The EU,the United States and Partnership in Development Cooperation: Bridging the Gap?

This paper investigates the degree to which EU and United States development policies reflect partnership, meaning that aid is based on negotiations on an equal basis. It finds that, while the EU has traditionally been more focused on partnership than the United States, in recent years the gap is narrowing. The EU is increasingly providing aid based on a security rationale and has become reluctant to give budget support, while the United States is starting to work more with local actors. Changes in public support for aid, the EU’s growing role as a security provider and institutional changes can explain this trend.     

After Oslo and Utøya: A Shift in the Balance Between Security and Liberty in Norway?

The article addresses the challenges a society faces to when trying to balance security and liberty after a terrorist attack. A main question is to what extent attitudes toward counterterror measures changed in Norway after the massive terror attacks in July 2011. A hypothesis that people will be more in favor of such measures after a terror attack is examined using data from two surveys—one conducted in 2006 and one in August 2011, with additional results from a survey in 2012. The Norwegian response after the 2011 attacks is compared to the response to the same questions in the United States shortly after 11 September 2001. A main finding is that in Norway, in contrast to the United States, levels of support for counterterror measures declined immediately after the attacks. The authors argue that this can be explained partly by the different levels of trust in the two countries, and partly by differences in the political executive's framing of the crisis. In 2012, support of counterterror measures in Norway has risen to pre-2011 levels. This is related to the changed discourse after the publication of the report from the 22 July Commission.     

Analysing the subject of peace in award-winning children’s and adolescent novels in Turkey

The purpose of this study is to reveal how the concept of peace is addressed in the national award-winning novels written for secondary school students within the Republic of Turkey. Data for this study was obtained from child and youth literature award organizations, associations and publishers within Turkey. Each group which was researched has been awarding literature prizes for at least five years. Books which were researched were chosen from the award lists from these organizations for the five-year period of 2009–2013. All of the books were utilized in the analyses and all books in this study were examined as written instruments. The data for this research was evaluated through qualitative research methodology using content analysis. For this research, the main category – peace – was analysed based on five sub-categories including; ‘having human rights’, ‘having cooperation, sharing and solidarity’, ‘not having prejudice and stereotypes’, ‘having conflict resolution’ and ‘being sensitive to the environment’. It can be said that award-winning children’s and adolescent novels are written in a way that is sensitive in terms of the ideas of peace and they have the qualities which can generate the ideas of peace in the hearts of children and adolescences Please check whether the abstract and keywords have been set correctly.     

Common Foreign and Security Policy Alignment in the Southern Caucasus: Convergence, ‘Pick and Choose’ or Indifference?

This article examines the issue of Common Foreign and Security Policy alignment—a procedure by which governments from the European Union's neighbourhood may support previously adopted Common Foreign and Security Policy documents. It provides a comparative theory test of Common Foreign and Security Policy alignment in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. In doing so it seeks to elucidate why they engage in alignment as well as how cross-country and cross-issue variance can be theorised. After reviewing the explanatory potential of power-based and sociological institutionalist theory, domestic variables are assessed. The essay shows that, contrary to frequently expressed assumptions, convergence is even possible in less institutionalised high politics fields. But it emphasises that it is largely conditioned by domestic institutional configurations, the preferences of individual or collective actors and overall state gains.     

No man’s land? A comparative analysis of the EU and Russia’s influence in the Southern Caucasus

The article investigates, through a comparative analysis, the different mechanisms of influence that the EU and Russia are projecting in their shared neighborhood in shaping domestic politics. It focuses on the economic and energy sectors in order to analyze two relevant policies for contrasting EU and Russia’s influence in the case of the Southern Caucasus. Contrary to commonly held opinions, Russian influence is receding in both areas and is a dominant external actor only in Armenia. In contrast, the EU is slowly increasing its presence in the economic area and has become a key player in the energy sector.     

Subcontracting,growth and capital accumulation in small‐scale firms in the textile industry in Turkey

This study examines capital accumulation and growth among subcontracting small‐scale textile firms. We find that, in spite of the higher average profitability of non‐subcontracting production relative to subcontracting, the average annual rate of capacity expansion between the two groups is not statistically different from the former. This implies that the higher average productive capacity of the non‐subcontractors relative to that of the subcontracting firms are due to differences in their initial capacity. The study further suggests that there may be no easy transition from subcontracting to independent production. For many subcontractor firms in the sample, the cost of inputs required for independent production exceeds the current value of their gross earnings by a multiple.     

The Rise of Militant Islam and the Security State in the Era of the ‘Long War’

This paper distinguishes between political and militant Islam and analyses the latter's current ability to confront empire and to become a social force in Muslim-majority states. This analysis is within the dialectic of collaboration and resistance, starting with client postcolonial states' pivotal role in bringing to fruition the collaboration between political Islam and US imperialism during the cold war era. The post-cold war period signals the imperialist putsch to confront militant Islam in the ‘Long War’ by employing the cold war strategy of ‘permanent war’ and universalising the idea of the security state. Militant Islam's resistance to the Long War and the security state makes this two-pronged imperial strategy a losing proposition for the USA. Paradoxically this strategy has also become the prime mover for militant Islam's ascendancy. The paper addresses the paradox of the USA's continuation with its losing Long War strategy and securitisation agenda which, although providing succour to militant Islam, is also achieving its larger objectives to buttress capitalist globalism; fuel the military–industrial and security–industrial complexes; and support ‘big oil’.     

