“I Wouldn’t Want to Be a Gender Expert:” Gender Experts in Peace Mediation

Peace mediation is a professional practice that is increasingly reliant on thematic technical experts, including gender experts. The strategy of including gender expertise in peace mediation reflects the Women, Peace and Security agenda and the call to include dedicated gender expertise in all peacemaking efforts. Based on interviews with peace mediation practitioners, the article analyzes the role of gender experts in peace mediation. We argue that there is a tension between the art of mediation and the art of gender expertise that reflects the gendered power dynamics of peace mediation. We conclude that the strategy of appointing gender experts to peace mediation teams will not “dismantle the master’s house.” However, we acknowledge that without a gender expert very little will be accomplished on this issue. For peace mediation to address the gendered foundations of conflict we argue for the development of an alternate feminist peace mediation practice

Towards actionable international comparisons of health system performance: expert revision of the OECD framework and quality indicators

Objective To review and update the conceptual framework, indicator content and research priorities of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) Health Care Quality Indicators (HCQI) project, after a decade of collaborative work. Design A structured assessment was carried out using a modified Delphi approach, followed by a consensus meeting, to assess the suite of HCQI for international comparisons, agree on revisions to the original framework and set priorities for research and development. Setting International group of countries participating to OECD projects. Participants Members of the OECD HCQI expert group. Results A reference matrix, based on a revised performance framework, was used to map and assess all seventy HCQI routinely calculated by the OECD expert group. A total of 21 indicators were agreed to be excluded, due to the following concerns: (i) relevance, (ii) international comparability, particularly where heterogeneous coding practices might induce bias, (iii) feasibility, when the number of countries able to report was limited and the added value did not justify sustained effort and (iv) actionability, for indicators that were unlikely to improve on the basis of targeted policy interventions. Conclusions The revised OECD framework for HCQI represents a new milestone of a long-standing international collaboration among a group of countries committed to building common ground for performance measurement. The expert group believes that the continuation of this work is paramount to provide decision makers with a validated toolbox to directly act on quality improvement strategie

A Normative Basis for EU External Relations? Protecting Internal Values Beyond the Single Market

This chapter analyses the EU’s obligation to uphold and promote its values and interests in its external polies, in particular as regards some of the values generally underpinning the EU’s internal market, and the rules and principles concerning services of general interest in particular. The first part of the chapter offers a mapping exercise of the relevant Treaty provisions—seeking to establish connections and ways of reading them so that they may “inform” each other. The second part puts them in the context of the debate about Normative Power Europe (NPE) —a much used, but not undisputed international relations concept coined to express the nature of the EU’s external policies and projection. The third inquires further into the “normative” nature and effect of the EU’s constitutional values and objectives. It will be argued that the Treaty normative basis for the EU’s external relations is meaningful and is to be taken seriously

Casting for a sovereign role:Socialising an aspirant state in the Scottish independence referendum

This article examines international reactions to Scotland’s 2014 bid for independence as an instance of socialisation of an aspirant state, what we term ‘pre-socialisation’. Building on and contributing to research on state socialisation and role theory, this study proposes a nexus between roles and sovereignty. This nexus has three components: sovereignty itself is a role casted for by an actor; the sovereign role is entangled with the substantive foreign policy roles the actor might play; and the sovereign role implicates the substantive foreign policy roles of other actors. The Scottish debate on independence provides an effective laboratory to develop and explore these theoretical dimensions of pre-socialisation, revealing the contested value and meaning of sovereignty, the possible roles that an independent Scotland could play, and the projected implications for the role of the UK and other international actors. Our analysis of the Scottish case can provide insights for other cases of pre-socialisation and is more empirically significant following the UK’s 2016 referendum to leave the European Union.PostprintPeer reviewe

The Arab state and neo-liberal globalization

- Questa raccolta di saggi di noti studiosi internazionali analizza le caratteristiche degli stati arabi oggi, concentrandosi sulla loro partecipazione alle dinamiche della globalizzazione neo-liberista piuttosto che sull’ autoritarismo o sull'Islam. Egitto, Libano, Marocco e Arabia Saudita sono i casi di studio selezionati per rappresentare i diversi percorsi verso un modello condiviso di “nuovo” stato arabo. - This collection of essays by leading international academics analyze the characters of today’s Arab states by focusing on their participation in neo-liberal globalization dynamics rather than on authoritarianism or Islam. Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and Saudi Arabia are the case studies selected to represent different paths towards a shared model of the “new” Arab state

Diplomatic signalling

Available from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:3589.3815(27) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo