The European Union as a Regional Normative Hegemon: The Case of European Neighbourhood Policy

This article analyses the European Union's European Neighbourhood Policy in the context of the European Union as an actor employing normative power in international politics. The European Neighbourhood Policy can be seen as a substitute for the Union's enlargement that has previously been the main vehicle for the Union's normative power in Europe. By relinquishing enlargement, the EU is in danger of losing its capacity for effectively stabilising its nearest neighbours as well as losing its legitimacy and justification in their eyes. The article discusses whether the European Neighbourhood Policy can be seen as a fruitful way out of the Union's present conundrum. It concludes that at least in its present form the Neighbourhood Policy is far from a panacea. It suffers from a lack of legitimacy as a result of its inability to answer the neighbours' calls for full political and institutional belonging in Europe.     

从欧洲主权债务危机看欧盟发展困境

2010年末爆发的爱尔兰债务危机,让尚未彻底走出次贷危机和希腊债务的欧盟再次陷入危机泥潭。虽然爱尔兰最终获得欧盟救助,但危机暴露出的欧盟发展困境令外界对欧洲的忧虑由主权债务风险,延伸至欧元是否会继续存在,欧盟是否会解体。     

The Nation-State: Durability Through Change

The nation?Cstate has recently come under attack as an institution incompatible with liberal democracy, or under ridicule as being a faked representation of a virtual invention, the nation. This study shows the historical reality and durability of the nation?Cstate as adapted to a modern perception of the nation and to the profoundly changed conditions in which it functions. It shows the transformation of the romantic ideology of nationalism of the early nineteenth century to a mere principle of political organization, according to which the nation?Cstate combines the cultural identity and the democratic will of a people. It shows also the resulting changes in the understanding of national identity and belonging for the individual. This study also examines some of the rival theories offered in this connection, such as the preference for the so-called civic nationality over an ethnic one and also the strong case for multiculturalism often voiced. The conclusions from these examinations are that the democratic nation?Cstate with a cultural identity of its own, with equal citizenship for all and extensive recognition of the cultural rights of minorities, has legitimately survived into a new era of globalization, of increasingly mixed populations, of cultures crossing borders and of increased international intervention. As an example of the problems faced by relatively new nation?Cstates, an epilogue presents the case of Israel which demonstrates the centrality and complexity of the minorities?? problem in the process of shaping a modern and normal nation?Cstate.     

欧盟的一次"政治地震"

法国全民公投结果,对<欧盟宪法条约>说"不".荷兰继之.受此影响,本来对"一体化"半心半意的英国,乘机宣布搁置公投.这无疑是欧罗巴大陆的一次"政治地震".这次"地震"是欧盟内外,政治、经济、社会错综复杂矛盾的总暴露.     

The European Union: A Shield Against the Downside of Globalization

Because they have failed to address the fundamental economic imbalances within Europe obscured by the single currency, each effort by European leaders so far to resolve the euro crisis has only deepened it. Without a decisive move toward fiscal and political union, accompanied by policies that push productivity and competitiveness toward convergence while closing the democratic deficit, the Eurozone will disintegrate. To discuss the way forward, the Nicolas Berggruen Institute's Council on the Future of Europe met in Rome on May 28 with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti. In this section we publish the contributions from that meeting by the former European leaders, scholars and Nobel laureates who are members of the Council.     

欧洲现代史中的苏联史

苏联史就是现代史的同义语,只有把苏联包括在内才有可能书写20世纪的世界历史;苏联的存在对20世纪世界历史的事件序列和结构,对国际体系,对文化关系和微观环境(不只局限于苏联),对政治和社会话语,对有关政治、经济、社会理论的形成,都产生了决定性的作用;不能把苏联史错误地理解为苏联疆域内的历史,也不能理解为现代史部门内众多国别史中的一部,因为苏联史同时显示出欧洲和全球的维度,波及西欧和欧洲以外的社会乃至日常生活和生活环境。因此,本文在兼顾欧洲背景的情况下,试图突出苏联史的几个主要线索,如人口损失、暴政、非斯大林化、苏维埃社会国家、合法性基础的改变、社会的转变、帝国的形成等,并探讨了与苏联现代化和工业化有关的理论问题。     

Differentiation within reciprocity: the European Union approach to preferential trade agreements

