European Defence Agency: A Flashpoint of Institutional Logics

The European Defence Agency (EDA) works in a policy area traditionally characterised by high diversity among actors regarding basic notions of what level of integration and which principles of interaction in the defence sector are appropriate for the EU, which countries should participate in defence cooperation, and what coordination mechanisms and instruments should be used. In all these dimensions, the EDA has been a flashpoint of institutional logics representing different visions of how various aspects of defence integration in the EU should be organised. There are tensions between the logic of supranational regulation and the logic of intergovernmental networking; between the logic of defence sovereignty and the logic of pooled defence resources; between the Europeanist and the Euro-Atlanticist logic; and finally between the logics of liberalisation and Europeanisation of the defence market. Studying the ways in which the collisions of institutional logics are being accommodated by the EDA can contribute to greater understanding of the emerging political order of European defence.     

Book Reviews

Arran Gare: NIHILISM, INC.: Environmental Destruction and the Metaphysics of Sustainability. Como, New South Wales, Australia: Eco‐Logical Press, 1996.

David Harvey: Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996.

David Macauley, editor: Minding Nature: The Philosophers of Ecology. New York: The Guilford Press, 1996.

Daniel M. Herman and John T. O'Connor: Who Owns the Sun? People, Politics, and the Struggle for a Solar Economy. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 1996.

Harold Crooks: Giants of Garbage: The Rise of the Global Waste Industry and the Politics of Pollution Control. Toronto: Lorimer, 1993

Sudhir Chella Rajan: The Enigma of Automobility: Democratic Politics and Pollution Control. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1996.

Garrett Hardin: Living Within Limits: Ecology, Economics, and Population Taboos. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.     

Gated communities: The new ideal way of life in natal,Brazil

Abstract

Gated communities have been growing quickly in Brazil's urban and suburban areas since the 1980s, bringing challenges to society through their privatization of public space, conflict with planning norms, and interference with the integrated planning of the cities in which they are built. My article analyzes this phenomenon to establish a clear basis for purposeful public policies in Brazil. The analysis is based on a case study of the first three closed condominiums in Natal. It involves 31 semistructured interviews focusing on legal, urban/architectural, and segregational factors and their implications.

Federal and local governments have contributed, deliberately or unwittingly, to the development of such enclosed complexes, which have social and spatial impacts and guarantee that the upper class will remain wealthy. There also seems to be a close relationship between the spread of fortified residences and the promotion of a “culture of fear.”     

Spacing commemorative-related violence in Northern Ireland: assessing the implications for a society in transition

This paper explores the geography of commemorative-related violence in Northern Ireland and considers its ramifications for a society in transition. Using original primary research, this article contributes to discussions on violence, space and memory through a spatial analysis of new quantitative archival data and existing archival material explored through a multi-disciplinary lens. It examines the complex relationship between the practices and processes of commemoration, the violence that it sometimes occasions and the places in which such violence exists. In unpacking this specific form of violence we consider the continued importance of both place and past in a post-conflict society.     

Language and the Learning Crisis: Evidence of Transfer Threshold Mechanisms in Multilingual Reading in South India

This paper provides evidence for a non-linear relationship between local language and English reading scores in multilingual South India. The mechanism suggests that being taught English prematurely may lead to struggles in English literacy acquisition; whereas being taught English after achieving a threshold reading level in the local language may lead to success in transitioning to English literacy acquisition. We base our findings on non-parametric and parametric regression analysis of data from assessments that were uniquely designed for South and Southeast Asian languages, and for multilingual children. Our findings help explain the global trend of increased school enrolment, with learning achievements lagging.     

Memories of ethnic cleansing and the local Iron Curtain in the Czech–German borderlands

The Czech–German borderlands are an archetypal European border region. They evoke not only Cold War histories, but also shelter layers of European memories of the ethnic reshaping of early post-war Europe. By means of life story interviews with German speakers of the border region, this article analyzes the symbolic meaning of and the individual dealing with the local Iron Curtain. It will shed light on the biographical and narrative interconnectedness of experiences of ethnic cleansing in the early post-war period and retrospective perceptions of the Iron Curtain in these borderlands. In particular, it inquires whether and to what extent the local Iron Curtain intensified fractures caused by the region's post-and pre-war attempts to halt the multiethnic composition of the border communities. The article suggests that the local Czech–German Iron Curtain would have never endured as strongly if the border communities' common identity had not already been severely damaged in the course of the region's traumatic history and forced population transfers.     

Go West: Georgia's European identity and its role in domestic politics and foreign policy objectives

This article sheds light on the Euro-Atlantic discourse in Georgia by situating it in a wider frame. It provides an analysis of its Euro-Atlantic orientation by presenting it as a continuation of past efforts to involve European powers in Georgian affairs and highlights changing trends in this aspect of contemporary foreign policy. Far from determining whether or not the Georgians are European, the different arguments that have been used to support Georgian “Europeanness” are evaluated to assess its role in the national identity construction process. Focusing primarily on the United National Movement government led by Mikheil Saakashvili, we demonstrate how the Euro-Atlantic discourse has been employed domestically by the political elite as a legitimacy management strategy and explore its function in seeking Western patronage, a key foreign policy goal.