Suchergebnisse

This article looks at the individual responsibility of rank-and-file soldiers in "just wars" & defends what might be called "subtle pacifism." Subtle pacifism begins with an acknowledgement of the conflict between the jus in bello imperative of taking part in one's own community's just wars & the pacifist imperative of refraining from any homicidal enterprise. The moral dilemma faced by soldiers in any just war proves insoluble, as may be shown by arguments based on open debate, incommensurable descriptions & the most cogent interpretation of the case of the "naked soldier." The article concludes that to minimize the risk of being trapped in this dilemma, we should work toward an international order that obviates the need for just wars. And to minimize the temptations of bad faith, we should oppose compulsory military service. Adapted from the source document.

The analysis of urban planning & of the rehabilitation of Portugal's architectural & urban historical heritage over the past fifteen years demonstrates a clear intensification of local processes aimed at preserving & enhancing historical sites. Three trends in particular are evident. The first is the effort to gain official recognition of world heritage sites. In addition, we note the spread of international methods of urban management. Finally there is a tendency towards excessive "packaging" or esthetic presentation of public spaces. Taking as examples the historic centers of four Portuguese cities, (Coimbra, Guimaraes, Porto, & Santarem) this article seeks to analyze the specificities of these policies with a view to understanding their experimental nature & to assessing the cultural sustainability as well of the policies themselves as of the urban centers that are their objects. Adapted from the source document.

International audience ; This article summarizes and extends the main lines of theorizing on public opinion on European integration. We test theories of economic calculus and communal identity in a multi-level analysis of Eurobarometer data. Both economic calculus and communal identity are influential, but the latter is stronger than the former. We theorize how the political consequences of identity are contested and shaped - that is to say, politically cued - in national contexts. The more national elites are divided, the more citizens are cued to oppose European integration, and this effect is particularly pronounced among citizens who see themselves as exclusively national. A model that synthesizes economic, identity, and cue theory explains around one-quarter of variation at the individual level and the bulk of variation at the national and party levels.

Am 12. und 13. Dezember 2005 wird im malaysischen Putrajaya der erste Ostasiatische Gipfel zusammentreten. Das Treffen von Staats- und Regierungschefs aus China, Südkorea, Japan, den Mitgliedern der ASEAN und Drittländern soll künftig regelmäßig stattfinden und die Grundlage für eine langfristige Integration der Region nach europäischem Vorbild legen. Die Studie fragt nach den Erfolgsaussichten einer institutionalisierten ostasiatischen Zusammenarbeit. Eine erfolgreiche und weitreichende Integration würde ebenso wie ein Scheitern des Projekts Deutschland und Europa nicht nur als Handelspartner der Region betreffen. Beides hätte auch entscheidende Auswirkungen auf die künftige uni- oder multipolare, kooperative oder kompetitive Struktur des internationalen Systems. Die Impulse für eine ostasiatische Integration sind vielfältig: wachsender intraregionaler Handel in den 90er Jahren, Probleme bei der globalen und transpazifischen Handelsliberalisierung, verstärkte Integrationsbemühungen in Europa und Nordamerika, ein auf die sogenannte Asienkrise von 1997/98 zurückgehendes Gefühl der außenwirtschaftlichen Verletzlichkeit sowie eine unterschiedlich ausgeprägte Unzufriedenheit mit der sicherheitspolitischen Rolle der USA seit dem 11.09.2001. Die Haupthindernisse für eine umfassende ostasiatische Integration bestehen im Fehlen einer eindeutigen Führungsmacht, in divergierenden politischen Systemen und unterschiedlichen Kapazitäten der Akteure sowie einem mangelnden Zusammengehörigkeitsgefühl. Diese Probleme werden sich allenfalls langfristig lösen lassen. Bis dahin bleibt die Pax Americana der unverzichtbare Rahmen, will man den "Aufstieg" Chinas und die chinesisch-japanische Konkurrenz um die Führungsrolle in Ostasien regional einbetten und abfedern. (SWP-Studie / SWP)