Recent statements on European Union (EU) trade policy towards developing countries (DCs) have stressed the need for differentiation between trading partners depending on their level of development. But what does this mean in practice? This article assesses the substance of EU trade policy towards a number of partners at different levels of development on the basis of the texts of recent preferential trade agreements (PTAs). It argues that EU PTA policy exhibits differentiation within a general shift towards reciprocity vis-à-vis DCs and that this needs to be assessed at the level of specific policy areas as much as partner country. It also suggests that the factors shaping EU policy vary from case to case with commercial competition and sector interests relatively more important in PTAs with emerging markets and high-income DCs and norms and institutional factors relatively more important in shaping those with least developed or low-income DCs.     

欧盟的环境权保护

环境权的定义，一般来说，是根据《斯德哥尔摩人类环境宣言》，“人类有权在一种能够过尊严的和福利的生活的环境中，享有自由、平等和充足的生活条件的基本权利，并且负有保证和改善这一代和世世代代的环境的庄严责任”。从具体内容看，主要包括环境资源的使用权、环境状况知情权、环境事务参与权、环境侵害请求权等诸项权利。     

The European Union and Mercosur: A case of inter-regionalism

The article reviews the relation between two regional integration arrangements, the European Union and Mercosur, under three aspects: trade and investment, international negotiations and the institutional dimension. Tracing the agenda and issues dealt with between the two, leading to a project of a transatlantic free trade area, reveals that trade issues, one of two 'pillars' of reference, are important. However, the most influential results have stemmed so far from the other 'pillar', the political one. These results may be seen in the EU's role as a 'road map' for Mercosur's institutional trajectory, and second, as a signal for the private sector in furthering industrial networks within the ongoing world economic restructuring. The objective, thus, is to highlight how the relationship may interact with two encompassing processes: the shaping of regionalism/s, in particular the Mercosur case, and the so-called globalisation process.     

Hungary and the European Union: The political implications of societal security promotion

Hungary's constitutional commitment to support kin-nationals beyond its borders (nation policy) has been a central feature of its post-1989 foreign policy and highlights a particularly important national security concern—the societal security of national identity, culture, language and tradition. This article examines Hungary's societal security concerns and the policy methods it utilises, including its EU membership and the promotion of minority rights at the European level, to help combat these concerns. It is suggested that Hungary has found it somewhat difficult to balance its societal security policy objective with internal economic demands on its welfare system and its external foreign policy objective to maintain good neighbourly relations. This article also notes that Hungary's attempts to Europeanise, or rather ‘EU-ise’, minority and ethnic rights issues as a means to enhance societal security for the Hungarian nation has certain political consequences for the EU. This suggests that societal security provision is an issue that cannot be overlooked when trying to understand the longer-term implications of EU eastern enlargement.     

Facing the Giant: Southern perspectives on the European Union

The European Union portrays itself as a different global actor. This self-representation has triggered a debate around the EU as a global ‘normative power’, while providing momentum for innovative research into how other societies view and assess the global performance of the EU. For the first time this article presents the findings of a study conducted respectively in Brazil, India and South Africa. As leading nations of the ‘global South’, these three countries offer important insights into how the EU is perceived not only in emerging markets, but also in the so-called developing world at large. The findings reveal that the EU is an unknown entity to most citizens in these countries and is rarely covered by local media. Moreover, it is often criticised for inconsistencies and double standards by political elites and civil society, especially in the area of international trade, while being praised as a successful example of regional integration.     

Regionalism and African agency: negotiating an Economic Partnership Agreement between the European Union and SADC-Minus

This article investigates the regional dynamics of African agency in the case of negotiations on an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the EU and a group of Southern African countries, known as SADC-Minus. I argue that these negotiations were shaped by a pattern of differentiated responses to the choice set on offer under the EPAs by SADC-Minus policy makers and by a series of strategic interactions and power plays between them. I offer two contributions to an emerging literature on the role of African agency in international politics. First, I argue for a clear separation between ontological claims about the structure–agency relationship and empirical questions about the preferences, strategies and influence of African actors. Second, I suggest that, in order to understand the regional dynamics of African agency, it is important to pay close attention to the diversity and contingency of African preferences and to the role of both power politics and rhetorical contestation in regional political processes.