Suchergebnisse

The Tibetan Plateau is the largest high-altitude landmass on Earth, with more than 45,000 glaciers that feed the major river systems in Asia, which in turn support 40% of the world's population. As global warming continues, temperatures in the region are rising twice as fast as the global average, posing serious risks to hydrological systems, agriculture and critical infrastructure. Placing an ecological security lens on regional cooperation raises an important question about the extent to which the threat of large-scale climate-related disaster could trigger new forms of cooperative action. Current responses fall far short of ensuring a mutually secure future. (Survival / SWP)

With the exception of Canada's relationship with the United States, Canada's relationship with China will likely be its most significant foreign connection in the twenty-first century. As China's role in world politics becomes more central, understanding China becomes essential for Canadian policymakers and policy analysts in a variety of areas. Responding to this need, The China Challenge brings together perspectives from both Chinese and Canadian experts on the evolving Sino-Canadian relationship. It traces the history and looks into the future of Canada-China bilateral relations. It also examines how China has affected a number of Canadian foreign and domestic policy issues, including education, economics, immigration, labour and language. Recently, Canada-China relations have suffered from inadequate policymaking and misunderstandings on the part of both governments. Establishing a good dialogue with China must be a Canadian priority in order to build and maintain mutually beneficial relations with this emerging power, which will last into the future.

Der Beitrag beleuchtet Motive und Ausgangsüberlegungen, die der Hinwendung zu "Just Peace Governance" zu Grunde liegen, und identifiziert zentrale Aufgaben, denen sich die Forschung im Rahmen des neuen Programms stellen muss. Dies geschieht anhand einer rekonstruierenden Lektüre des Werkes von Harald Müller. Im Zentrum steht dabei die Frage, wie Müller in seinem Denken und Schreiben beim kritischen Blick auf die Friktionen und Widersprüche von "Just Peace Governance" angelangt ist. Von der Befassung mit dem Theorem des "Demokratischen Friedens" gelangt Müller über die empirische Erforschung und theoretische Reflexion des "Demokratischen Krieges" schließlich zu einer liberalen Liberalismuskritik. Ein ähnlicher Wandlungsprozess lässt sich mit Blick auf die Müllerschen Studien zu Kooperation und Weltordnung feststellen - vom funktionalistisch geprägten liberalen Institutionalisten zum konservativen Moraltheoretiker der Weltordnung. Diese Entwicklungen zeigen sich auch mit Blick auf das Feld der Rüstungskontrolle und Abrüstung. (ICE2)

This paper reports descriptive statistics based on the WTO Dispute Settlement Data Set (Ver. 3.0). The data set contains approximately 67 000 observations on a wide range of aspects of the Dispute Settlement (DS) system, and is exclusively based on official WTO documents. It covers all 426 WTO disputes initiated through the official filing of a Request for Consultations from January 1, 1995, until August 11, 2011, and for these disputes it includes events occurring until July 28, 2011.1 In this paper however, we will omit data pertaining to 2011 and only consider the full years 1995—2010. In order to shed some light on differences across WTO Members in participation in the DS system, we will divide Members into five groups, as specified in detail in Table 1. Broadly speaking, these groups are: G2 - The European Union (EU), and the United States (US); IND - Other industrialized countries; DEV - Developing countries other than LDC; LDC - Least developed countries; BIC - Brazil, India and China. The EU is taken to be EU-15, since the enlargements came relatively late during the period we cover. For the most part, the choice in this regard makes little difference quantitatively, since most of the 12 countries acceding to the EU in 2004 and 2007 have been relatively inactive in the WTO. The LDC group corresponds to the list of LDCs prepared by the United Nations. A more discretionary line is drawn between IND and DEV. We have classified under IND, OECD Members, the non-OECD Members among the 12 countries that most recently became members of the EU, those that are currently at an advanced stage of their accession negotiations, as well as countries that are not OECD Members but have a very high per capita income, such as Singapore. The DEV group consists of all countries which do not fit into either of the above mentioned categories, and are not BIC countries either. BIC refers to Brazil, India, and China: the sheer number of cases in which Brazil, India and China have participated, as well as their overall participation in WTO, led us to these three countries as a separate group. The paper is structured as follows: Section 2 highlights the evolution of the total use of the DS system; Section 3 discusses some aspects of participation of the groups defined above when acting as complainants or respondents; Section 4 deals with the subject-matter of disputes; Section 5 highlights a few aspects of countries' success with regard to the legal claims they made before panels; Section 6 provides information as to the nationality and the appointment process of WTO panelists; Section 7 focuses on the duration of dispute settlement procedures at different stages of the adjudication process; Section 8 concludes.

Der Verfasser untersucht am Beispiel Venezuelas vier Dimensionen der Sicherheit und Unsicherheit sowie deren wechselseitigen Verschränkungen. Es handelt sich dabei um die öffentliche Sicherheit, die staatliche Sicherheit, die transnationale Sicherheit sowie die globale/regionale Sicherheit. Der Verfasser zeigt, dass die Gleichsetzung von nationaler Sicherheit mit der Aufrechterhaltung der Macht, die Neigung, die Opposition als Agenten des Auslands zu diffamieren, und die Instrumentalisierung der Außenpolitik zur eigenen Machtsicherung sowie das Fehlen einer wirkungsvollen regionalen Sicherheitsarchitektur es nicht unmöglich erscheinen lassen, dass die internen Probleme der Regierung eines Tages auch zu einem regionalen Sicherheitsproblem werden. (ICE2)

Georgia's association with the EU has become closer in recent years through foreign policy instruments including the European Neighborhood Policy, the Eastern Partnership, and the Black Sea Synergy. Against the background of this increasing formal cooperation, public opinion toward the European Union in Georgia is examined on the basis of a nationally representative survey conducted in 2009. Regression modeling is used to relate attitudes toward the EU to explanatory factors including support for continued European integration, expectations of benefits from Europeanization, political beliefs, perceptions of national security and territorial integrity, and attitudes toward Russia. Adapted from the source document.

"In dem Beitrag geht es um die Wohlfahrts- und Fachverbände und um die Verbände der Behindertenselbsthilfe, von denen viele im Aktionsbündnis Deutscher Behindertenrat (DBR) mitwirken." (Autorenreferat)

ABSTRACTAgainst the background of conflict in the Great Lakes Region, the UK and France promised, at their 1998 Saint-Malo summit, to set aside rivalries and cooperate on Africa. In subsequent Anglo-French gatherings, they singled out the DRC and pledged to work together there to promote peace and tackle poverty. This article asks whether this coordination took place and whether it involved a 'deconflictualisation' of approaches, 'coincidental' cooperation, or 'sustained and reciprocal' collaboration. It looks for evidence of institutionalisation of UK-French ties and policy cooperation in the fields of peacebuilding and poverty reduction. It then identifies the pressures for, and barriers to, collaboration, focusing particularly on the role of interests, foreign policy norms, institutional factors and resource constraints. It concludes by setting out the wider implications of UK-French cooperation and the limited prospects of closer future collaboration.