Market Reform, Regional Energy and Popular Representation: Evidence from Post-Soviet Russia

This article investigates the relative impact of regional energy production on the energy voting choices of State Duma deputies between 1994 and 2003, controlling for other factors such as party affiliation, electoral mandate, committee membership and socio-demographic parameters. We apply Poole’s optimal classification method of roll call votes using an ordered probit model to explain energy market reform in the first decade of Russia’s democratic transition. Our main finding is that the gas production factor is inter temporally important in the formation of the deputies’ legislative choices and shows Gazprom’s strategic position in the post-Soviet Russian economy. The oil production factor is variably significant in the two first Dumas, when the main legislative debates on oil privatization occur. The energy committee membership tends to consistently explain pro-reform voting choices. The pro-and anti-reform poles observed in our Poole-based single dimensional scale are not necessarily connected with liberal and state-oriented policies respectively.energy regulation, market reform, energy resources, roll call votes, legislative politics, State Duma, Russia

Energy Regulation, Roll Call Votes and Regional Resources: Evidence from Russia

This paper investigates the relative impact of regional energy production on the legislative choices of Russian Duma deputies on energy regulation between 1994 and 2003. We apply Poole’s optimal classification method of roll call votes using an ordered probit model to explain energy law reform in the first decade of Russia’s democratic transition. Our goal is to analyze the relative importance of home energy on deputies’ behavior, controlling for other factors such as party affiliation, electoral mandate, committee membership and socio-demographic parameters. We observe that energy resource factors have a considerable effect on deputies’ voting behavior. On the other hand, we concurrently find that regional economic preferences are constrained by the public policy priorities of the federal center that continue to set the tone in energy law reform in post-Soviet Russia.Energy Regulation, Energy Roll Law Reform, Energy Resources, Roll Call Votes, Legislative Politics, State Duma, Russia

Cyprus after elections: recapturing the Crans Montana momentum for peace negotiations

The beginning of 2018 coincided with elections on both sides of the "Green Line" in Cyprus. The 7 January 2018 parliamentary elections in the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC)" and the 28 January - 4 February 2018 presidential elections in the Republic of Cyprus reshuffled the Cypriot political landscape. The disillusionment and the fatigue of pro-conflict-resolution forces became clear, and the Cyprus question was relatively low on the agenda of electoral candidates. Nevertheless, the aftermath of the elections finds hardliners and opponents to a UN-brokered peace deal in a weaker position. This provides an opportunity for the resumption of peace negotiations from the point at which they stalled at Crans Montana last July. Both communities should move fast to restore trust and resolve the remaining issues, as international interest should not be taken for granted. Inertia or a new failure in peace negotiations is likely to lead to the end of UN operations in Cyprus, which would boost insecurity across the island. (author's abstract

Faraway, so close: approaching the endgame in the Cyprus negotiations

Substantial progress was achieved in the bicommunal negotiations that were ongoing for almost two years and led to the decision to continue the talks in Switzerland. The aim was to create conditions conducive to a final bargaining agreement between the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots and the three guarantor states of the Republic of Cyprus: Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. Although recent talks in Switzerland failed to deliver a breakthrough, negotiations continue, and hope survives. With the exception of negotiations on security and guarantees -a chapter whose negotiation inevitably also involves Cyprus' three guarantor states- convergence on negotiations in all other chapters, namely territory, property, governance and power sharing, as well as economic and EU matters, have resulted in agreement or have brought the positions of the parties within the radius of an agreement. (Autorenreferat

Cyprus negotiations thwarted by issues on security and guarantees: how can the peace process be revived?

The failure of the latest round of negotiations at Crans-Montana has disenchanted those who saw them as a historic opportunity for the resolution of the Cyprus problem. Issues regarding security and guarantees proved to be insurmountable obstacles to a solution. Although mutual recriminations, upcoming hydrocarbon drillings, and presi-dential elections in Cyprus will not help restore the negotiations in the immediate future, there is no better alternative to the continuation of the UN-led negotiations process, with the aim of achieving a federal solution. (author's abstract

Material properties of the heel fat pad across strain rates

The complex structural and material behaviour of the human heel fat pad determines the transmission of plantar loading to the lower limb across a wide range of loading scenarios; from locomotion to injurious incidents. The aim of this study was to quantify the hyper-viscoelastic material properties of the human heel fat pad across strains and strain rates. An inverse finite element (FE) optimisation algorithm was developed and used, in conjunction with quasi-static and dynamic tests performed to five cadaveric heel specimens, to derive specimen-specific and mean hyper-viscoelastic material models able to predict accurately the response of the tissue at compressive loading of strain rates up to 150 s−1. The mean behaviour was expressed by the quasi-linear viscoelastic (QLV) material formulation, combining the Yeoh material model (C10=0.1MPa, C30=7MPa, K=2GPa) and Prony׳s terms (A1=0.06, A2=0.77, A3=0.02 for τ1=1ms, τ2=10ms, τ3=10s). These new data help to understand better the functional anatomy and pathophysiology of the foot and ankle, develop biomimetic materials for tissue reconstruction, design of shoe, insole, and foot and ankle orthoses, and improve the predictive ability of computational models of the foot and ankle used to simulate daily activities or predict injuries at high rate injurious incidents such as road traffic accidents and underbody blast

