Europe after the U.S. Pivot

Insofar as Europe's security and cohesion have for decades been premised upon a strong American political and strategic engagement, Washington's intention to “rebalance” to Asia casts a shadow over the sustainability of a stable and coherent geopolitical order on the continent. This article argues that as the United States seeks to rebalance strategically towards the Asia-Pacific region a number of “indigenous” geopolitical trends are becoming increasingly important in Europe: an Anglo-French entente for a “maritime” Europe, a German-French “continental” project of economic and political integration, and Russia's resurgence across Europe's East. The growing prominence of competing geopolitical visions for Europe might even call into question the cohesion and direction of the institutional expressions of the U.S.- engineered Western order in Europe, namely the Atlantic Alliance and the European Union. Increasing geopolitical and institutional contestation, we contend, pose a number of challenges for both U.S. interests and European security.     

Regional and multi-level governance: East Asian leadership after the global financial crisis

Although the economies of East Asia emerged from the global financial crisis of 2008 in comparatively strong positions, they remain structurally embedded within global markets. The degree of regional integration that has occurred within East Asia is thus predicated on the on-going interdependence with the economies of Europe and North America. Moves to advance East Asian regional cooperation in the wake of the crisis reflect this global interdependence, as well as intra-regional differences in interests and a lack of strong leadership within the region. Modest cooperation on an East Asian basis has continued since 2008 but the region is very far from realising a substantive regional governance model on economic and financial issues and does not appear to be pursuing a distinctive governance agenda. This article examines recent developments in East Asian regional cooperation, with a view to assessing the significance of current achievements and explaining the mixed and sometimes contradictory nature of initiatives for regional governance in East Asia.     

Eurodad's campaign on multilateral debt: The 1996 HIPC debt initiative and beyond

'Multilateral debt is not a widespread problem for Severely Indebted Low Income Countries' wrote the World Bank in September 1994. Two years later, the International Financial Institutions-the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund-agreed to a proposal to bring the debt of Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs) to sustainable levels. While imperfect, the proposal went some way to meeting the demands of NGOs which, with progressive forces both within the World Bank and among creditor countries, have played a crucial role in this process. While the multilateral debt problem is now too great to ignore, the authors maintain that it has been the persistent pressure of these players that has been responsible for the enormous progress made by the IFIs.     

Lessons from the Asian financial crisis for the eurozone: a comparative analysis of the perilous politics of austerity in Asia and Europe

This paper comparatively examines diverse responses from three major actors in the global political economy (the state, civil society, international financial institutions) to the Asian financial crisis of 1997 and the current eurozone crisis. First, it analyses conditional lending policies of international financial institutions (IFIs) such as the International Monetary Fund toward countries in fiscal distress. It then critically examines how the lending policies engendered social tensions and conflicts as austerity measures such as cuts to social welfare programmes hit hard on the populace. Examining how the state and civil society in Asia reacted to and, as a result of contentious state–civil society interactions, altered the policies of IFIs, the paper draws lessons from the Asian financial crisis for the European Union and puts forwards alternative policy suggestions.     

欧元启动前后欧盟国家洗钱业评析

欧元的诞生曾使洗钱分子欣喜若狂 ,因为黑钱变“白”似乎比原来更容易。而随着犯罪手段先进化、犯罪传播国际化的发展 ,欧洲反洗钱工作变得更加艰难。但是只要欧盟各国齐心协力、坚持不懈 ,洗钱分子必将成为过街的老鼠 ,人人喊打     

"3·11"后欧洲反恐新动向

3月11日,西班牙马德里发生连环爆炸案,造成了2 0 0多人遇难、千余人受伤的惨剧,被称作是欧洲的“9·11”。这一事件使整个欧洲为之震撼,激起了欧洲各界对恐怖主义威胁的重新评估,加速了欧盟内部的反恐合作进程,并在一定程度上改变了欧洲的政治格局,引发了欧美关系的微妙变化。“3·11”爆炸发生后,欧洲人开始重新定位欧洲所面临的恐怖主义威胁,并得出对全球恐怖主义特征的新判断。首先,欧洲人已将马德里“3·11事件”看作是欧洲历史上从未有过的大规模恐怖袭击,事件意味着欧洲大陆呈现出了“全新的欧洲恐怖主义活动图景”①,国际恐怖主义已…     

空难事件后波兰对美欧俄政策走向

4月10日,波兰总统专机坠毁,包括总统在内的数十名政府高官全部遇难,卡钦斯基总统所在政党遭受致命打击,总理图斯克阵营的力量无形中得以增强.国内政党力量的变化必然对波外交政策走向产生一定影响.波与美国关系所受影响甚微,波仍会把发展与美特殊伙伴关系放在与大国关系首位.波亲欧势力加强,政治上会深化与欧盟关系,担当欧盟一体化建设的积极参与者,偏向欧洲主义;经济上会继续推动经济改革,尽快加入欧元区.此次空难事件会对波俄关系产生一定负面影响,但影响范围和程度不会过大,图斯克政府对于改善与俄关系的努力不会停滞,空难事件客观上甚至有利于波俄关系进一步改善.     

