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This book provides a detailed understanding of how different types of engagements impact upon the reform and EU integration of the Western Balkan region. It examines the influence of Russia, China, Turkey and the UAE in the region and analyses the range of existing links. Contributors offer an academic and multifaceted perspective of the role of external and non-Western actors in the region that goes beyond, on the one hand, the tendency of some Western decision makers to perceive all engagement by third powers as a sinister threat and, on the other, the view of regional governments of all external involvement as a boon coming at a time of Western neglect and reduced foreign investments. By ...
European views on Turkey’s membership in the EU have been split between those in support of its full integration and those advocating a privileged partnership. To the extent that many of the latter proposals imply that Turkey will be partially integrated within Europe in certain areas, the question of Turkey’s accession is probably not about ‘if’, but about ‘how much’ integration there will be within the Union’s structures. The purpose of this book is not to offer a definitive response to this question. The book aims instead to examine the complexity of the issues pertaining to Turkey’s prospective EU membership by presenting several, often divergent, accounts of the politica...
There is every indication that the international system is undergoing a period of significant transformation. The substantially higher growth rates of the emerging-market economies in comparison with those of the developed economies are changing the global distribution of power. Studies project that if economic trends are not reversed in the coming years, China will surpass the US and become the world’s largest economy, India will emerge in Japan’s place as the third-largest economy and Brazil will outpace Germany as the fifth-largest. This book underscores the complexity of forecasting international politics and proceeds cautiously to investigate the questions of change and continuity, examining several actors with respect to multiple issues and across different levels of analysis. Taken as a whole, this collection of essays offers a series of snapshots of different aspects, and from varying angles, of an international system in motion.
The Greek economic crisis has imperilled the stability of the eurozone, generating much global anxiety. Policymakers, analysts, and the media have daily debated the course of the Greek economy, prescribing ways to move forward. This collection of essays progressively moves from an analysis of the causes of the crisis and the policy responses so far to a debate on some of the countryʼs advantages and capabilities that should underpin its new development model and propel the return to growth. The book analytically chooses to view the glass as half-full and seeks to provide motivation and inspiration for change by indicating some of the economic sectors where Greece maintains a comparative advantage. Therefore, it challenges the emerging picture of Greece as a country doomed to failure, where everything falls apart.
Analyzing informal trading practices and smuggling through the case study of Novi Pazar, this book explores how societies cope when governments no longer assume the responsibility for providing welfare to their citizens. How do economic transnational practices shape one’s sense of belonging in times of crisis/precarity? Specifically, how does the collapse of the Ottoman Empire – and the subsequent migration of the Muslim Slav population to Turkey – relate to the Yugoslav Succession Wars during the 1990s? Using the case study of Novi Pazar, a town in Serbia that straddles the borders of Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo that became a smuggling hub during the Yugoslav conflict, the book focu...
This book provides a new understanding of the eurozone crisis across three of the worst hit cases: Greece, Portugal, and Ireland. In contrast to accounts which stress the ‘immaturity’ of the European ‘periphery’, as well as more critical narratives that understand these countries as victims of German and core ‘economic domination’, this book recognises that individual peripheral countries have followed dramatically different paths to crisis, making it difficult to speak of the eurozone crisis as a single phenomenon. Bringing literature from Comparative Political Economy into dialogue with scholarship on Europeanisation, this book contributes the concept of ‘divergence via Europ...
One year after reaching Europe, the Covid-19 pandemic has left a profound mark on the Western Balkans. It has exacerbated geopolitical dynamics that had been ongoing for decades. While the EU has continued to be inconclusive, proceeding at a snail's pace with its carrot-and-stick approach, China has seized the opportunity and expanded its footprint. The pandemic has also had major consequences for domestic politics. Local trends can largely be summarised using the terms 'continuity' and 'new hope', with both these notions very much on display in the Balkans and shaping the speed and direction of democratic transitions, which remain far from complete. How has geopolitical competition among the superpowers developed in the Balkans over the last year? What effects has the pandemic had on local democratic standards? Is there room for new hopes in terms of regime change and citizen participation?
Middle power states, such as Canada or Denmark, are often thought of as "followers" of great powers rather than significant actors in global security. Challenging this view, this book highlights how middle powers have in fact showed great leadership by developing a "human security" agenda that focuses on countering threats to human beings rather than to nation-states. The work examines how coalitions of middle powers have performed through five case studies: the formation of the Multinational Standby High Readiness Brigade for United Nations Operations (SHIRBRIG), the realization of the Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty, the establishment of the International Criminal Court, the regulation of the legal trade in small arms and light weapons, and the adoption of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle. Furthermore, the book explores how the human security initiatives were shaped by the middle powers' choices of diplomatic strategy, and how they were affected by the reactions of the hegemonic United States. The Human Security Agenda will appeal to those studying international relations and global security, as well as foreign policy and international organizations.
Analysis and case studies of emerging forms of private, public, and hybrid social and environmental governance. The effects of globalization on governance are complex and uncertain. As markets integrate, governments have become increasingly hesitant to enforce regulations inside their own jurisdictions. At the same time, multilateralism has proven unsuccessful in coordinating states' responses to global challenges. In this book, Lena Partzsch describes alternatives to multilateralism, offering analyses and case studies of emerging--alternative--forms of private, public, and hybrid social and environmental regulation. In doing so, she offers a unique overview of cutting-edge approaches to global governance.
The great geopolitician, Halford J. Mackinder, had the dream that Monsoon Asia, when it grows to prosperity, will balance those who “live between Missouri and the Yenisei.” In Asia in Post-Western Age, Niraj Kumar offers a vivid picture of the global distribution of material power and the emergence of three pan-regions, envisaged by German Nazi geopolitician, Karl Haushofer, fuelled by the logic of regionalised globalisation. These pan-regions will be glued by corresponding Pan-Ideas of Atlanticism, Eurasianism and Asianism. The trialectics between these three pan-regions will establish harmony and balance. The diplomacy in multipolar world will no longer be deciphered through the sports metaphor of chess, football or boxing, but the universal game of hopscotch. Asia in Post-Western Age is an indispensable interdisciplinary work about contemporary global conflicts as well as future trends, and proposes a way to establish Kant’s “perpetual peace.”