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This paper aims at defining the concept of "geopolitical space of the geopolitics of the Sea" and it analyses the way it is constructed. Given that the notion of geopolitical space in the general sense has been largely neglected in contemporary geopolitical theory, this is not a simple task. The paper deals with a physical space of the World Sea and utilizes the theory of modern human geography in which space is understood as a product of human activity. We argue that there is a significant connection between geopolitics of the Sea and the academic discipline of the International Law of the Sea. This link is taken as the basis for the discussion regarding geopolitical space, which encompasses three teleological elements: the fulfillment of the paper's main objective; the argument regarding the connection of Geopolitics of the Sea with the International Law; and, finally, presenting the political science context of the codification of the modern International Law of the Sea. By using earlier studies, the paper analyses the geopolitical space through ideas of construction within dichotomy, as well as through the process of establishing a community within the international framework. The paper also offers our own theory according to which the geopolitical space is the space of manifestation of geopolitical phenomena. ; Temeljni je cilj rada prikazati na koji način nastaje i šta zapravo jeste "geopolitički prostor geopolitike mora". Argumentacija nije bila jednostavna jer je geopolitički prostor kao pojam u općem smislu zanemaren u recentnoj geopolitičkoj teoriji. U diskusiji smo se bavili fizičkim prostorom Svjetskog mora te koristili teorijom suvremene humanističke geografije u kojoj je prostor proizvod društvene djelatnosti. Iznijeli smo stav da je geopolitika mora posebno disciplinarno povezana s međunarodnim pravom mora. To smo, dalje, iskoristili kao poligon za raspravu o geopolitičkom prostoru, i to s tri teleološka elementa: ispunjenje osnovnog cilja rada; argumentacija veze s pravom; te prikaz politološkog konteksta procesa kodifikacije suvremenog međunarodnog prava mora. Geopolitički prostor smo ispitali kroz postojeće ideje konstrukcije unutar dihotomije, te pri uspostavi zajednice u međunarodnom okviru. Ponudili smo i vlastitu teoriju po kojoj je geopolitički prostor prostor manifestacije geopolitičkih fenomena.

The military is generally considered to act as a professional when it comes to retreating forces from military battleground or international conflict areas. At the same time recent national experiences with the withdrawal of national troops from international peacekeeping operations are filled with disappointments and crises. In this article the authors question the idea that these disappointments and crises are simply due to problems of reduced military competence or military morale. They argue that the military is still the alleged expert who knows how to perform military retreats and other military actions. At the same time they show that network-like decision-making structures that are inherent to the deployment of troops in international peacekeeping missions, have become a major obstacle for the military to act in its own right. The lessons that government can learn from the military experience are firstly, that decisions for national public cutbacks should be accompanied by a more in-depth (re)consideration of public (key) tasks than up to now was considered appropriate, and secondly, that more trust should be shown in the skills, knowledge and motivation of professionals to delineate and constrain the boundaries of their own fields of expertise.

Klep, Christ, Somalië, Rwanda, Srebrenica. De nasleep van drie ontspoorde vredesmissies (Dissertatie Utrecht 2008; Amsterdam: Boom, 2008, 385 blz., ISBN 978 90 8506 668 2)When the Home Front meets Foreign Parts. The Aftermath of Commissions of Inquiry into derailed Peace MissionsPeace Missions take place in difficult and volatile circumstances. It is therefore hardly surprising that some peace missions become 'derailed'. Christ Klep zooms in on three 'derailed' missions in his book and focuses on the value of Commissions of Inquiry which are subsequently set up as a result of public and political pressure. Do they succeed in revealing the 'how' and the 'why' of such derailments and – above all – identifying those who are responsible? Based on a broad spectrum of questions and extensive source materials, Klep concludes that 'the number of escape routes from the labyrinth of responsibility is practically infinite'; a clear message for all those taking part in international and domestic politics. It is here that the author skillfully and expertly succeeds: exposing the complex entanglement of domestic and foreign policy, even concerning events that sometimes happen away from the capital city.

