Of change,training and public affairs in Europe

European public affairs practitioners need to be increasingly professional in their reactions to an EU undergoing transformational change. The paper offers a comprehensive summary of the subtleties of institutional change in Commission, Parliament and Council in 2004. In particular, the author argues that expansion from 15 member states to 25 has fundamentally changed the nature of the Union's politics and the skills required to influence it. This new EU requires more of practitioners than experience and amateur instinct: to achieve results and avoid restrictive regulation, the public affairs community must adopt effective training strategies, challenging competence targets and regular self‐assessment of its performance and ethics. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications     

欧盟东扩与俄罗斯的对外经济贸易取向

在 90年代 ,通过东西欧经济一体化和对俄共同战略 ,欧盟已成功地把中东欧候选国和俄罗斯纳入欧盟的国际分工体系 ,并将最终把它们融入欧洲的政治和法律体系。欧盟东扩不仅使俄罗斯的对外贸易地理方向明显偏向西欧 ,而且使俄罗斯成为欧盟原材料和燃料的主要提供者。东扩后的欧盟将与俄罗斯拥有漫长的共同边界 ,从而使双方经贸关系更加密切 ,这无疑会成为 2 1世纪制约中俄贸易发展的一个重要因素。只有早日形成以产业内贸易为主体的贸易格局 ,中俄贸易才有可能取得较快的发展。     

中国高等学校扩招政策分析

政策网络分析是西方国家研究公共管理和公共政策的重要途径。运用这种理论进行分析,中国高校扩招政策具有关系稳定、对成员资格有高度限制、参与者之间相互依赖等特性。这种政策在实施过程中产生了诸如教育财政融资体系不健全、毕业生就业压力增加等问题。需要多元的社会利益群体的参与,以利于配套政策的制定,形成开放、多元的利益诉求整合模式。     

理想主义、保守主义与布什政府的进攻性民主扩展战略

理想主义和保守主义在人类本性、世界观和历史观、意识形态、思维方式等方面存在交叉或重合,但在改造世界的方式以及对权力政治的态度等方面也存在明显的差异。由于理想主义和保守主义在理论上具有交叉,它们可以融为一体,相互促进。受新保守派的影响,布什政府的民主扩展战略成为理想主义和保守主义的混合物,既有理想主义激情,又有保守主义的态度。正是这种理念的混合使得布什政府的民主扩展战略呈现出咄咄逼人的进攻性特点。     

Hungary's pre-accession strategy to the European Union in education, training and research

The article presents an analysis of the expected impact of EU accession on the Hungarian education, training and academic research system with a number of recommendations for an integration policy in these sectors. The first part of the article develops four themes: (1) the current level of preparation of the country for accession in the education sector, (2) the possible longer term benefits of accession, (3) the shorter term costs and (4) the most important elements of a policy of integration. A distinction is made between material and cultural, and that of political cost and benefits, the stress being laid on the second. One of the conclusions of the author is that accession may open up a number of new opportunities for the development and modernisation of the country but that these can be exploited only if the country has a coherent sectorial strategy. Specific preparation actions are proposed in the areas of school education, higher education, vocational training and research policy. The article presents a list of the most important short term government measures and the needs for institutional development. It also makes a proposal for possible further themes of investigation and research. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Neither here, not there: Bulgaria and Romania in current European politics

The article analyses the process of EU enlargement with reference to the progress that Bulgaria and Romania have made within it. It is argued that leaving them out of the wave of accession finalised in May 2004 for ten of the candidate states, has placed them in a situation of double exclusion. Firstly, their geographical belonging to the region of Southeast Europe has been rendered non-essential by their advanced position within the EU enlargement process. Secondly, their achievement in economic and political transition has been removed from the progress of the ten states, which joined the EU in May 2004 by delaying the time of their accession. As a result, any efforts in regional cooperation and integration between Bulgaria and Romania on one hand, and other Southeast European states on the other, have been effectively cancelled. Moreover, in current European politics, the two countries have come to serve the unenviable role of exemplifying on the part of the European Union how progress is being awarded and hesitation punished.     

Foreign policy, rhetorical action and the idea of otherness: The Czech Republic and Russia

This article employs the concept of rhetorical action in an analysis of the recent developments in Czech-Russian political relations. Through the discourse analysis of key Russian political speeches and official documents related to the Czech Republic, as well as Czech speeches tackling the same issues, we look at two different rhetorical actions employed by Russia to induce changes in Czech policy. The attempts to make Czech policy unacceptable in the wider community of European democracies were only partially successful. While the first rhetorical action aimed against Czech NATO membership failed, the new diplomatic strategy stressing the need for a “normalization” of relations was successful in transforming Czech policy towards Russia.     

Coercive Europeanization: the EU's struggle to contain secessionism in the Balkans

Secessionism is still the predominant conflict type in Europe. Even though the European Union (EU) extended the enlargement perspective to the Balkans 15 years ago, secessionist ambition remains pervasive, especially in Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia. How does secessionism affect Europeanization and how does Europeanization affect secessionism? It is argued here that in cases of unattained statehood domestic power struggles among deeply divided elites over status and territorial control undermine the consensus needed for Europeanization. In cases of attained de facto statehood the conflict focuses on recognition, which likewise polarizes societies and marginalizes reform. In such high-resistance scenarios, where the inclusionary EU norms clash with the exclusionary norms of the secessionists, the EU vigorously works to marginalize the secessionists by relying mainly on denial, punishment and imposition. Still, the EU's leverage is often insufficient in moving the conflicting parties towards within-state solutions and reform. A study of Bosnia's transformation since Dayton reveals, however, that the EU's leverage varies over time and that the EU at times itself inadvertently fans secessionism.     

欧盟东扩进入深水区（英文）

Since the drastic changes in Eastern Europe more than 20 years ago, the EU has been making tireless efforts on its eastern expansion project. That said, the attempt to include Ukraine as a member state recently triggered chaos in Europe that has not been seen in decades, flaring up a serious struggle between Russia and Western countries. Currently, EU enlargement faces a more complicated situation and is in urgent need of new measures.     

Transnational cooperation: a network analysis of town twinning in the Baltic Sea region

The patterns of cooperation between regions and urban spaces are no longer influenced, to the same extent, by national borders. Political integrative events changed the extent of transborder urban cooperation in the Baltic borderlands, a region that has undergone extensive changes. A social network analysis of cooperative ties in the form of town twinning indicates that the end of the Cold War strongly changed the network of town twinning in this region, whereas the effect of the various EU enlargement rounds seems to be more nuanced.