Energy Restructuring and Social Distribution in the Transition Economies of East Germany and Poland

В статье анализируются политические и экономические аспекты реструктуризации энергетического сектора в Восточной Германии и Польше с точки зрения социального распределения. Ее цель двояка: с одной стороны, она обеспечивает аналитическую дихотомию между регулирующей и процедурной реструктуризацией, с другой - между горизонтальной и иерархической. Таким образом, можно объяснить различные пути реформирования энергетических отраслей Восточной Германии и Польши. Замена центрального и законного правительства Тройхандом в Восточной Германии, а также центральная координирующая роль правительства в случае Польши являются ключевыми показателями этих концептуальных отличий. Постсоциалистические энергетические компании рассматриваются как механизмы социального распределения, реструктуризация которых определяется минимумом общественной собственности. Вопреки Тройханду, который стал институциональной основой для передачи энергетического сектора бывшей ГДР на множество дочерних западногерманских корпораций, польское министерство приватизации предпочло поддерживать экономическую справедливость, а не разрешить проведение полной приватизации в энергетической отрасли страны. Кажется, частные организации или государственные институты, которые связаны с корпоративными интересами, имеют меньше стимулов для сохранения этого минимума общественной собственности, чем центральное правительство. В энергетических секторах переходных экономик, сохранение минимума общественной собственности, а не полная приватизация является необходимым условием социального распределения.This article analyzes the politicаl economy of energy restructuring in East Germany and Poland from the perspective of social distribution. Its purpose is two-fold: on the one hand, it provides analytical dichotomies between regulatory vs. procedural and horizontal vs. hierarchical restructuring to explain the different paths in the liberal transformation of the energy industry in East Germany and Poland. The substitution of a central and legitimate government by Treuhand in the East German case as well as the central coordinating role of the government in the Polish case constitute the key indicators for these conceptual distinctions. On the other hand, post-socialist energy firms are treated as social distribution mechanisms, whose restructuring is defined by a public ownership minimum. Contrary to Treuhand, which functioned as an institutional sponsor for an ethnically-driven transfer of the East German energy sector to a set of subsidiaries of West German corporations, the Polish Ministry of Privatization preferred to adopt the equity constraint rather than regulate its energy policy preferences through the private sector. Private organizations or semi-legitimate public agencies captured by corporate interests have no incentive to maintain the public ownership minimum as the central government can. The existence of distributive energy firms implies distributive energy bureaucracies; the preservation of a public ownership minimum rather than inter-elite privatization contracts is a prerequisite for energy-driven distribution in post-socialism

Arctic Conflicts & Russian Foreign Policy

In this paper, we analyze the intersections of legal and political dispute resolution methods in Arctic territorial disputes involving Russia and several Western governments, including Canada and the United States. There are two current disputes. The first dispute concentrates on the Lomonosov Ridge, a geological feature that runs near the North Pole and has been used by three states to claim the North Pole as part of their continental shelf. The second dispute deals with the legal status of the Northern Sea Route. Our paper evaluates the tradeoffs between the legal and political constraints in these disputes between Russia and the West, and considers the possible methods of dispute settlement. In the paper, we suggest that the resolution of Arctic conflicts is likely to include a set of legal-political equilibria, such as international adjudication, voluntary mediation, and intergovernmental regulation. The Lomonosov Ridge dispute is likely to be resolved by voluntary mediation through a voluntary conciliation procedure coupled with the political support of Russia, Denmark, and Canada. However, the Northern Sea Route dispute is likely to be addressed by intergovernmental regulation because Russia’s argument on coastal jurisdiction is opposed by that of the United States on international waters and the right to free navigation

The Regional Origins of the Libyan Conflict

We explore the effects of Libya's administrative division into Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, and Fezzan on the onset of the Libyan conflict. We argue that Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, in particular, followed two different and distinct paths of political development and socioeconomic transformation. While Tripolitania and its elites are connected to the core of Libyan statehood and the legacies of Italian colonization, Cyrenaica is defined by localized political autonomy and economic autarky with respect to natural resources. Furthermore, the Qadhafi regime marginalized Cyrenaica politically, despite its major significance for the Libyan economy, because of its strong royalist inclinations. By offering an overview of Libya's political evolution and socioeconomic development, we indicate that the current conflict has largely been due to the asymmetric and artificial dominance of Tripolitania over the other two regions, particularly Cyrenaica