Suchergebnisse

Today few people deny the existence of regional substate diplomacy (Criekemans 2010). But there is still no common agreement on a region's right to do so and, above all, on their scope of action. This question goes against what used to be the dominant approach in international relations, the state-centric approach that leads to the logic of speaking with one voice. Increasingly, a multilevel-governance approach has contested this state-centric view and proposes an alternative logic of multiple actors speaking with their voice, nuancing strongly the seminal distinction between "sovereignty-bound" and "sovereignty-free" actors (Rosenau 1990). From the 1970s, the world has seen the growing presence of sovereignty-free actors in international relations. Among these actors, non-central or, better, substate, governments of federal states have developed intensive foreign relations. These governments are using a range of techniques: from shaping the federal government's foreign policy to establishing themselves directly in the international arena (Blatter et al. 2008). For minority nation governments this is particularly a challenge, as they have to act internally – where they have developed full-fledged legislative powers within a multinational federation – and externally – where international and national laws are often still reluctant to recognise their right of action (Lejeune 2003). Yet some minority nations have thrived in developing their own international relations. Bavaria, Catalonia, Flanders, Quebec, Scotland and Wallonia are often seen as successful international players even if they are not fully sovereignty bound (Michelmann 2009; Criekemans 2010). The international actions of these minority nations have been characterised under the umbrella of "identity paradiplomacy" (Paquin 2003); that is, a willingness to use international relations to foster a nation-building process within a multinational state. This observation was particularly prevalent for minority nations strongly in competition with a federal government about their nationbuilding process, albeit for different reasons, namely Flanders, Quebec and Scotland (Paquin 2004). The case of Wallonia seems to fits less well into the identity paradiplomacy framework, which therefore raises the question of alternative roads to international relations. This is the core question of this chapter: is identity paradiplomacy the only way to go for minority nations? Quebec and Wallonia are both well known for their active foreign relations.

The participation of non-state actors to international politics has been investigated since the creation of international institutions. Yet, the rules, principles and norms of global governance are no more discussed in single, isolated institutions. Rather, with the proliferation of international regimes and organisations, international issues are now negotiated in a context of institutional interactions known as "regime complexes". This poses new questions, in particular on the negotiation burden that these new processes place on international actors. To answer this question, this contribution compares non-state participation in both contexts (single regimes and regime complexes), using the international forest negotiations as a case study. It uses quantitative methods to measure the negotiation burden of single regimes and compare it to the negotiation burden of regime complexes. The negotiation burden of single regimes is found insignificant with political interest being the major motivation for participation, while the negotiation burden of regime complexes is found relevant, requiring a certain type of material and organisational resources for non-state actors to participate. Yet a certain diversity of non-state representation is maintained within regime complexes, with non-governmental organisations being dominant with respect to business groups.

While a great deal of attention is devoted to the Pacific region as the new chessboard of international politics, Pakistan remains a key actor in terms of both threat and potential. Two observations back this argument: first, Pakistan's fundamental roles as a state are challenged by its ongoing conflict with India and internal insurgencies. Second, due to a power-status gap, Pakistan experiences difficulties in holding specific self-conceived roles. In addition to hampering its socio-economic potential, these developments prevent Pakistan's quest for normalization in the system. As a consequence, we argue that engaging with Islamabad should be a priority for Washington so as to prevent the country from further aligning with Beijing, thus reinforcing China's regional leadership and status as peer-competitor to the United States. Indeed, as the potential for deviance in the international system arises from its normative dimension, the US, as the global leader, counts among its roles that of norm-setter and primary socializer for most states. Our research proposes to look at an old puzzle with new theoretical insights. By addressing the question of Washington's engagement towards non-conforming states, we aim to document a set of socialization processes as intervening variables linking American global role as leader and primary socializer to Pakistan's process of social integration (normalization/deviance). Drawing from sociology and social psychology, the paper seeks to explore the ability of the leader to act as a primary source of role location and status recognition towards non-conforming states so as to integrate them (back) into the US-led system.

