In the wake of the EU brokered agreement, Serbs in Northern Kosovo are more likely to pursue pragmatic co-existence with Pristina

On 19 April, the EU brokered a deal to normalise relations between Serbia and Kosovo. This deal has been opposed by leaders in the majority Serb area of Northern Kosovo, but this view may not be shared by the population, argues Jelena Obradovic-Wochnik. She writes that the potential for EU membership and a pragmatic coexistence with Kosovo means that North Kosovo Serbs may have greater job and economic opportunities; opportunities which may become more important than already weakening political loyalties

The 'silent dilemma' of transitional justice:silencing and coming to terms with the past in Serbia

This article explores the intersections of silence and transitional justice in Serbia, where, it is often suggested, the general public is silent and indifferent about human rights abuses that took place during the former Yugoslav conflicts. It considers both the 'silent' public and the ways in which transitional justice may be complicit in silencing it. Based on scholarship that suggests silences are not absences but rather sites of silent knowledge or a result of silencing, the article explores some of the dynamics hidden within the public's silence: shared knowledge, secret practices and inability to discuss violence. It also considers the ways in which audiences subvert and resist organized transitional justice initiatives or are caught up in a 'silent dilemma' in which they are unable to speak about the past under the discursive conditions created by transitional justice practitioners

Governance in foreign policy-making in Germany and Poland and Polish-German relations:the role of non-state actors

This thesis examines the influence of non-state actors on Polish-German relations by considering foreign policy-making towards Poland in Germany and vice versa. The approach chosen for this thesis is interdisciplinary and takes into consideration literature from domestic politics (Area Studies), Foreign Policy Analysis and International Relations (IR). The thesis argues that IR, by purely looking into the quality of inter-state relations, too often treats these relations as a result of policies emanating from the relevant governments, without considering the policies’ background. Therefore, the thesis argues that it is necessary to engage with the domestic factors which might explain where foreign policies come from. It points out that non-state actors influence governments’ choices by supplying resources, and by cooperating or competing with the government on an issue at stake. In order to determine the degree of influence that non-state actors can have on foreign policymaking two variables are examined: the institutionalisation of the state relations in question; and the domestic structures of the relevant states. Specifically, the thesis examines the institutionalisation of Polish-German relations, and examines Germany’s and Poland’s domestic structures and their effect on the two states’ foreign policy-making in general. Thereafter, the thesis uses case studies in order to unravel the influence of non-state actors on specific foreign policies. Three case studies are examined in detail: (i) Poland’s EU accession negotiations with regard to the free movement of capital chapter of the acquis communautaire; (ii) Germany’s EU 2004 Eastern Enlargement negotiations with regard to the free movement of workers chapter of the acquis communautaire; and (iii) Germany’s decision to establsh a permanent exhibition in Berlin that will depict the expulsions of millions of Germans from the East following WWII

The everyday at the border: Examining visual, material and spatial intersections of international politics along the ‘Balkan Route’

This article examines the intersections between the visual, spatial and material and considers how these interactions capture the border politics of everyday ‘banal’ objects. We do this by looking at some of the objects and things that constitute the ‘Balkan Route’ through Europe: posters, signs, directions, notices, flyers and maps produced by state authorities and volunteer-led aid networks. We use objects to reflect more broadly on how seemingly banal and everyday things become incorporated into the political work of states and become constitutive of fluid borders. We argue that everyday objects become visualisations of states and authorities, and help to make and regulate physical spaces. We show how each visual object encountered along the route gives us a broader insight into the macropolitics of European border regimes, specifically the effects of ‘closed borders’ and the criminalisation of aid networks. The article pushes forward the ‘aesthetic turn’ debate in international relations by bringing in insights from political geography and materialism, and suggests that a walking methodology can be a productive way of encountering the visual and understanding how its physical location creates political effects

Making territory through infrastructure: The governance of natural gas transit in Europe

AbstractRecent political and military events in Ukraine have brought into sharp focus concerns over the security of European gas supplies from Russia. At the same time, the creation of an infrastructural and political ‘energy union’ has become a key stated priority for the governing bodies of the European Union. Both contingencies have highlighted the 28-nation bloc’s dependence on energy sources well beyond its state boundaries, underpinned by the existence of a transnational network for the transport and distribution of natural gas. We develop a theoretical framework predicated upon assemblage and governance approaches to explore the regulatory practices and spatial features associated with this hitherto largely unexplored infrastructural realm. Qualitative evidence from interviews, policy documents and media reports is interrogated interpretively and with the aid of social network analysis techniques. The paper reveals the existence of a socio-technical assemblage for the transmission of natural gas across national boundaries emerging as a result of the erosion of decision-making power away from established state actors, and the rise of new institutional orders. While undermining the organizational arrangements that have traditionally dominated the European gas sector, these contingencies also challenge existing understandings of transnational energy governance as they apply to overland gas transit

