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"Wenn es zutrifft, dass kulturelle Praxen Erfahrung und Erwartungen prägen, dann müssen sie eindeutig bestimmt und für die empirische Forschung als aussagekräftig gewertet werden. Mit Bezug auf die Theorie der Internationalen Beziehungen (IB-Theorie), Internationales Öffentliches Recht und normative Demokratietheorie entwickelt dieser Artikel einen Ansatz, um die umstrittenen Bedeutungen von Normen in der internationalen Politik unter der Bedingung von Konstitutionalisierung jenseits des Staates zu erforschen. Ziel ist es, ein Forschungsdesign zur Untersuchung der unsichtbaren Konstitution von Politik, das heißt, zur Erforschung von individuell gehaltenen assoziativen Konnotationen, die zur umstrittenen Interpretation normativer Bedeutung führen, zu entwickeln. Diese Überlegungen werden in dem Papier in zwei Teilen vorgestellt. Teil I entwickelt Forschungsannahmen und Hypothesen aufgrund der relevanten Literatur im ersten Abschnitt. Er zeigt unterschiedliche Typen von Normen und Bedingungen von Normumstrittenheit auf (Abschnitt 1), definiert Forschungsannahmen und Hypothesen (Abschnitt 2), argumentiert für die Rückbesinnung auf die Dimension der Kultur im Konstitutionalismus (Abschnitt 3) und schließt mit der Leitfrage nach Konvergenz, Divergenz oder Diffusion normativer Bedeutungen (Abschnitt 4). Teil II richtet den Blick auf die Operationalisierung des Forschungsdesigns. Er stellt die Forschungslogik und Art der Untersuchung (Abschnitt 5), die Methode der Interviewauswertung (Abschnitt 6) und die Forschungsindikatoren nach sozialer Gruppe, Fundamentalnormen und politischen Arenen (Abschnitt 7) vor. Abschnitt 8 fasst das Forschungsdesign und -vorgehen zusammen." (Autorenreferat)

'Canada plays little part in Europe's Atlantic policy. Yet European and German policy makers should be aware of an emerging debate in the Northern part of North America that could affect Canada's link to Europe and with it European interests. Europeans as yet are not very conscious of the fact that reliable, like-minded, multilateralist partners with enough resources and political will to make a contribution, do not come in such numbers that Canada can be largely ignored. Because of real and acknowledged similarities between Canada and Europe on many foreign and domestic policy issues, Canada has sometimes been referred to as 'a North American country with European instincts.' But that does not mean that, in comparison to the US, the transatlantic cooperation between Canada and Europe is less problematic and goes on unnurtured. Years of very significant Canadian involvement in the Balkans and major contributions in Afghanistan alongside European troops have not been enough to make Europeans aware of the need to address the unique situation of Canada, for instance in NATO. The question therefore is why should either side do what it does not seem naturally inclined to do, i.e. promote a special relationship. The most obvious first step would be a better inclusion of Canada in the transatlantic dialogue. For that to happen, Canada would have to define convincingly the nature of its added value. It would also have to find within Europe a champion. As a new government in Germany is beginning to define its international role in terms of security, energy and transatlantic relations, this is an aspect that it could do well to consider.' (author's abstract)|

"The study of international mediation has received a lot of attention in recent political science. However, the main focus appears to lie on case studies dealing with the role of international intermediaries in conflicts between state. Less research seems to exist in the field of intra-national conflicts. The following article will deal with the role of international mediators in the Northern Ireland peace process during the ten years before mid-2004. It will examine whether international actors could foster perceptional de-escalation, or rather a 'de-escalation of minds' among the internal political conflict parties, rather than simply contributing to structural changes, e.g. a re-organisation of the inter-party relationship in the form of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Such a potential perceptional de-escalation would be crucial in order for structural changes to remain stable. Otherwise, it could be very likely that positive structural changes might be destroyed once again due to renewed escalation on the subjective level of conflict. The empirical analysis will be conducted by using a newly developed combination of Werner Link's concept of conflict, a modified escalation model based on the works of the authors Fisher and Keashly and of Jacob Bercovitch's 'contingency model' of international mediation. In line with this theoretical framework, the mediation efforts in Northern Ireland and their effects on the conflict parties' perceptions will be at the centre of a qulitative empirical case study. In the case of the internal conflict parties, a substantial speech analysis will show how the parties' perceptions, specifically their perceived interests, have changed on an escalation scale ranging from I to IV. In the case of the international mediators, the strategies used in the same period were put under closer scrutiny by conducting both a speech and an event analysis. The combined data will show whether or not international mediators did have a significant impact on the conflict parties' percptions and what implications this might have for international mediation in intra-national conflict situations." (author's abstract)

"One of the consequences of the EU expansion is the advancement of the Middle East and Mediterranean region to constitute the southern borders of the EU. Thus, the strategic importance of these regions to the EU has increased. A significance that has been strengthened by the special relationship that the two regions (the EU and the Gulf) share with international terrorism: one is the target of terrorist attacks and the other the birth and breeding place of terrorists. The fact that these areas (the Middle East and North Africa) are predominantly Moslem, a religion that the terrorists claim to be fighting for, considerably increases their strategic relevance to the Western World. In recognition of this fact, Western international institutions - the EU, the OSCE, NATO and even the USA - have respectively initiated and intensified dialogues with the political leaders and international institutions of these Middle East and Mediterranean areas aimed at laying a solid foundation for political and economic developments in these areas, not only for peace, political stability and economic prosperity, but also as a sustainable counter offensive against terrorism. The following article traces the developments in the dialogues with these regions featuring a series of international institutions that have thus evolved in this process and calls for mutually reinforcing efforts." (author's abstract)