasia, in particular Russia, China and Iran, resisted democratization and reformed authoritarian regimes rose and consolidated in the region. These regimes proved their ability to survive and influenced their neighbours proposing political models that attracted neighbouring countries’ leaders. Thus, new kinds of authoritarian regimes challenged the idea of the unavoidability of the spread of democracy. Today, the international economic crisis and wide economic growth in authoritarian countries such as Russia and China have renewed the relevance of questions about the democratic model’s superiority, its unavoidable diffusion and the existence of alternative regimes. To answer this question we need to understand if at least one of these regimes is a model. Furthermore, we may discover if it is based on well–defined values, is replicable elsewhere, economically sustainable and able to consolidate and survive

China's Peripheral Diplomacy: Repeating Europe's Errors in Dealing with the Neighbourhood

[[abstract]]The European Union (EU) and China are on a quest to establish themselves as global actors. Still, both powers first need to create a stable neighbourhood that will not threaten their interests. Consequently, in 2004 the EU launched the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), while in 2013 China’s Peripheral Diplomacy (CPD) was introduced. Against this background, this article aims to conduct a comparative analysis of both initiatives. Specifically, as there is a wide agreement that the ENP has failed to generate any impact on the EU’s periphery, the research question is: To what extent could the CPD transcend the problems of its European counterpart? The article posits that both policies are rather similar in their inability to strike the right balance between protecting core interests and acknowledging the neighbours’ needs. Thus, it is likely that the CPD, just like the ENP, will remain a policy with big potential but without effective results.[[notice]]補正完