A peace agreement for Sudan was signed in Nairobi on January 9, 2005. The accord opens a historic opportunity to end the conflict between the Sudanese government and the SPLA rebels in southern Sudan. The cornerstones of the deal are political autonomy for southern Sudan during a transitional period leading up to a 2011 referendum on independence for the South, and equal sharing of oil revenues. The peace agreement is, however, merely the first step toward settling the conflict. The two sides must now get on with the much tougher challenge of implementation, which will be doomed to failure without an active long-term commitment by the international community. Impetus for a peace process for the country as a whole - and thus also an end to the conflict in Darfur - is not to be expected from these developments. (SWP comments / SWP)

The Churches were significant players in the debate surrounding what has been called Britain's "lost opportunity" in the 1940s & 50s to play a leading role in building a united Europe. This article focuses on Christian theological & historical assumptions about humanity as a universal community, the nation & the Church. It examines Christian discourse about the political dimension of these communities & the part that Christianity as a belief system should ideally play between them. It then outlines the "Christendom" narrative, which represented medieval Europe as a model for the future of Europe, as a partial realization of the ideal alignment of power & culture, which in its decay was the cause of international crisis. Finally, some of the points of tension between Christendom, British national identity, & a united Europe among Christians are discussed. 67 References. Adapted from the source document.

Defending the environment in the Czech Republic.
The environmentalist cause redefined and actors' trajectories
Through changes in organizations and individuals' trajectories, light is shed on how environmental issues have been formulated in Czech lands since the 1970s. The hypothesis is advanced that various persons involved in protecting nature during the Communist era have exerted an influence on the environmentalist cause since 1990. This approach helps us glimpse points of convergence and divergence with trends observed during the same period in the West. It points out how permeable these societies were to international issues, which they translated back into the Communist system. Analyzing the construction of the environmentalist cause leads us to notice both "occupational conversions", which have circulated know- how, and the consolidation of activist careers, which gave shape to a type of environmentalist mobilization.

This article deals with the 1989 Romanian revolution and its international mediatization. The specific focus is upon Belgian written press in the period of December 1989-January 1990. The study highlights the misinformation at work in the December 1989 Revolution and the internal political effects it produced (external legitimacy of the new NSF government). The theoretical framework uses on one side four modified journalistic questions (Who says? What? How it is said? And with what effects?) and on another side, subdivides the period under scrutiny into four sub-units, relating to the themes and accents emphasized by the Belgian journalists. The media messages are thus deconstructed by this approach. Before concluding on the specific political and media effects, a short review of other cases (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Iraq) of media manipulation is presented.

Fiji gehört zu den kleinen Inselökonomien im Pazifik, die von wenigen Exportprodukten sowie vom Tourismus abhängig sind. Offenkundig ist die hohe Sensibilität, mit der einzelne Wirtschaftszweige wie der Tourismus auf innenpolitische Spannungen reagieren. In den Jahren 1987 und 2000 kam es infolge von zwei Staatsstreichen zum Einbruch der Touristenankünfte in Fiji. Nach Angaben von ABC RADIO AUSTRALIA reduzierten sich die Einnahmen der fijianischen Fluggesellschaft Air Pacific im Jahr 2000 um mehr als 9,5 Mio. Euro gegenüber dem Vorjahr. Vor dem allmählich aufkommenden Fremdenverkehr war in Fiji die Zuckerwirtschaft lange Zeit der bedeutendste Wirtschaftszweig, wobei sie bis heute von Vergünstigungsklauseln im Zugang zu den internationalen Märkten, insbesondere nach Europa, abhängig ist. Die wichtigsten Wirtschaftssektoren sind mittlerweile die Textil- und Bekleidungsindustrie sowie der Tourismus.
Aufgrund der Kleinräumigkeit des Landes, der relativ geringen Bevölkerungszahl und der wenig diversifizierten Wirtschaftsstruktur sind Veränderungen in einer dieser dominierenden Säulen der fijianischen Wirtschaft unmittelbar im sozialen Gefüge spürbar.
Die Gesellschaft Fijis wird durch ethnische Koexistenz bestimmt, d.h. von einem residenziellen und sozioökonomischen Nebeneinander der wichtigsten Bevölkerungsgruppen des Landes. Das sind einerseits die einheimischen bzw. indigenen Fijianer, andererseits die indischstämmigen bzw. Indo-Fijianer. Diese Entwicklung zueiner Parallelgesellschaft wird partiell und temporär durchbrochen von sozialen Interaktionen in Politik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Dennoch bleiben die ethnischen Trennungslinien evident, was anhand des Wirtschaftssystems Fijis verdeutlicht werden kann.

