Diplomatic Realisation of the EU's "Geoeconomic Pivot": Sanctions, Trade, and Development Policy Reform

At a time when policymakers of the European Union (EU) are pivoting towards a more assertive use of economic power in external relations, this article discusses the merits of situating the much-debated use of economic sanctions and other economic power-based instruments in the broader terminology of EU diplomatic capabilities. Pointing out a number of shortcomings in traditional literature on geoeconomics and economic statecraft, the article applies the concept of “geoeconomic diplomacy” to demonstrate how the EU’s geoeconomic success will heavily depend on the abilities of diplomats and civil servants from institutions and member states to engage in viable relationships with relevant public and private actors in the state-market realm. Based hereon, it identifies institutional and context-specific challenges that could affect the comprehensive realisation of recent EU policy reforms relevant to the geoeconomic agenda: (a) institutional measures to ensure a more robust enforcement of sanctions, (b) a new anti-coercion instrument to counter coercive trade practices by third countries, and (c) a more efficient, focused, and strategic utilisation of EU development funds for purposes of stability and peace. The article concludes by discussing the prospects for bringing such instruments closer together at the level of practical implementation through the establishment of stronger relationships between practitioners working across the EU’s various geoeconomic intervention areas

Germany's Economic Myths Debunked: Rethinking State-Business Ties for Economic Security

German economic policy has been in flux since the supply chain shocks of the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Partners in Europe are keen for reassurance that they can rely on Germany in a geopolitical crisis, even when its commercial interests are at stake. Germany is aware of this but has been guarded about its intentions and has merely signalled what it thinks partners want to hear. This runs counter to Germany’s reputation as a supporter of constructive business ties, an open and secure EU, global multilateral bodies, and its steadiness and reliability as a partner

Strict and Uniform: Improving EU Sanctions Enforcement

For as long as the EU has been using sanctions as a foreign policy instrument, countering violations has been a challenge. With the EU rapidly expanding the breadth and depth of its sanctions, its ­institutions and member states must find ways to ensure stricter and more uniform enforcement to deter violations, enhance efficiency, and ensure a more level playing field for economic actors. The stakes are high: the success of the EU's response to Russia’s military aggression hinges largely on effective sanctions, and the long-term legitimacy of the tool itself depends on its enforcement

Adjoint analysis of the source and path sensitivities of basin-guided waves

Simulations of earthquake rupture on the southern San Andreas Fault (SAF) reveal large amplifications in the San Gabriel and Los Angeles Basins (SGB and LAB) apparently associated with long-range path effects. Geometrically similar excitation patterns can be recognized repeatedly in different SAF simulations (e.g. Love wave-like energy with predominant period around 4 s, channelled southwestwardly from the SGB into LAB), yet the amplitudes with which these distinctive wavefield patterns are excited change, depending upon source details (slip distribution, direction and velocity of rupture). We describe a method for rapid calculation of the sensitivity of such predicted wavefield features to perturbations of the source kinematics, using a time-reversed (adjoint) wavefield simulation. The calculations are analogous to those done in adjoint tomography, and the same time-reversed calculation also yields path-sensitivity kernels that give further insight into the excitation mechanism. For rupture on the southernmost 300 km of SAF, LAB excitation is greatest for slip concentrated between the northern Coachella Valley and the transverse ranges, propagating to the NE and with rupture velocities between 3250 and 3500 m s-1 along that fault segment; that is, within or slightly above the velocity range (between Rayleigh and S velocities) that is energetically precluded in the limit of a sharp rupture front, highlighting the potential value of imposing physical constraints (such as from spontaneous rupture models) on source parametrizations. LAB excitation is weak for rupture to the SW and for ruptures in either direction located north of the transverse transverse ranges, whereas Ventura Basin (VTB) is preferentially excited by NE ruptures situated north of the transverse ranges. Path kernels show that LAB excitation is mediated by surface waves deflected by the velocity contrast along the southern margin of the transverse ranges, having most of their energy in basement rock until they impinge on the eastern edge of SGB, through which they are then funnelled into LAB. VTB amplification is enhanced by a similar waveguide effec

vbyCaHbeta CCD Photometry of Clusters. VI. The Metal-Deficient Open Cluster NGC 2420

CCD photometry on the intermediate-band vbyCaHbeta system is presented for the metal-deficient open cluster, NGC 2420. Restricting the data to probable single members of the cluster using the CMD and the photometric indices alone generates a sample of 106 stars at the cluster turnoff. The average E(b-y) = 0.03 +/- 0.003 (s.e.m.) or E(B-V) = 0.050 +/- 0.004 (s.e.m.), where the errors refer to internal errors alone. With this reddening, [Fe/H] is derived from both m1 and hk, using b-y and Hbeta as the temperature index. The agreement among the four approaches is reasonable, leading to a final weighted average of [Fe/H] = -0.37 +/- 0.05 (s.e.m.) for the cluster, on a scale where the Hyades has [Fe/H] = +0.12. When combined with the abundances from DDO photometry and from recalibrated low-resolution spectroscopy, the mean metallicity becomes [Fe/H] = -0.32 +/- 0.03. It is also demonstrated that the average cluster abundances based upon either DDO data or low-resolution spectroscopy are consistently reliable to 0.05 dex or better, contrary to published attempts to establish an open cluster metallicity scale using simplistic offset corrections among different surveys.Comment: scheduled for Jan. 2006 AJ; 33 pages, latex, includes 7 figures and 2 table