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"In a world more and more characterized by multipolar structures, stability is an ever more evasive aim. Political theory tells us that multipolar systems are much less stable than bipolar or hegemonic ones. For the next generation of global political leaders it is paramount to understand how tectonic shifts in our present global order will influence the relative position of their own countries. The shifting parameters of rising powers, trends of regional cooperation and integration will set the stage for an emerging new world order where not only states and markets, but increasingly also transnational networks will play an ever more important role. In this sense, we could address networks in a double perspective: in the real world which we try to shape and understand and also in the world of young leaders who will have to shoulder the bulk of work and responsibility in the years and decades ahead. For many years, we at the German Council on Foreign Relations have been actively trying to expand our network of young high-potentials in international relations. In many of our programs the focus is on attracting future decisionmakers to our growing network, while they are still in their formative years at the university or in the early stages of their career. One of the most successful programs is organized by our International Forum on Strategic Thinking, which—based on our annual Summer Schools and New Faces Conferences—established a network of well over 700 people from all over Europe, Asia, the Middle East, North America, and with the invitation of participants from South Africa, Tanzania, Cameroon and Rwanda in the last two years also from Africa. For our 12th consecutive Summer School, which took place in July 2008, we have again invited a group of 30 outstanding participants for an intensive two week program, which focused on concepts of regional leadership, preconditions for regional stability and different regional integration dynamics." (excerpt)

The European Union legislation in the field of data protection is the most demanding in the world. But there are countries with lax regulation, or no regulation of any kind. These differences may lead to the protection achieved within the Union lost in the moment that the data may be located in countries with a lower level of protection or completely invalid. To avoid this we have carefully regulated international data transfers. This paper aims to shed light on some of the lesser known aspects of international flows of personal data. We analyzed a fundamental document of the Working Group of Article 29 of Directive 95/46/EC: the WP 12. We review the jurisdiction of the AEPD regarding the evaluation of states that provide an adequate level of protection. We examined the need to comply with the laws in the case of international transfer. Finally we reflect on the changes envisaged in the proposed EU regulation on data protection. ; La normativa de la Unión Europea en el campo de la protección de datos es la más exigente del planeta. En cambio hay países con una regulación poco exigente, o incluso sin regulación de ningún tipo. Estas diferencias pueden conducir a que la protección conseguida en el seno de la Unión se pierda en el momento en que los datos puedan ser localizados en naciones con un nivel inferior o completamente nulo de protección. Para evitarlo se han regulado minuciosamente las transferencias internacionales de datos. En este trabajo se pretende dar luz a algunos de los aspectos menos conocidos de los movimientos internacionales de datos personales. Analizamos un documento fundamental del Grupo de Trabajo del artículo 29 de la Directiva 95/46/CE: el WP 12. Revisamos la competencia de la AEPD en cuanto a la evaluación de los Estados que proporcionan un nivel adecuado de protección. Examinamos la necesidad de cumplir con las disposiciones legales en el caso de transferencia internacional. Por último reflexionamos sobre los cambios previstos en la propuesta de Reglamento comunitario de protección de datos.The European Union legislation in the field of data protection is the most demanding in the world. But there are countries with lax regulation, or no regulation of any kind. These differences may lead to the protection achieved within the Union lost in the moment that the data may be located in countries with a lower level of protection or completely invalid. To avoid this we have carefully regulated international data transfers. This paper aims to shed light on some of the lesser known aspects of international flows of personal data. We analyzed a fundamental document of the Working Group of Article 29 of Directive 95/46/EC: the WP 12. We review the jurisdiction of the AEPD regarding the evaluation of states that provide an adequate level of protection. We examined the need to comply with the laws in the case of international transfer. Finally we reflect on the changes envisaged in the proposed EU regulation on data protection.

An analysis of recent development in international criminal law shows the emergence of two countervailing trends: on the one hand a broadening trend, in that the various prosecutorial meansused to hold individuals accountable for violations of certain international crimes has expanded; and on the other hand a narrowing trend, in that the protection from prosecution afforded by international law to certain individuals, that once seemed to falter, has been reinstated.

This essay notes that the relationship of political values to social theory is an important but unresolved question for all social theory, but notes that in the discipline of International Relations the discussion is particularly undeveloped. Contemporary trends in IR theorizing are evaluated in order to contexualize the increasingly assertive forms of historical materialist thinking, derived from Marxian social theory, which are being given serious attention in the discipline. I argue that Marxian theory is at one and the same time empirical, normative and emancipatory, and conclude that while much of the new historical materialist thinking in IR advances our understanding of international relations empirically and theoretically, and offers a significantly 'better' explanation of the 'international' than Realism or other theories can, it is deficient because of its inattention to the centrality of normative and emancipatory questions at the heart of Marxian historical materialism. I further argue that because historical materialism necessitates, within the logic of its own theoretical construction, specific political values, a revisionist historical materialism that ignores these values, calls into question the theoretical integrity of the latter approach.