EU fta Negotiations with sadc and Mercosur: integration into the world economy or market access for EU firms?

The EU claims that its free trade agreements with regional organisations of developing countries can promote the respective regions' integration into the world economy. Taking as case studies EU negotiations with the Southern African Development Community and Mercosur, the paper argues that the EU and its partners have different conceptions of integration into the world economy. For the EU the latter simply means multilateral trade liberalisation under the wto, while, for its partners, it involves increasing industrial production and exports of manufactured products. If the latter notion is accepted, an fta with the EU should increase European foreign direct investment into the region or at least increase their trade surpluses, thus increasing the resources available for support of local firms. The paper argues that an fta with the EU will not be likely to produce these results; thus the fta will simply be an instrument to promote market access for EU firms.     

Russia and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation: Multilateral Policy or Unilateral Ambitions?

Ambivalence and misconceptions surround the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO). Relying upon the literature on multilateralism, state–IGO relations, regionalism and security governance, this study examines: which goals Russia is pursuing in its CSTO policy; how Russia engages with its individual members within the organisation; how Russia uses it in five foreign policy situations and with which results. It shows that Russia’s CSTO policy is more mixed and complex than is usually assumed. Russia uses the CSTO in pursuit of unilateral ambitions but it is also searching for partners. Russia’s policy has resulted in the formation of instrumental multilateralism within the CSTO.     

Two Imaginaries of Citizenship in Turkey: the Republican and ��Ethical�� Models

Notions of sovereign state-rule and citizenship which rest on the twentieth century epistemology of state centrism define the ??right to have rights?? in terms of a national, unified category of state membership. In its association of citizenship with state sovereignty, the republican citizenship model in Turkey allows the state bureaucracy to act with key unitary agency in managing the relationship between religion and politics. In contesting the republican model on both religious and civil grounds, a notion of ??ethical?? citizenship has emerged based on the extension of rights and freedoms through citizen activism. This paper illustrates this process through a comparative analysis of the religiously inspired demand by female students to remove the headscarf ban and by Alevi individuals to remove the designation of Islam from national identification cards.     

EU referendums in context: What can we learn from the Swiss case?

The rising number of referendums on EU matters, such as the Brexit and the Catalonian independence votes, highlight the increasing importance of referendums as a problem‐solving mechanism in the EU. We argue that the Swiss case provides essential insights into understanding the dynamics behind referendums, which are often lacking when referendums are called for in the EU. Referendums in EU member states on EU matters differ substantially from those in the Swiss context. Nevertheless, proponents of more direct democratic decision‐making regularly cite the Swiss example. Our systematic analysis of why referendums are called, how they unfold and their effects in the EU and Switzerland reveals that the EU polity lacks the crucial conditions that embed direct democracy within the wider political and institutional system. The comparative perspective offers fundamental insights into the preconditions required for direct democracy to function and its limitations in the EU.     

Settling the Sino–Russian Border Issue: Land in Exchange for a Strategic Partnership?

Abstract

China has been committed to resolving its border disputes with Russia since the late 1980s and expedited this move in the wake of the Cold War in the hope of removing what has been referred to as the ‘biggest obstacle’ to the establishment of a strategic partnership with Russia. In so doing, China pursued three interconnected objectives. The first relates to China’s strategic and security environment that, in the Chinese perspective, has worsened since the United States has unilaterally engaged in a policy of China-containment. The second objective is to maintain China’s economic growth through a partnership with its resource-abundant neighbour. Chinese political leadership and academics have considered economic modernisation as their ‘paramount’ task since Deng Xiaoping launched market reform in the late 1970s. The third objective is to fulfil China’s dream of restoring its past glory by rising in the global power hierarchy and reshaping the current world order more to its liking.     

When Do National Administrations Adapt to EU Policies? Variation in Denmark and Greece

This article joins the Europeanization studies and examines the administrative adaptation to Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), a highly institutionalized and regulated policy, in two small older member states, Denmark and Greece. The findings demonstrate variation in administrative adaptation. In Denmark, both formal and informal administrative structures adapt to CAP, while in Greece administrative adaptation is limited to formal structures. This variation is attributed to two dimensions of the domestic institutional and organizational settings, namely “centralization” and “professionalism.” The comparative analysis provides an in-depth understanding of the administrative differences between North and South—a cleavage that became prominent during the Eurozone crisis.     

Challenges for EU governance through Neighbourhood Policy and Eastern Partnership: the values/security nexus in EU–Belarus relations

Whereas the European Union (EU) has had some effect on political and economic reforms in the Ukraine and Moldova, it almost completely failed to impress the regime and population of Belarus. Despite growing consensus at the EU level that the Union's policies for Eastern Europe cannot succeed without Belarus, few attempts have been made to account for the failure of EU governance in Belarus. Having recalled the current legal and institutional set-up of EU–Belarus relations, this article introduces the notion of the ‘values/security nexus’ to explain the limited impact of EU governance in Belarus. It argues that the highly contradictory normative objectives in the Union's current Neighbourhood Policy towards Belarus effectively undermine the EU's credibility in the country: idealist values of ‘winning the hearts and minds’ of the Belarusian population increasingly collide with traditional realist goals of protecting EU interests and the stability of the Belarusian state. By way of conclusion, the article highlights the challenges facing the EU's new Eastern Partnership, including Belarus.