This article discusses key aspects of the symbolic politics of the British and West German anti-nuclear-weapons movements in the late 1950s and early 1960s. More specifically, it examines the interaction between protest, politics, the media and the public sphere. It proposes two analyses of the protests: first, as the creation of a public sphere by means of "street politics" and, second, as a key to establishing an emotional community of protesters both in a national and transnational context. The media played a crucial role by enabling isolated protests to be perceived as parts of broader movements. The article argues that protests in both countries by and large adhered to, rather than transcended, the dominant national cultural codes. These movements thus exemplify the ways in which international relations, transnational links and national protest traditions interact.

In Germany, the precautionary principle (PP) is a well-established legal principle in environmental law, especially for regulating agribiotechnology. This article uses the analytical concept of issue-framing to identify different views of the PP and how they have informed changes in the German regulatory arena. In the 1990s Germany's genetically modified (GM) crop policy was dominated by a discourse of innovation and international competitiveness, combined with narrow accounts of precaution. In the early 2000s, agro-biotechnology became subject to changes in the risk regulatory system, new agricultural policies and a broader precautionary scope. After the BSE crisis, German policy promoted sustainable agriculture and organic food, combined with the demand for a precautionary consumer policy and 'consumer choice'. Precaution now encompasses comprehensive mandatory labelling and liability rules to protect non-GM food production from GM 'contamination' in fields and across the food chain.

The Books Reviewed in this Article: Investment Climate around the World: Voices of the Firms from the World Business Environment Survey by Geeta Batra, Daniel Kaufmann, and Andrew H. W. Stone, Washington, D.C., World Bank, 2003, xvi + 154 pp. The Philippine Economy: Development, Policies, and Challenges edited by Arsenio M. Balisacan and Hal Hill, Quezon City, Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2003, xxv + 466 pp. Reintegrating India with the World Economy by T. N. Srinivasan and Suresh D. Tendulkar, Washington, D.C., Institute for International Economics, 2003, xiv + 167 pp. Market Institutions in Sub‐Saharan Africa: Theory and Evidence by Marcel Fafchamps, Comparative Institutional Analysis, Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press, 2004, xx + 521 pp. Birth Control in China, 1949–2000: Population Policy and Demographic Development by Thomas Scharping, London, RoutledgeCurzon, 2003, xvi + 406 pp.

Taiwan studies in Europe are still underdeveloped and have largely concentrated on political issues rather than culture. Transformation! – Innovation? Taiwan in her Cultural Dimensions addresses this critical absence. It is a collection of 14 papers, compiled after an international workshop held at Ruhr University in 2001. This volume not only analyses literary and artistic expression, but also explores the drastic cultural change that has taken place since the lifting of martial law in 1987. The democratization of Taiwanese society in the 1990s led the old China-centric ideology and cultural hegemony that had dominated Taiwan under Kuomintang (KMT) rule to be overturned within a few years. Rather than focusing on political reform, this book concentrates on cultural issues, such as the rise of indigenous literature, the changing status of traditional arts, and the impact of cultural policy during this period.

The essay seeks to explore the link between economic policy and conflict in Africa, locating the analysis within the global systemic paradigm rather than using the narrower nationand ethnicity-oriented paradigms. The analysis distinguishes between economic resources and economic policy. It argues that although in Africa (as in most parts of the Third World) direct control over economic resources is still the main objective of the major international actors, there is a major shift towards the control over economic policy as a means to control the resources, and now increasingly towards the control of the African state itself. This distinction between economic resources and economic policy helps to explain why there is so much emphasis these days on matters of democracy, good governance, the rule of law, corruption, and other such instruments of state policy and practice.