"3·11"后的欧洲及欧美关系

2004年3月11日发生在西班牙的恐怖袭击事件,可谓同“9·11事件”一样令世界震惊。这种震惊不仅仅在于它是二战后西班牙乃至欧洲死伤最为惨重的一次恐怖血案,还在于“9·11”后令欧洲担心因而力图加以防范的事情终于还是发生了。作为欧洲大家庭重要一员的西班牙,其发生的这次恐怖血案自然会对欧洲产生重大的冲击和影响;而作为伊战中美国在欧洲的“铁杆”之一却因大选换届导致与美“分道扬镳”的西班牙,由之产生的影响显然不会仅仅局限于欧洲。那么,人们不禁要问:这次恐怖血案就欧洲而言意味着什么?是痛定思痛后的从长计议?还是走美国式的“以暴制暴”路线?就欧美关系而言又意味着什么?是嫌隙尽消一致对外?还是分歧依旧同调不同路?北约、欧盟“双扩”无疑令人对这些问题更为关注。为此,本期我们特邀请中国现代国际关系研究院的六位专家举行对谈,试图找寻出答案。当然,一次对谈很难让您完全释惑,但果真能给您些许的启发,就是我们的收获。     

战后北非对欧洲移民问题及其影响

第二次世界大战以后,北非五国出现了持久的移民欧洲浪潮.导致这种移民潮的原因是多方面的,既有经济、政治、社会文化的动因,也与历史、地理和生存环境等因素有关.大规模的移民浪潮在北非和欧洲国家都引发了复杂的社会问题,并对北非与欧洲国家关系、北非与撒哈拉以南非洲国家关系产生了多方面的影响.长期以来,北非与欧洲国家采取了诸多应对措施来解决由移民引发的一些社会问题,虽然取得了一定的成效,但迄今仍面临多重挑战.     

Balancing against threats or bandwagoning with power? Europe and the transatlantic relationship after the Cold War

The United States has played an important role in European security since the early 20^th century. From the time of the end of the Cold War, this role has changed as a consequence of the lack of a common territorial threat and the overwhelming power of the United States relative to Europe. How have European states responded to the challenges of the American world order? Are they adapting their security policies to match the challenges of US security policy and the American world order? What are the implications of the European response for the transatlantic relationship? This article seeks to describe and explain European security behaviour in the American world through the prism of two realist theories: balance of power realism and balance of threat realism. Despite sharing a common starting point in realist assumptions, each theory allows us to tell a different story about Europe's position in the American world order as well as the opportunities and challenges it faces.     

Social Europe and/or global Europe? Globalization and flexicurity as debates on the future of Europe

This article claims that the European Union (EU) has had a very peculiar relationship with the globalized post-Cold War economic order. On the one hand, the EU was instrumental in bringing about this order. It aggressively promoted (both internally and externally) the principles and policies upon which this economic order has been based. On the other hand, this proactive engagement was translated within the EU into a highly polarized and antagonistic public discourse that led to a serious identity crisis. In this way, it is argued that economic globalization emerged in the EU as a debate on the nature and future of Europe. After 2005, this polarized and antagonistic discourse started to change. The rise of flexicurity, as a new way of thinking about Europe's place and orientation in the global political economy, has been instrumental in this shift. The article examines and evaluates these developments and their implications for the European project.     

Britain and the Kuwaiti crisis, 1961

The Kuwaiti crisis of 1961 has conventionally been accorded little attention in histories of Britain's role in the Middle East. In fact, the crisis was an important defining moment, focusing the minds of policymakers on British interests in the Gulf, and the question of the best means of preserving them. It was also the largest scale mobilization of British forces in the Middle East in the post-Suez era. This article sets the crisis in the context of longer term British relations with Kuwait, internal developments in the Emirate, the evolution of British strategy in the region since Suez and Kuwaiti-Iraqi relations in order to understand the significance of the episode.