Transnational Globalization & Regional Governance. CES Germany & Europe Working Papers, No. 06.2, July 1996

Since the end of the 1980s, international relations has experienced a resurgence of regionalism in Europe (Single Market, Maastricht) and the Americas (NAFTA, MERCOSUR). Why did regional economic cooperation gain mo­ mentum? Theoretical approaches have proved the relevance of institutions, intergovernmental bargains, and na­ tional interest formation for the emergence of cooperation, but fall short in explaining why new cooperative moves happened in the late 1980s and early 1990s and not earlier. This paper argues that the simultaneous con­vergence of interests favoring regional organization of states was stimulated by transnational globalization. Since the early 1980s, states had to adapt to the pressures from transnational globalization, from actors and systems which are not shaped by national territories and interests, and which undermined traditional national economic policy and domestic coalitions. Under the new circumstances, joint regional governance on specific policy areas became an attractive option to respond to new constraints. With the conceptualization of transnational globalization as an explanatory factor for regional cooperation this paper does not dismiss other approaches, but rather attempts to complement the research agenda by shedding light on a crucial-but often neglected-aspect of international relations

Global Economic Governance - das Management der Weltwirtschaft ein Jahr nach dem G-8-Gipfel von Heiligendamm

Am 11. und 12. Juli 2008 fand unter der Leitung von Saskia Hieber und Wolfgang Quaisser, Akademie für Politische Bildung Tutzing, sowie Stefan A. Schirm, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, die Tagung »Global Economic Governance – das Management der Weltwirtschaft ein Jahr nach dem G-8-Gipfel von Heiligendamm« statt. Die Veranstaltung nahm ein Jahr nach dem G-8-Gipfel die Diskussion um ein besseres Management der Weltwirtschaft wieder auf und fragte – nach einer Bestandsaufnahme der Globalisierung der Finanzmärkte und des Welthandels – nach Möglichkeiten für ihre Governance durch die Staatengemeinschaft. Im Vordergrund standen die Analyse der Chancen und Risiken internationaler Handels- und Kapitalbewegungen, ihre Auswirkungen auf nationale Gesellschaften und die Strategien für ein effizienteres, aber auch legitimeres Management durch internationale Organisationen. Zur Einführung in das Thema unterstrich Stefan A. Schirm, Universität Bochum, die Notwendigkeit, bei der Analyse der Global-Economic-Governance-Debatte nach den handelnden Akteuren und ihren spezifischen Motiven zu suchen. Martin Hüfner, HF Economics Ltd., analysierte Chancen und Risiken globaler Finanzmärkte, Karlhans Sauernheimer, Universität Mainz, die Chancen und Risiken einer Liberalisierung des Welthandels. Alexander Lau, Deutscher Industrie- und Handelskammertag, befasste sich mit dem Erfolg der deutschen Unternehmen im Ausland und zeigte, dass der Standort Deutschland vom zunehmenden Auslandsengagement der deutschen Unternehmen profitiert. Isabella Timm-Guri, Bayerischer Bauernverband, stellte die Auswirkungen der Handelsliberalisierung auf die europäische Agrarwirtschaft und ihre Anliegen für die Gestaltung internationaler Handelsregeln dar. Stormy Mildner, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, stellte die Gründe vor, die aus ihrer Sicht zum Scheitern der Doha-Runde führten. Und Laura Carsten, Universität Bochum, analysierte den Einfluss der Schwellenländer auf den IWF und die WTO.

Integration of the End Cap TEC+ of the CMS Silicon Strip Tracker

The silicon strip tracker of the CMS experiment has been completed and inserted into the CMS detector in late 2007. The largest sub-system of the tracker is its end cap system, comprising two large end caps (TEC) each containing 3200 silicon strip modules. To ease construction, the end caps feature a modular design: groups of about 20 silicon modules are placed on sub-assemblies called petals and these self-contained elements are then mounted into the TEC support structures. Each end cap consists of 144 petals, and the insertion of these petals into the end cap structure is referred to as TEC integration. The two end caps were integrated independently in Aachen (TEC+) and at CERN (TEC--). This note deals with the integration of TEC+, describing procedures for end cap integration and for quality control during testing of integrated sections of the end cap and presenting results from the testing

Reception Test of Petals for the End Cap TEC+ of the CMS Silicon Strip Tracker

The silicon strip tracker of the CMS experiment has been completed and was inserted into the CMS detector in late 2007. The largest sub system of the tracker are its end caps, comprising two large end caps (TEC) each containing 3200 silicon strip modules. To ease construction, the end caps feature a modular design: groups of about 20 silicon modules are placed on sub-assemblies called petals and these self-contained elements are then mounted onto the TEC support structures. Each end cap consists of 144 such petals, which were built and fully qualified by several institutes across Europe. Fro

Societal foundations of European policy divergence in financial governance

EU member states frequently disagree over the management of financial crises, both regionally in the Eurozone and globally in the G20 despite decades of European integration, institution-building, and commitments to joint action. Mainstream integration theories of neofunctional institutionalism and liberal intergovernmentalism cannot sufficiently explain this puzzle of persistent European policy divergence on financial governance. I argue that the policy divergences can only be understood by analysing the societal foundations of governmental positions with the societal approach to governmental preference formation. The societal approach focusses on domestic societal ideas and material interests as explanatory variables for governmental positions. Regarding European policy divergence, I argue that both the coordination problems in the Eurozone and the European policy divergence in the G20 reflect the heterogeneity of domestic societal influences on member state governments. These arguments are empirically evidenced in case studies on the management of the Eurozone crisis and on Europe’s role in the governance of the global financial crisis in the G20