Search results

Zo'n 900 onderzoekers uit 55 verschillende landen zochten elkaar op in de University of Illinois om de conferentie Qualitative Inquiry bij te wonen. Het congres, dat sinds 2005 jaarlijks door de International Association of Qualitative Inquiry (IAQI) georganiseerd wordt, stond dit jaar in het teken van Qualitative inquiry and the politics of evidence, ofwel de zoektocht naar meer erkenning van en waardering voor een alternatieve manier van bewijsvoering door kwalitatief onderzoek binnen academische instellingen en faculteiten, beoordelingscommissies, onderzoeksfondsen, professionele organisaties en wetenschappelijke tijdschriften. Ik was er als junior onderzoeker op het terrein van patiëntenparticipatie in wetenschappelijk onderzoek voor het eerst bij en zal verslag doen van de bijgewoonde lezingen en workshops.

Apart from Belgian's OSCE Presidency (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe), two other important topics in 2006 Belgian foreign affairs were economic diplomacy and the European policy. Concerning economic diplomacy the text addresses the problems surrounding two German branches on Belgian territory: the Volkswagen assembly line and DHL. Furthermore, increased importance of economic diplomacy is a well decided approach of the current Minister for Foreign Affairs De Gucht, emphasizing that in bilateral discussions the economic aspect has to be taken into account at all times. Regarding the European policy of ongoing development of European security and defense policy (EVDB) and civic-military cooperation are addressed. Transatlantic relations have improved since 2003 (Iraq war), changing into a "agree where we can, agree to disagree where we can't" attitude, Belgium diplomatic language has lost its rougher edges, and "the glorious three", three years of Belgium presidency (OSCE 2006, UN Security Council 2007-2008) in which the country gained in expressiveness, but lost character opposite large power such as Russia, the US and China. Regarding the UN Security Council a main objective was abolishing the veto right for permanent member states. Tables, Figures, References. O. van Zijl

The present article was part of the conference Belgium and its foreign policy of November 2006, organized by the University of Gent and Catholic University Leuven. It presents an evaluation of the Belgian 2006 Presidency of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). A main objective has been to play an active role regarding the institutional reforms. Achieved were: increased efficacy of the organization, and a renewed confidence in communication between eastern- and western-member states (dividing line, Vienna); strengthening of the economic and ecological dimension, with as focus transport (achieved: increased cooperation between member states, special attention for land-locked countries, and transport-related security issues such ash illegal migration, human traffic, drug traffic, and terrorism); fight against international crime and promotion of the rule of law as central topic of the chairmanship (achieved: increased cooperation between member states); a constructive contribution to solving frozen conflicts (achieved: theoretical improvements). Concerning the human dimension of the OSCE: activities concerning access to legal advice, democratization, mediums freedom, trafficking of human beings, tolerance (the Danish cartoon crisis), and increased access of NGOs to OCSE meetings. References. O. van Zijl

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.