Klep, Christ, Somalië, Rwanda, Srebrenica. De nasleep van drie ontspoorde vredesmissies (Dissertatie Utrecht 2008; Amsterdam: Boom, 2008, 385 blz., ISBN 978 90 8506 668 2).ResponseThe validity of my comparative approach (Somalia-Rwanda-Srebrenica) still stands, in my opinion. At the level of political responsibility and the process of coming to terms with events, the similarities are stronger than the differences. My estimation that the Inquiry reports were 'hijacked' by almost all of the stakeholders involved (especially the Canadian, Belgian and Dutch governments) is more of a matter of fact and a political reality than a reproach that ought to have legal implications. Finally, the question of how far the three governments that were involved learned lessons from the three affairs is difficult to answer. Was it not also the wider developments (for example, the switch from the 'blue' missions to the more robust 'green' missions) that compelled the lessons to be drawn out?

The subject of this study is the strategic cooperation of the permanent members in the Security Council in the period 1946 2000. Because of their right of veto the cooperation of the permanent members has a significant influence on the functioning of the Council. The most important aspects of the cooperation that were investigated are the intensity of the cooperation and the ef-fectiveness of this cooperation in preventing and ending wars. To investigate these aspects, for both the intensity and the effectiveness measuring instruments were constructed. These measuring instruments were based on comprehensive sets of so-called 'leading indicators' and statistical methods and techniques. The intensity of the cooperation increased gradually from 1946 until 1990 (the end of the Cold War). Then it started to increase rapidly until 1996. From 1996 a slight decrease can be discer-ned. The strong increase in the strategic cooperation of the permanent members in the security Council can be established in all the majors forms of cooperation in the Council: the numbers of adopted strategic resolutions and presidential statements, the numbers of employed means (like peacekeeping missions and enforcement actions) and the amounts of money that were spent on peacekeeping activities. Further it was established that the response times of the Council regarding potential and waged wars dropped significantly since the end of the Cold War. The effectiveness of the cooperation of the permanent members in the Council was, insofar this was measurable with the applied method, not good for many years, but after the Cold War a clear improvement can be discerned. This goes for the prevention of wars, as well as for post war peacebuilding and the ending of wars. Also the numbers of potential and waged wars in which the Council not intervened dropped significantly since the end of the Cold War, as well as the use of vetoes. The large number of potential and waged wars in which the Council did not intervene during the Cold War was nearly exclusively caused by 'non decisions' (the non placing of wars on the agenda), and not by the use of vetoes by permanent members, as is often assumed in literature. Further, a comparison of two phase classifications of the Cold War showed that the great powers, even when there are great tensions among them, are prepared to cooperate in the Security Council to resolve strategic matters, if they consider this in their interest. Analyses of the adopted strategic resolutions during the Cold War revealed that cooperation here was nearly exclusively limited to issues that were not core issues of the Cold War. From this it can be concluded that cooperation against third party states was a basis of cooperation of the great powers in the Security Council. Finally, the results of this study show clearly that the Security Council was regarded and used to a large extent by the permanent members in the period 1946 2000 as an instrument of foreign policy to pursue their national interests, and not as an instrument of the world community to prevent and end wars.

'Will the Netherlands be defended?' The debate about NATO's main lines of defence at the beginning of the 1950sAt the beginning of the 1950s, the Netherlands would not have been able to defend itself in the event of a Soviet attack. Despite the fact that NATO, under the leadership of the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Eisenhower, and later General Ridgway, was in the process of rapidly building up its defences, it was still incapable of conducting a forward defence. The pivotal political and military issue in the short term centred on one question: Which areas in Western Europe could and should be kept and which not? Answers to this question exposed conflicting national interests and points of view, particularly those of the Dutch and the French. As it was taking a considerably long time to build up the Netherlands' defences, the Dutch government had very few trump cards to add weight to its demands. Indeed, in the summer of 1952, when Parliament asked to be given a precise account of how the Dutch defences were progressing, the government was practically boxed into a corner.

The central question of this dissertation is what role national identity has played in the interdepartmental policy field of international cultural policy (ICP) in the Netherlands between 1970 and 2012. In four chapters I analyse the history of ICP and the related political debate, using a theoretical framework consisting of the main concepts of a Discourse Historic Analysis (critique, ideology, and power), and tensions within the discourses on ICP and national identity. The role of national identity in the first period (1970-1986) is characterized as 'cultural nationalism'. Culture plays an important role in distinguishing the nation state from the rest of the world, and due to the decreasing autonomy in the field of economics and politics culture is considered (by some) to be the last bearer of the national identity. The debates focus on the question whether or not the government has a role in (actively) protecting that identity. The publication of the report "Culture without borders" by the Scientific Council for Government Policy marks the beginning of the second period (1987-1996). Gradually the primacy of the policy shifts from foreign to cultural policy, and attempts are made to combine within ICP the growing cultural diversity of the Dutch society with the uniting role of a national identity. Therefore the role of national identity is characterized as 'multiculturalism'. Extra funding for international cultural activities in 1997 marks the beginning of the third period (1997-2006), in which the role of national identity is characterized as 'cultural relativism'. The relationship between culture and the nation becomes more loose, and cultural activities abroad no longer seem to represent the nation's identity. This approach in ICP contrasts strongly with the growing discontent and heated public and political debate on national identity. Characteristic for the fourth period (2007-2012) is the return to the primacy of foreign policy and the focus on diplomatic and economic goals. Culture is treated as a ...

