From "Mare Nostrum" to International Maritime Cooperation: How History Can Offer Constructive Answers to Future Prospects in the Mediterranean

Since antiquity, the Mediterranean region witnessed the rise and fall of all kinds of political and economic systems. It has always been the laboratory of human societies, a melting pot of different religions, philosophies and ethnic groups. Mediterranean countries saw astonishing cultural and aesthetic achievements, but also experienced destruction and acts of barbarism. The Mediterranean gave birth to one of the most powerful political concepts, the idea of the occidental and oriental hemisphere. With the beginning of global capitalism and transatlantic trade, the Mediterranean lost much of its strategic importance and economic momentum. But stagnation is never an option. Today, with the rise of China as the new global player, the Mediterranean and its regional powers gain new options, too. Participation is the key, and mutual understanding a possible beginning. Only international cooperation, global trade and cultural exchange will help to stabilize the vulnerable equilibrium in the Mediterranean. So, what lessons can be learned from history to better understand and explore today's political and economic potential of the Mediterranean? Some historical figurations persist or have a surprising coming-back, indicating some striking parallels between the Mediterranean of history and the present day

The lost global balance: recent publications on geopolitical change

The latest books on geopolitics, although written from slightly different perspectives, have one idea in common. Their starting point is the obvious geostrategic shift from the Atlantic to the Asian hemisphere. What does this dramatic power shift from West to East bear for European states? China's rise to hegemonial status is without any doubt the greatest political and economic challenge of our times. It implies a completely new global order, including the redefinition of Western (i.e. American and European) interests, power and limitations. Western Europe and Northern America have lost their claim to be, on a global scale, the most influential socio-economic and cultural formation. Today, Asia represents roughly 75 percent of the human population, worldwide

Stength is weakness

After Easternisation - War and Peace in the Asian Century (2016) comes the next extensive political analysis by Gideon Rachman, chief foreign affairs columnist for Financial Times and, for ten years, a prominent commentator on the political and geostrategic aspects of globalization. In Easternisation, Rachman gave a poignant portrayal of China's growing economic, political and military power as Asia's unchallenged hegemon. He clearly indicated a power and culture shift from the transatlantic to the Indo-pacific hemisphere

Exploring the use of dynamic linear panel data models for evaluating energy/economy/environment models — an application for the transportation sector

This paper uses the RoSE transportation sector scenarios of the GCAM and REMIND energy-economy-models for the U.S. region to derive and compare these models’ intrinsic elasticities with those resulting from historical trends, estimates from the literature, and across each other. To estimate the model-intrinsic elasticities, we explore the use of dynamic linear panel data models. On the basis of 26 scenarios (panels) between 2010 and 2050, our analysis suggests that nearly all model-intrinsic elasticities with respect to final energy use are roughly comparable to each other, to those observed historically, and to those from other studies. The key difference is these models’ comparatively low intrinsic income elasticity of final energy use. This and other minor differences are interpreted through key assumptions underlying both energy-economy-models

Exploring the use of dynamic linear panel data models for evaluating energy/economy/environment models — an application for the transportation sector

This paper uses the RoSE transportation sector scenarios of the GCAM and REMIND energy-economy-models for the U.S. region to derive and compare these models’ intrinsic elasticities with those resulting from historical trends, estimates from the literature, and across each other. To estimate the model-intrinsic elasticities, we explore the use of dynamic linear panel data models. On the basis of 26 scenarios (panels) between 2010 and 2050, our analysis suggests that nearly all model-intrinsic elasticities with respect to final energy use are roughly comparable to each other, to those observed historically, and to those from other studies. The key difference is these models’ comparatively low intrinsic income elasticity of final energy use. This and other minor differences are interpreted through key assumptions underlying both energy-economy-models

Tightening EU ETS targets in line with the European Green Deal: Impacts on the decarbonization of the EU power sector

The EU Green Deal calls for climate neutrality by 2050 and emission reductions of 50–55% in 2030 in comparison to 1990. Achieving these reductions requires a substantial tightening of the regulations of the EU emissions trading system (EU ETS). This paper explores how the power sector would have to change in reaction to a tighter EU ETS target, and analyses the technological and economic implications. To cover the major ETS sectors, we combine a detailed power sector model with a marginal-abatement cost curve representation of industry emission abatement. We find that tightening the target would speed up the transformation by 3–17 years for different parts of the electricity system, with renewables contributing 74% of the electricity in 2030, EU-wide coal use almost completely phased-out by 2030 instead of 2045, and zero electricity generation emissions reached by 2040. Carbon prices within the EU ETS would more than triple to 129€/tCO2 in 2030, reducing cumulated power sector emissions from 2017 to 2057 by 54% compared to a scenario with the current target. This transformation would come at limited costs: total discounted power system costs would only increase by 5%. We test our findings against a number of sensitivities: an increased electricity demand, which might arise from sector coupling, increases deployment of wind and solar and prolongs gas usage. Not allowing transmission expansion beyond 2020 levels shifts investments from wind to PV, hydrogen and batteries, and increases total system costs by 3%. Finally, the unavailability of fossil carbon capture and storage (CCS) or further nuclear investments does not impact results. Unavailability of bioenergy-based CCS (BECCS) has a visible impact (18% increase) on cumulated power sector emissions, thus shifting more of the mitigation burden to the industry sector, but does not increase electricity prices or total system costs (<1% increase). © 2021 The Author

L’inconscient dans le texte littéraire?

