Suchergebnisse

The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is one of the World Trade Organisation's most important agreements. This accord is the first & only set of multilateral rules covering international trade in services. It is a framework for international trade in services & a legal basis for resolving conflicting national interests. For the past two decades, trade in services has grown faster than merchandise trade. Currently, they represent more than two thirds of the World Gross Domestic Product. As the term services covers a wide range of intangible & heterogeneous products & activities, there has been an increasing demand for detailed, relevant & internationally comparable statistical information on trade in services. In the last ten years, the share of transportation services in international trade in commercial services was steady & amounted to about one quarter. Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.

Commenting on the article by R. Badinter (1996, this issue), the author contends that experts in international law are not broad-minded regarding the establishment of a state. Most legal experts take for granted the statements of the international judiciary on the existence of certain rules of general international law & consider them validated & indisputable. This fiction has been given support by states, since they uphold only those legal statements that suit their interests. The author analyses the Opinions of the Arbitration Committee on the process of the disintegration & the Criteria for the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia as well as the criteria for the creation of the new states. He considers this precedent as central for international judiciary law. Adapted from the source document.

This paper analyses international response to the Croatian military operation Maslenica in January 1993. Based on media comments and reactions of key international mediators in the war in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, particularly the United Nations, France and Chairman of the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia, it seeks to answer the question of what the reaction was, how in reality it was in accordance with the proclaimed policies and how it fit into the overall international policy towards the war in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The paper is based on the documents of the United Nations, the analysis of several newspapers and reports of the Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It situates behaviour of the main participants within the context of 'carrots and sticks' strategy. The Maslenica operation had shown that international community would not prevent military interventions against the self-declared Republic of Srpska Krajina by Croatian forces. It thus announced what subsequently happened in 1995 with the decisive Operation Storm. Adapted from the source document.

The author's starting assumption is that globalization institutionalizes new forms of governance, but that this does not diminish the significance of the national state. On the contrary, globalization forces the advanced industrial societies to find a new balance between calls for economic efficacy & expectations regarding social security. On the other hand, national states have avoided the impact of globalization primarily owing to the (1) institutional acclimatizing reserve of modern democracies, (2) development & application of new political governing instruments, & (3) intelligent usage of international cooperational pressures in favor of national political innovations. However, all this does not mean that the national state has gone through globalization unscathed. A new architecture of political governance has emerged, called by the author the transnational regimes of politics. They include, besides national states, international organizations such as the WTO, regional integrations (EU, NAFTA), as well as a variety of national & transnational interest groups & movements. The author concludes that the efficacy of the new forms of governance must not be overrated. Also, the basic problem today is the expansion of the areas lacking functional markets, successful national states, or global forms of governance. 45 References. Adapted from the source document.

Mediterranean cooperation is addressed in the context of the creation of the Euromediterranean zone. The European Union has been developing various modes of cooperation with non-member Mediterranean countries by signing association agreements or cooperation agreements. The new European states, created after the disintegration of former socialist federations, demonstrate an interest in Mediterranean cooperation, though they tend to have different attitudes toward it. Their interest is based solely on the fact that Mediterranean cooperation has not been standardized & that it has a poorly developed institutional framework. This enables these countries to join in from time to time, when it suits their purposes. Regarding the role of the new states, the author distinguishes between two types of cooperation: (1) autonomous regional cooperation, which is not beneficial for the new states (eg, the Balkan states); & (2) occasional, specialized, dispersed cooperation, which might attract the countries of Central & Eastern Europe. Adapted from the source document.

When analyzing the role of the individual in society, or even in international relations, there are two polar opinions, neither of which can be documented or corroborated with definite & irrefutable evidence. According to the first opinion, the history of mankind is, in fact, the result of the exploits of relatively few prominent individuals; the other opinion is that history is the outcome of social, political, & economic circumstances & processes, which are basically unalterable. The reality & practice of today's international political relations are, naturally, much more complex than might be gathered from these two contrary approaches. In searching for a consensual attitude toward the role of the individual in international relations, there are still many more unanswered questions than acceptable answers, which makes this topic a subject of vigorous & persisting debates among today's theoreticians of international political relations. Adapted from the source document.

The author analyzes the genesis & the scenarios of the Kosovo crisis resolution, as well as the possible political reverberations of the NATO military intervention. The premise is that the Kosovo crisis is only a continuation of the break-up of the former Yugoslavia; Kosovo has for centuries been a separate entity largely populated by Albanians; the policy of Serbian nationalism has permanently discriminated against the Albanian population; & prior to the recent air strikes against Yugoslavia, Serbia had systematically led an ethnic-cleansing campaign on Kosovo. Although the author recognizes that support for the NATO military action can hardly be found in the tenets of the UN Charter, he argues that it can nevertheless be justified by international law. He points out that NATO's military campaign enjoyed the broad support of the people of NATO member countries, but that it has made a rift in the European Left. The new Left was in the forefront of the action, while the old, dogmatic, & sectarian Left found itself in the ranks of its most vocal opponents. The author claims that Milosevic, with his overall politics, & particularly his policy on Kosovo, had propelled the West into an action from which it could not extricate itself. He concludes that the consequences of Belgrade's defeat will be (1) the collapse of Milosevic's regime (the beginning of his end); (2) the final incapacitation of Milosevic's politics to create new conflicts; (3) the protectorate over Kosovo & its autonomy, with a factual independence from Serbia; (4) the independence of Montenegro; (5) Reinforcing the Dayton policy in Bosnia & Herzegovina (eliminating centrifugal tendencies); (6) the organized participation of the West in the transitional processes in this region (the pact on the stability of southeast Europe); & (7) bolstering the democratic & weakening the undemocratic tendencies in the region. Adapted from the source document.