This thesis is about International Medical Graduates or foreign doctors, trained outside the European Economic Area, who settle permanently in the Netherlands. From the early nineties the number of foreign doctors residing in the Netherlands either as refugees or as partners/spouses of Dutch citizens has risen steadily. Foreign doctors who wish to practise medicine in the Netherlands must obtain a declaration of professional competence, issued by the Department of Public Health, Welfare and Sports (VWS). A considerable number of foreign doctors received negative decisions by the Health Department. They were not allowed to practise medicine in the Netherlands. As a result, from the mid nineties, a growing number of foreign doctors applied to the medical faculties for admission as medical students in order to obtain a Dutch medical degree. Therefore, in 1995, it was decided to institute the Committee Influx Foreign Doctors (CIBA), a central placing committee. Between 1996 and 2007 the CIBA has processed over a 1000 admission requests. Until 2002, in spite of the imminent shortage of doctors, the Department of Health had done little to enhance the use of the expertise brought in by the foreign doctors for the benefit of Dutch society. The focus of this investigation has been: 1. How is it guaranteed that foreign doctors meet the medical quality standards (knowledge, skills, attitude), or how is the assessment of these qualities measured. And 2. After obtaining permanent residency in the Netherlands, do foreign doctors have access to the profession for which they had qualified before in their country of origin or another non-EEA country? Late 2001 the Department of Health and the medical schools were stimulated to cooperate in order to improve the additional training programmes for foreign doctors. It led to the new assessement procedure for foreign doctors that came into force in December 2005. This thesis contains two reports on the medical careers of foreign doctors. These investigations showed that nearly all ...

Why did the Dutch hold on to Western New Guinea, one of the many territories that constituted the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia), when the colony became independent in 1949? This thesis argues against the traditional explanation that it was due to a singular Dutch 'decolonization trauma': an inability to let go of the glorious colonial past, combined with resentment against Indonesian nationalist leaders such as Sukarno. It shows that historians have overstated the importance of emotions in Dutch colonial policy-making and diplomacy after 1949, mainly because of their narrow scope of analysis, which has traditionally been restricted to trilateral relations between the Netherlands, independent Indonesia (which wanted to incorporate Western New Guinea, if need be with military means) and the allegedly 'anti-colonial' United States. This thesis situates Dutch decision-making in the Western New Guinea Crisis in a much wider network, incorporating the colonial policy, diplomacy and perception of other Western powers such as Britain, France, Australia, Belgium and Portugal between 1930 and 1962. It is argued that, when viewed within this network and its discourse, the Dutch decision to retain Western New Guinea is best explained with rational actor theory. The decision was inspired not so much by emotions as by cost-benefit analyses, which included the possibility of transferring the territory to a new Indonesian regime—which the Dutch expected to be more forthcoming to the interests of the Papuans, the native inhabitants of Western New Guinea, and the Dutch (economic) interests in Indonesia than the regime headed by Sukarno. Research into hitherto neglected French, Belgian, British and Dutch archives also shows that the Netherlands could count on much more support for its New Guinea policy from its Western allies—including the US—than traditional historiography suggests. It remains true that the United States forced the Netherlands to hand over Western New Guinea to Indonesia in 1962, but the Kennedy ...

