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What are the effects of strategic surprise on foreign policy? We apply mechanisms from cognitive psychology and foreign policy analysis — the hindsight bias and policy engagement — to theorize about how political leaders attribute blame for strategic surprises and the consequences for their foreign policies. We argue that leaders who are hardly engaged with policy matters related to a surprise will tend to believe that it should have been foreseen, attribute blame to domestic culprits and favour significant changes in foreign policy. Conversely, those more involved with policy planning will blame an adversary's deception and resist policy change. We illustrate these hypotheses empirically by examining the cases of the Truman administration's reaction to the 1949 Soviet nuclear test and the Johnson administration's reaction to the 1967 Chinese thermonuclear explosion. Despite their similar international and domestic political environments, the two presidents reacted quite differently to the two surprises. Truman, who was weakly engaged with nuclear matters prior to 1949, authorized major policy changes and reorganized the Central Intelligence Agency. Conversely, Johnson's deeper involvement in nuclear matters led him to attribute blame for the surprise to Chinese deception. He sought to use the 1967 test to advance his ongoing efforts to secure the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. The findings suggest that the variables of policy engagement and the hindsight bias can predict how leaders' foreign policies will respond to surprises regarding nuclear weapons proliferation and potentially other shifts in the balance of power.

AUSTRALIA INHERITED A VARIETY OF FUNDAMENTAL ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT FOREIGN POLICY WHICH CONTINUE TO THE PRESENT DAY. CONSPICOUS AMONG THESE IS THE ASSUMPTION, FOUNDED IN ITS GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION AND CULTURAL CHARACTER, THAT AUSTRALIA MUST GUARANTEE ITS SECURITY BY A CLOSE RELATIONSHIP WITH A GREAT, POWERFUL & GOOD FRIEND OVERSEAS.

AbstractThe aim of this study is to examine whether the European Union (EU) Directive on Non‐Financial Information (NFI) would be capable of increasing corporate transparency and sustainable development. To this end, the study reports the findings of 17 interviews with preparers and auditors about the content and reporting methods of NFI, as specified by the Italian regulation.The study finds that preparers and auditors favour many of the requirements introduced by the Italian legislature. In particular, the board's responsibility for NFI, the flexibility in the content and in the reporting method, and the audit of non‐financial statements are regarded as a fruitful approach to disciplining NFI. The study contributions are twofold. First, it extends the so far scant literature on the role of EU policy as a change agent for sustainable development. Second, the study identifies some features of the Italian regulation that may be regarded as fruitful ways to regulate NFI.

In the long history of rising and persistent unemployment in Europe almost all institutions - employment protection legislation, unions, wages, wage structure, unemployment insurance, etc. - have been alleged and found guilty to have caused this tragic development at some point in time. Later, welfare state institutions in interaction with external shocks were identified as more plausible causes for rising equilibrium unemployment in Europe. Monetary policy has managed to be regarded as innocent. Based on the assertion of the neutrality of money in the medium and long run, the search for causes of European unemployment has shied away from the policy of central banks. But actually the institutional setup regarding monetary policy is very different between the FED and the Bundesbank (ECB). We argue that the interaction of negative external shocks and tight monetary policies may have been the major - although probably not the only - cause of unemployment in Europe remaining at ever higher levels after each recession. We identify the monetary policy of the Bundesbank as asymmetrical in the sense that the Bank did not actively fight against recessions, but that it dampened recovery periods. Less constraint on growth would have kept German unemployment at lower levels.

This article outlines the challenges facing the promotion of safety on the Internet, traces the institutional structures for European cyber security policy, identifies the key principles of organization, and compares roughly these European developments to US cyber security strategy, policy, and organizations. European cyber security policy is formulated and implemented in a multi-level and multistakeholder structure. Not only is there a separation between domestic and foreign policy, but also politically relevant divisions of competences and responsibilities for legislative and executive powers, as well as private and public spheres. As cyber security policy is a regulatory area that shapes the informational self-determination of citizens, any regulatory action - even every institutional development - must seek to achieve a balance between security and individual liberties.

Introduction: Reviewing 2014, Welcoming 2017, and Envisioning 2020 -- Towards adverse spillover effect? the judicialization of the EU and the changing nature of judicial governance after enlargement / Mariusz Jerzy Golecki -- Europeanization of the Hungarian legal order : from convergence to cancellation? / Tamas Dezso Ziegler and Balazs Horvathy -- The use of referendum in Central and Eastern Europe after EU accession / Sergiu Gherghina -- Special economic zones in Poland : a black hole swallowing state budget or a messiah for regional development? / Hiroshi Kaneko -- (Dis)trusting the European Union? on the evolving variety of Euroskepticism in Central and Eastern Europe / Boyka Stefanova -- Vaclav Klaus as a driver of Czech Euroskepticism / Vratislav Havlik and Ondrej Mocek -- Poland and the re-categorization of the Eurozone entry : from a legal obligation to a political issue / Anna Visvizi and Pawel Tokarski -- Emerging European geographies : the Erasmus Program and its effect on the East-West divide in time of economic crisis / Amelia Hadfield and Robert Summerby-Murray -- Slovenian soft power capabilities in the European context : missed opportunities of cultural diplomacy and Erasmus student exchange / Ana Bojinovic Fenko and Jure Pozgan -- The harmonization of laws on same-sex unions in Post-Communist Post-Accession countries / Alar Kilp -- Poland and the common security and defense policy : potential leader? / Laura Chappell -- Prague on a mission : emphasizing democracy promotion within EU foreign policy / Marek Neuman -- The forgotten chapter? post-accession development policy of Central and Eastern Europe / Simon Lightfoot and Balazs Szent-Ivanyi -- Slovak Parliament's involvement in the EU agenda : Kosovo's independence and the policy of non-recognition / Katarina Lezova -- The European Union and Russia during the two waves of enlargement : new political and implementation rationales on old issues / Sandra Fernandes -- EU-Russia cooperation on energy efficiency : an unexpected benefit of regional interdependence between Russia and the CEE member states? / Olga Khrushcheva -- The European Union's influence over media discourse on renewable energy sources in Russia / Marianna Poberezhskaya