Beyond Semi‐sovereignty: The new Germany in the new Europe

Semi‐sovereignty was identified by Peter Katzenstein as an external condition of West German Politics. Semi‐sovereignty persists as an internal condition of the new German state, but externally Germany is less semi‐sovereign as a result of the disappearance of external restrictions and its increasing economic and political power which is now allied to its greater freedom of manoeuvre in the security area. While less semi‐sovereign in objective terms than before unity, it is argued that the political elite in Germany will continue to be multilateralists and to eschew the adoption of a national interest discourse.     

Arzamas-16 and Russian Studies

Abstract

A Korean specialist analyzes the project designed to link the Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR) and Trans-Korean Railway (TKR), a project that is currently under active discussion in both Russia and South Korea. The significance of the TSR in relation to Russia's new strategy towards the Asia-Pacific region and the present conditions of international transit container traffic is examined. An evaluation is offered of the critical issues that need to be resolved to make the project a reality as well as implications of the project for economics and politics in the region if the project reaches completion.     

No Solutions,Only Trade‐Offs? Evidence about Goal Conflict in Street‐Level Bureaucracies

Theories of goal conflict suggest that public organizations confront two possibilities when they face multiple policy goals: (1) organizations attain synergy among lower‐order, instrumental goals in order to achieve higher‐order objectives, or (2) organizations face a zero‐sum trade‐off among goals. Implicit in this debate is the proposition that trade‐off is more likely when performance toward the attainment of multiple goals is measured with substantively exclusive metrics and under varying environments of task difficulty. This research examines which of these theories appears to explain the implementation and interaction of multiple policy goals in the context of Georgia public high schools. The findings demonstrate the highly contingent nature of goal synergy and trade‐off. While goal synergy is possible in the interaction of multiple lower‐order goal attainment, more robust gains can be made toward a higher‐order objective by focusing on one particular lower‐order goal rather than an all‐inclusive approach to goal attainment.     

Patronage and empowerment in the central Amazon

The shift from modern to post‐modern politics in the Central Amazon is critically evaluated. While considerable empowerment of previously marginalised. Amerindians, rubber tapers and frontier peasants has occurred, patronage networks remain top down in their decision‐making process, significant horizontal political mobilisation between different social actors has not emerged and grassroots political organisation has been stymied by authoritarian politics at the state level. Consequently, as empowerment is supposed to lie at the heart of building sustainable livelihoods in the Amazon, by this line of logic, the future of the region would seem to be seriously compromised.