Dutch-American relations in the post-war period have been inexorably intertwined with the Cold War. In the course of the 1960s the East-West struggle entered a new phase with the beginning of a period of détente, which had important consequences for the Dutch-American relationship. In this dissertation, which focuses on the governmental level, the following issues are dealt with: firstly, to what extent was the relationship affected by the complicating developments that took place in the years 1969-1976? Secondly, how did Dutch and American policy makers view the relationship? Finally, what did the asymmetry in the relationship mean and were the Dutch able to exert any influence? When taking into account both international and domestic factors, the picture that emerges is one of both change and continuity. What makes the period concerned stand out is the fact that the Atlantic Alliance was at a point where a redefinition of the common goals seemed unavoidable. Security concerns and preserving the American dominant position in the international arena were the foremost concerns of President Nixon and NSC-advisor Kissinger. These ideas clashed with those of Dutch politicians of for instance the Labour Party who wanted détente, an active human rights policy and development cooperation to be part of the Atlantic foreign policy agenda. The American embassy in The Hague was aware of these changes: it noticed a turn to the left in Dutch society and the political landscape. The Dutch cabinets in the period concerned faced domestic pressure to take a more critical stance towards the United States, where the Nixon administration faced problems concerning its image and credibility because of the Vietnam war and the Watergate scandal. On the other hand, unmistakable signs of continuity in the Dutch-American relationship were present. The Dutch governments in the years concerned did not turn away from Atlantic cooperation, as the Netherlands remained dependent on the American military commitment to Western Europe. Détente was ...

Between 1949 and 1962 the Netherlands renounced its sovereignty over most of its overseas territories. Nevertheless, during the entire period of the Cold War, the Royal Netherlands Navy (RNLN) stood by its point of view that it had a global task to fulfil. This military-naval deployment, outside the NATO treaty area during and shortly after the Cold War in relation to the structural global ambitions of the Royal Netherlands Navy's leadership, is the central theme of this study. This theme is analysed on the basis of theories and an understanding of multinational fleet operations after 1945 and Dutch policy regarding naval operations outside the NATO treaty area, but above all through regional case studies (Korean War 1950-1955, operations around the Arabian peninsula 1984-2000, and in the Adriatic Sea and Montenegrin waters 1992-2001). These case studies were examined by addressing the following central questions: to what extent did these missions involve a traditional approach to Dutch foreign policy? To what extent did the Navy's leadership influence the political-strategic decision-making on these out-of-area operations? To what extent were Dutch tasks and operations different from those of coalition partners, specifically those of the British Royal Navy, which the Royal Netherlands Navy considered to be its 'sister navy'? To what extent did the existing national and international perceptions of the RNLN influence Dutch decision-making on these missions, and how much did the participation in multinational fleet operations subsequently contribute to the objectives the Dutch government had in mind? In all the three case studies, the national and international perception of the Netherlands as a maritime nation and the ability to deploy high-quality navy units were taken into account in the Dutch government's decision-making regarding the RNLN participation in multinational fleet operations. The missions always received international, and especially British and American, appreciation and respect. The fact that ...

This study deals with the rise and decline of the system of unelected representative bodies that accompanied post-war democracy in the Netherlands. After World War II, the number of these unelected representative bodies grew spectacularly, but from the seventies onwards, it started to decrease. How can we account for this remarkable political change? In traditional historiography, this change is associated with the pillarisation of Dutch society, the institutionalisation of corporatist arrangements, the emergence of new social movements or the deep-rooted practice of consensus building. As these accounts turn out to be problematic, this study focuses on the democratic character of unelected representative bodies. Chapter 1 introduces a framework for analysing the democratic character of these bodies, based on the criteria of a democratic political order as identified by R.A. Dahl. The framework encompasses the constitution of the domains represented by unelected bodies; the recruitment of their members; the tasks they fulfilled; and their internal decision-making process. Chapter 2 presents the cases used to analyse how the democratic character of the system of unelected representative bodies developed. These cases are the Sociaal-Economische Raad (1950), the Landbouwschap (1954 - 1995), the Nationale Raad voor Maatschappelijk Werk (1946 - 1989) and the Raad voor de Kunst (1955 - 1995). Chapter 3 shows that the represented domains were either constituted from above by the state or from below by interest groups. The involvement of interest groups led to the exclusion of rivals and, later on, to petrifaction, with the composition of unelected bodies remaining the same despite fundamental social changes. Chapter 4 highlights a similar pattern as the members delegated by interest groups managed to exclude a large number of newcomers. This resulted in a fierce critique of the involvement of interest groups in member recruitment and led to a new generation of unelected councils composed of independent experts. Chapter ...

