The West against the rest? Democracy versus autocracy promotion in Venezuela

Venezuela provides a strong test case for the weakening of democracy and the strengthening of autocracy promotion. External actors are a key part of the domestic political game: the European Union and the United States (EUUS) promote ‘democracy by coercion’ and recognised Juan Guaidó as president, whereas China, Cuba and Russia (CCR) bolster the regime of Nicolás Maduro. A comparative foreign policy analysis argues that, firstly, EUUS sanctions have resulted in strengthening CCR's autocratic leverage and linkage; and secondly, the division ‘between the West and the Rest’ has posed an additional obstacle for a transition to democracy and national reconstructio

Precarious States Strategies: Toward a Culture of Coherence

Contains fulltext : 78923.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

PHOTOVOLTAIC INFRARED SENSOR ARRAY IN HETEROEPITAXIAL NARROW GAP LEAD-CHALCOGENIDES ON SILICON

Linear arrays of photovoltaic IR-sensors for thermal imaging applications have been fabricated for the first time in narrow gap semiconductor layers grown heteroepitaxially on Si-substrates. Heteroepitaxy was achieved using intermediate stacked CaF2-BaF2 bilayers to overcome the large lattice- and thermal expansion mismatch between Si and lead-chalcogenides. Sensors fabricated in narrow gap PbTe have ≈ 5.7 µm cut-off wavelength at 90K and quantum efficiencies around 70%. Resistance-area products are up to 500 Ωcm2 with mean value of ≈ 150 Ωcm2 for 66 element linear arrays, well above the room temperature photon background noise limit. Sensor arrays with shorter cut-off wavelength were fabricated in the same manner in epitaxial Pb1-xEuxSe on fluoride covered Si-substrates

PHOTOVOLTAIC INFRARED SENSOR ARRAY IN HETEROEPITAXIAL NARROW GAP LEAD-CHALCOGENIDES ON SILICON

Linear arrays of photovoltaic IR-sensors for thermal imaging applications have been fabricated for the first time in narrow gap semiconductor layers grown heteroepitaxially on Si-substrates. Heteroepitaxy was achieved using intermediate stacked CaF2-BaF2 bilayers to overcome the large lattice- and thermal expansion mismatch between Si and lead-chalcogenides. Sensors fabricated in narrow gap PbTe have ≈ 5.7 µm cut-off wavelength at 90K and quantum efficiencies around 70%. Resistance-area products are up to 500 Ωcm2 with mean value of ≈ 150 Ωcm2 for 66 element linear arrays, well above the room temperature photon background noise limit. Sensor arrays with shorter cut-off wavelength were fabricated in the same manner in epitaxial Pb1-xEuxSe on fluoride covered Si-substrates

Towards a theory of external democracy promotion

A few years ago, it was a common complaint that the international dimension of democratization and, in particular, the external promotion of democracy were largely neglected by scholars of comparative politics and international relations. By now, academic research has begun to catch up with the growth of foreign and development policies explicitly aiming at the international promotion and protection of democratic regimes. Yet, what is still a largely unexplored desideratum is the challenge to theoretically grasp ‘democracy promotion' as an aim and strategy of democratic foreign policies - that is, to embed the empirical research on democracy promotion in theoretical perspectives on international relations. This article sets out to contribute to filling this gap by developing a classification of competing theoretical approaches. First, research on the democratic peace - the one major research program concerned with democratic foreign policy - is used to derive potential motives behind the promotion of democracy. Then, on this basis, existing theories of international relations are modified in order to locate democracy promotion within the foreign policy of democratic states. In conclusion, the article presents four sketches of potential theoretical approaches to the external promotion of democracy