Claims to legitimacy count: Why sanctions fail to instigate democratisation in authoritarian regimes

International sanctions are one of the most commonly used tools to instigate democratisation in the post‐Cold War era. However, despite long‐term sanction pressure by the European Union, the United States and/or the United Nations, non‐democratic rule has proven to be extremely persistent. Which domestic and international factors account for the regimes' ability to resist external pressure? Based on a new global dataset on sanctions from 1990 to 2011, the results of a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) provide new insights for the research on sanctions and on authoritarian regimes. Most significantly, sanctions strengthen authoritarian rule if the regime manages to incorporate their existence into its legitimation strategy. Such an unintended ‘rally‐round‐the‐flag’ effect occurs where sanctions are imposed on regimes that possess strong claims to legitimacy and have only limited economic and societal linkages to the sender of sanctions.     

Cross-border metropolitan governance: the multi-faceted state power

Metropolitan regions have become one of the most appropriate scales to define efficient governance networks for economic and territorial development. The state still is the key actor of these partnerships. Yet the question remains whether cross-border metropolitan regions represent a new point of reference that puts state power in question or whether they only reorganize it. The centrality of state power will be examined by looking at two networks of actors (public transport and territorial marketing) working at the Eurometropolis Lille–Kortrijk–Tournai. The results reveal that a triple-faceted state power has emerged to define and organize cross-border metropolitan management.     

Somalia versus Captain ‘Hook’: assessing the EU's security actorness in countering piracy off the Horn of Africa

An internal security problem of Somalia—state failure from internal conflict resulting in increased piracy—has increasingly become an external security problem for the European Union (EU). This article contributes to analysing the role of the EU as a security actor in countering piracy off the Horn of Africa, by examining three different dimensions of the EU response to this problem: (a) the immediate EU response (the EU military mission EUNAVFOR Atalanta); (b) the medium-term EU response (the Critical Maritime Routes (CMR) programme launched by the European Commission); and (c) the long-term EU response (development and security assistance). This article concludes that the EU has been very active in addressing piracy through its naval task-force to protect maritime transport in the western Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, as well as its efforts to enhance regional counter-piracy capacities and thematic and geographical financial instruments. The EU thus has taken up the fight against ‘Captain Hook’.     

Erfordernisse einer nachträglichen bedingten Strafnachsicht in Suchtgiftsachen

Eine bedingte Strafnachsicht nach § 40 Abs 1 SMG setzt (ua) voraus, dass sich der an ein Suchtmittel gew?hnte Verurteilte mit Erfolg einer gesundheitsbezogenen Ma?nahme unterzogen hat. Ein solcher Erfolg ist anzunehmen, wenn das im konkreten Fall aus der Sicht der jeweiligen Wissenschaft m?gliche Ziel der gesundheitsbezogenen Ma?nahme erreicht ist. Ein "Teilerfolg" der Drogenfreiheit genügt nicht, wenn der Verurteilte noch weiterer gesundheitsbezogener Ma?nahmen bedürfte, um einer Drogenabstinenz zumindest n?her zu kommen. In verfahrensrechtlicher Hinsicht setzt eine nachtr?gliche bedingte Strafnachsicht nach § 40 Abs 1 SMG grunds?tzlich einen zuvor gew?hrten Aufschub des Strafvollzugs gem § 39 Abs 1 SMG voraus. Nur in besonderen Ausnahmef?llen ist eine solche Strafnachsicht auch ohne vorherigen Strafaufschub m?glich, insb dann, wenn der Verurteilte nach Rechtskraft des Urteils alles für einen optimalen Entzug getan hat, also keinerlei weitere Ma?nahmen für eine Drogenabstinenz notwendig sind.     

The Timber Trade in Southeastern Brazil, 1920–1960

Logging economies in Latin America have long supplied forest resources to international and domestic markets. One of Latin America's more significant timber regions supplied South America's largest industrial metropolis, São Paulo. However, relatively little is known about the historical geography of logging in Brazil, or elsewhere in Latin America, in part because of the bias of forest histories to the destruction, rather than utilisation, of forest resources. This study focuses on domestic demand for hardwood and its salient characteristics: transport, the distribution of sawmills, the use of contracts and dangerous working conditions.