Quand l’inconscient passe la frontière du conscient, il n’est plus inconscient; il devient “consciencialisable”, il n’est donc plus ce qu’il avait été jusquelà: il n’est plus luimême. Comment pourrionsnous le percevoir à ce momentlà, comme quelque chose d’inconscient ou bien même en parler scientifiquement? Et comment pourrions nous parler de l’inconscient en tant qu’élément appartenant à la littérature, ou en en tant qu’élément constitutif de celleci ou même comme oeuvre littéraire, quand, dans un premier temps, nous percevons le texte littéraire comme une simple disposition de lettres, et non comme un être humain, dont nous pourrions expliquer les actes par des motivations inconscientes? Quel élément traverse la limite de l’inconscient vers le conscient, puis traverse la frontière entre l’homme et le texte et repasse du texte à l’homme? Qu’est ce que cela signifiait autrefois, qu’est ce que cela signifie à l’heure actuelle? Se produitil vraiment quelque chose? Y atil vraiment “quelque chose” qui traverse la frontière menant au texte? Qu’est ce qui nous donne donc le droit, au nom de la “science”, de formuler des suppositions psychanalytiques sur l’inconscient d’un texte

Managing power demand from air conditioning benefits solar pv in India scenarios for 2040

An Indian electricity system with very high shares of solar photovoltaics seems to be a plausible future given the ever-falling solar photovoltaic (PV) costs, recent Indian auction prices, and governmental support schemes. However, the variability of solar PV electricity, i.e., the seasonal, daily, and other weather-induced variations, could create an economic barrier. In this paper, we analyzed a strategy to overcome this barrier with demand-side management (DSM) by lending flexibility to the rapidly increasing electricity demand for air conditioning through either precooling or chilled water storage. With an open-source power sector model, we estimated the endogenous investments into and the hourly dispatching of these demand-side options for a broad range of potential PV shares in the Indian power system in 2040. We found that both options reduce the challenges of variability by shifting electricity demand from the evening peak to midday, thereby reducing the temporal mismatch of demand and solar PV supply profiles. This increases the economic value of solar PV, especially at shares above 40%, the level at which the economic value roughly doubles through demand flexibility. Consequently, DSM increases the competitive and cost-optimal solar PV generation share from 33-45% (without DSM) to ∼45-60% (with DSM). These insights are transferable to most countries with high solar irradiation in warm climate zones, which amounts to a major share of future electricity demand. This suggests that technologies, which give flexibility to air conditioning demand, can be an important contribution toward enabling a solar-centered global electricity supply. © 2020 by the authors

NGOs in China: die Entwicklung des Dritten Sektors

"In China sind in den vergangen zwei Jahrzehnten geschätzt über 2 Millionen NGOs entstanden, ohne die Sozial-, Gesundheits- und Umweltpolitik kaum noch umsetzbar wären. Auch internationale NGOs, die sich in China engagieren und mit chinesischen NGOs kooperieren haben diese Entwicklung unterstützt. Die besonderen Arbeitsbedingungen von NGOs sind durch eine ambivalente Haltung der Regierung geprägt: Einerseits wird die Arbeit von NGOs von der Regierung gefördert, weil sie gebraucht werden, um die sozialen, ökonomischen und ökologischen Folgen der Reformpolitik seit 1978 zu kompensieren. Andererseits sind die politischen und gesetzlichen Regelungen, denen NGOs unterworfen sind, derart restriktiv, dass die meisten NGOs illegal oder semilegal arbeiten müssen. Zudem sind viele Organisationen, die sich de jure als NGO bezeichnen, de facto ausgelagerte staatliche Behörden. In der vorliegenden Untersuchung werden die politischen und juristischen Rahmenbedingungen, denen chinesische und internationale NGOs unterworfen sind, im Kontext der internationalen NGO- und Dritte-Sektor-Theorie beschrieben. Im Anschluss werden die Besonderheiten des Dritten Sektors an Beispielen dargestellt. Damit soll eine Grundlage für weitergehende vertiefende Untersuchungen zum Thema geboten werden." (Autorenreferat)"During the past two decades, more than 2 million NGOs emerged in China. Especially for the current Chinese social, health, and ecologic policies, NGOs are nearly indispensable. International NGOs, working in cooperation with Chinese NGOs, have supported this development. The special conditions NGOs must adhere to are characterized by the ambivalent approach the government takes on NGOs: On the one hand, NGO work is supported because there is a need to compensate for the social, economic, and ecological consequences which have accompanied the politics of reform since 1978. On the other hand, the government poses high political and legislative restrictions on NGOs, so that an overwhelming number of them cannot be officially registered and, therefore, are forced to work in an illegal or semi-legal context. Many organizations register de jure as NGOs, but are de facto outsourced administrative bodies. This article gives a comprehensive account of the prevailing political circumstances and legal provisions under which both Chinese and international NGOs act on the basis of the international NGO- and Third-Sector-Theory. The characteristics of the Chinese Third Sector are illustrated by examples. This article also offers a sound basis for further and more specific studies on the subject." (author's abstract