This paper - written for a conference held in Leuven (KUL) in 2001- offers a global analysis of the European Insolvency Regulation. At the time the paper was written, the Regulation was a very recent instrument. The paper reviews the Regulation based on previous experiences at harmonising the law of cross-border insolvencies (such as the European Insolvency Convention and the Istanbul Convention). Particular attention is paid to the issues of jurisdiction (which court has jurisdiction to open insolvency proceedings), jurisdiction conflicts (what happens if two courts decide to exercise jurisdiction simultaneously) and recognition and enforcement of foreign insolvency judgments.

The article discusses the status, rights and perspectives of the minorities and "non-constituent" peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The status of the "constituent minorities" (the "Others") is very specific and different from the minorities' status in neighbouring countries. The article argues that in Bosnia and Herzegovina "traditional" attitudes like ethno-nationalism, discrimination, violation of minorities rights and freedoms are still very dominant. A direct consequence of this socio-political atmosphere is ethno-particularisation of society and destabilization of the state in domestic and international contexts. This short review of the status of minorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina is an insight into the international and national instruments that regulate the status and rights of the national minorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The authors highlight the specificity of the country, i.e. the institutional discrimination of citizens that belong to the "others", but are still citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The authors claim that the citizenship of Bosnia and Herzegovina should be an efficient protection against the observed discrimination. ; Tema ovog članka je položaj, prava i perspektiva manjina i "nekonstitutivnih" naroda u Bosni i Hercegovini. Položaj posebne grupe "konstitutivnih manjina" (tzv. ostalih) Bosnu i Hercegovinu čini specifičnom i po mnogim faktorima razlikuje od drugih država u okruženju. Članak se fokusira na tezu da u Bosni i Hercegovini još uvijek dominiraju određene "tradicionalne" političke i društvene projekcije koje se iskazuju u formi etnonacionalizma, diskriminacije, kršenja manjinskih prava i sloboda, odnosno demokraciji neprimjerenih supstrata i supstituta. Izravan produkt ovakvog socio-političkog ambijenta jeste etno-partikularizacija društva i destabilizacija države na unutarnjem i međunarodnom planu. Ovaj kratki ogled o položaju manjina u Bosni i Hercegovini, sem pregleda međunarodnih i nacionalnih instrumenata koji reguliraju status i prava nacionalnih manjina, nudi uvid u pomenutu specifičnost Bosne i Hercegovine: institucionaliziranu diskriminaciju građana koji pripadaju kategoriji "ostali", koji su žrtve diskriminacije, iako bi njihovo bosanskohercegovačko državljanstvo per se, i po prirodi stvari, trebalo predstavljati učinkovitu smetnju ovakvoj diskriminaciji.

Considering that in the spectrum of juvenile criminal sanctions punishment of deprivation of liberty is the most severe criminal sanction, international documents related to juveniles in conflict with the law proclaim standards that this sanction has to be imposed only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest period. Issues like possible duration of subject sanction and scope of its imposition, represents some of the basic features of the legal and judicial policy of sanctioning of juveniles, and represent the subject of this paper. The author analyzes how these issues are regulated in Bosnia and Herzegovina"s and comparative law, and how aforementioned standards are applied in practice. Applying the comparative analysis it was determined that there are certain indicators that Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the countries that has in its heritage "humane" sanctioning policy of juvenile offenderes, and that the aforementioned international standards are consistently accepted in domestic law as well as in the jurisprudence. ; Imajući u vidu da u spektru maloljetničkih krivičnih sankcija kazna lišenja slobode predstavlja najstrožiju krivičnu sankciju, međunarodni dokumenti iz oblasti postupanja sa maloljetnicima u sukobu sa zakonom proklamiraju standard da se ona ima izricati samo kao krajnje sredstvo (ultima ratio) i u što kraćem trajanju. Upravo pitanja mogućeg trajanja predmetne sankcije, te obima njenog izricanja predstavljaju neka od osnovnih obilježja zakonske i sudske politike sankcioniranja maloljetnika, te čine predmet istraživanja ovog rada. Autor je analizirao kako su ova pitanja uređena u bosanskohercegovačkom i uporednom pravu, te kako su spomenuti standardi oživotvoreni u praksi. Primjenom komparativnopravne analize utvrđeno je kako postoje određeni pokazatelji da Bosna i Hercegovina spada u red zemalja koje baštine "humanu" politiku sankcioniranja maloljetnih učinitelja krivičnih djela, te da su spomenuti međunarodni standardi dosljedno prihvaćeni kako u pravu, tako i u sudskoj praksi ove zemlje.