Liberal Violence and the Racial Borders of the European Union

This paper examines how racial violence underpins the European Union’s border regime. Drawing on two case studies, in northern France and the Balkans, we explore how border violence manifests in divergent ways: from the direct physical violence which is routine in Croatia, to more subtle forms of violence evident in the governance of migrants and refugees living informally in Calais, closer to Europe’s geopolitical centre. The use of violence against people on the move sits uncomfortably with the liberal, post‐racial self‐image of the European Union. Drawing upon the work of postcolonial scholars and theories of violence, we argue that the various violent technologies used by EU states against migrants embodies the inherent logics of liberal governance, whilst also reproducing liberalism’s tendency to overlook its racial limitations. By interrogating how and why border violence manifests we draw critical attention to the racialised ideologies within which it is predicated. This paper characterises the EU border regime as a form of “liberal violence” that seeks to elide both its violent nature and its racial underpinnings

Die Funktion der Cochaperone FKBP51, FKBP52 und p23 bei der Signaltransduktion der Corticoidrezeptoren

Um die Therapiemöglichkeiten bei depressiven Störungen zu verbessern, ist die Kenntnis der molekularen Grundlagen dieser Erkrankungen notwendig. Die erhöhten basalen Cortisolwerte im Serum von depressiven Patienten und die gestörte negative Rückkopplung der HPA-Achse sind Hinweise darauf, daß die Funktionsweise der Rezeptoren für Corticoide wie Cortisol eingeschränkt ist. Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit den Cochaperonen für die Corticoid-Signaltransduktion, insbesondere den Immunophiline FKBP51 und FKBP52, sowie p23. Für die Immunophiline wurde entdeckt, daß für ihren Beitrag zu einer effizienten Aktivierung Corticoid-abhängiger Promotoren drei Eigenschaften von Bedeutung sind: 1. Interaktion mit Hsp90, um überhaupt den Zugang zum Heterokomplex zu erhalten, 2. Wechselwirkung mit Dynein, um den nukleären Transport der Rezeptoren zu begünstigen und 3. die Peptidyl-Prolyl-Isomerase-Aktivität. Diese Postulate gründen sich auf die folgenden experimentellen Befunde: Das Immunophilin FKBP51 reduziert als Bestandteil des Heterokomplexes mit Hsp90 und den Corticoidrezeptoren sowohl die Bindungsaffinität (Denny et al., 2000) als auch die nukleäre Translokation des Glucocorticoidrezeptors (GRs) und des Mineralocorticoidrezeptors (MRs). Im Gegensatz zu seinem Homologen FKBP52 zeigt FKBP51 nur eine geringe Interaktion mit dem Motorprotein Dynein, welches für den retrograden Transport verantwortlich ist. Durch Einführung einer Punktmutation, die die Peptidyl-Prolyl-Isomerase-Aktivität inaktiviert, konnte gezeigt werden, daß FKBP51 diese Aktivität nicht für seine inhibierende Wirkung benötigt. Im Gegensatz dazu liefert die PPIase-Aktivität von FKBP52 einen aktiven Beitrag für die Funktionalität der Corticoidrezeptoren, weil die analoge Mutation in FKBP52 zur einer Hemmung der Transaktivierung und nukleären Translokation des GRs und des MRs führt. Da diese Mutante immer noch mit Dynein interagiert, ist allein die Wechselwirkung mit diesem Motorprotein offensichtlich nicht ausreichend für die volle GR-Aktivität. Des weiteren konnte gezeigt werden, daß Polymorphismen im FKBP51-Gen nicht nur mit dem Erfolg einer Antidepressivabehandlung korrelieren, sondern auch mit den Proteinmengen von FKPB51 in Lymphozyten. Schließlich wurde die Bedeutung von p23 analysiert, einem kleinen Cochaperon von Hsp90, dem aber auch eigene Chaperonaktivität zugeschrieben wurde. Durch gezielte Mutationen im p23-Protein war es möglich, seine Chaperonaktivität getrennt von seiner Cochaperon-Funktion zu untersuchen. Dabei stellte sich heraus, daß p23 für die Hemmung der GR-abhängigen Transkription nur als Hsp90-Cochaperon fungiert, weil zwar seine Interaktion mit Hsp90 für diesen Effekt notwendig war, nicht aber seine Chaperonaktivität. Um die beschriebene nukleäre Rolle von p23, die zum Zerfall von GR-Transkriptionskomplexen führt, zu untersuchen, wurde ein konstitutiv nukleärer GR verwendet. Auch hier benötigt p23 für die Hemmung des Rezeptors seine Hsp90-Interaktion, nicht aber seine Chaperonaktivität. Diese Arbeit leistet einen Beitrag zum Verständnis der Rolle von Chaperonen in der Steroid-Signaltransduktion. Darüber hinaus wurden starke Hinweise für eine mögliche Rolle von FKBP51 bei der Depression entdeckt