The Red Devils, chocolate or beer and the King, such is the typical answers given to the oft-asked question of what is still holding Belgium together. To these three symbols, two extra elements are often added: the debt and Brussels, the capital of the country and of the Flemish Region/Community, the French Community (politically but not constitutionally the Wallonia-Brussels Federation), the European Union (to be more specific, one of the three capitals, along with Strasbourg and Luxemburg), while being as well the seat of the Brussels Capital Region. Generally, the list of factors of unity in Belgium ends with this short list. Is it already too long, or on the contrary, is it really too short? This is the main question of this chapter. Paradoxically, although this question often arises, there are very few scientific writings analyzing it. To do so, this chapter will discuss six sets of factors: historical, identity, socio-economic, political, international and symbolic. Nonetheless, it is important to take into account that such enterprise seeks to be informative and not prescriptive. This chapter does not assume that Belgium should be united. There are several points of view about what Belgium should be, and this contribution merely wishes to nurture the political debate by conveying an original approach on six types of factors.

After years of political crises and negotiations, the deep-rooted conflict between Dutch- and French-speaking parties recently led to the 2011 agreement concerning a further reform of the Belgian state. This reform mainly furthers decentralises the – already federal – state structure, including the allocation of additional competences and fiscal powers to sub-national entities (Regions and Communities). But this new state reform also brings about a radical reform of the upper house: the Belgian Senate. Since 1995, the Senate was composed of three different types of members: Senators directly elected by two linguistically separated electorate (the Dutch-speaking and the French-speaking electorates), Senators indirectly elected by the Community parliaments and Senators coopted by the two other types. The French- and German-speaking linguistic minorities had a fixed amount of seats in this assembly. The reform of the state radically changed the legislative competences of the Senate and its composition as its members will now be designated by Regional and Community parliaments (plus 10 coopted senators). Broadly speaking, the appointment of the majority of the Senators moved from a system of direct and language-based election to a system of indirect and mixed regional and language-based designation. This change is not without consequence for the representation of linguistic minorities. In May 2014, regional, community and federal elections will be organised in Belgium, testing for the first time this new system of designation of Senators by regional and community parliaments. This paper intends to present the 2013 reform of the Senate in Belgium and its consequence for the representation of linguistic minorities. The situations before and after the reform of the Senate will be compared, not only in terms of the way Senators are appointed but in terms of its consequence on the linguistic aspects of the regional and community elections campaign and of the profile of the appointed Senators.

The idea of Vietnam's opening, cooperating and integrating into the world has been sprung up in the very early days of the modern Vietnamese diplomacy under the leadership of President Ho Chi Minh. In the Doi Moi era, with creative application of Ho Chi Minh's Thoughts on international cooperation and integration, the Communist Party of Vietnam has gradually supplemented, improved and developed its perception on international integration in accordance with the evaluation of the world situation, international relations, new trends, the interactive relations between Vietnam and the world, opportunities and challenges for Vietnam in realizing the goals of security, development and raising its position in the international arena. The research paper will focus on studying the evolution of the Communist Party of Vietnam's perception on international integration, a crucial factor contributing to significant achievements in the cause of national renovation in general and foreign policy renewal in particular. ; Tư tưởng mở cửa, hợp tác và hội nhập với thế giới của Việt Nam đã được hình thành từ những ngày đầu tiên của nền ngoại giao Việt Nam hiện đại, dưới sự lãnh đạo của Chủ tịch Hồ Chí Minh. Bước sang thời kỳ Đổi Mới, vận dụng sáng tạo Tư tưởng Hồ Chí Minh về hợp tác và hội nhập quốc tế, Đảng Cộng sản Việt Nam đã từng bước hoàn thiện, bổ sung và phát triển tư duy về hội nhập quốc tế trên cơ sở đánh giá tình hình thế giới, quan hệ quốc tế, các xu thế mới, các mối tương quan giữa Việt Nam và thế giới cũng như những cơ hội và thách thức đối với Việt Nam trong việc thực hiện các mục tiêu đảm bảo an ninh, phát triển và nâng cao vị thế của đất nước. Bài viết tập trung tìm hiểu quá trình phát triển tư duy của Đảng Cộng sản Việt Nam về hội nhập quốc tế, nhân tố quan trọng góp phần đem lại những thành tựu đáng kể trong sự nghiệp đổi mới đất nước nói chung và đổi mới về đối ngoại nói riêng.

International economic integration is one of the major policies of the Vietnam's Government and the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) in the time of doi moi (renovation). This policy has been mentioned in several important resolutions and been implemented intensively since the Ninth National Congress of CPV. Through the national congresses of CPV, the policy of international economic integration has had new developments with new contents which have met the requirements of the domestic situation and matched with the general trend of our time. The Eleventh National Congress of CPV have developed the policy of foreign relations to a new height, in which international integration has become a major orientation of foreign relations. With this orientation, the characteristics and the level of international intergation have been improved, the scope of international integration has been extended. ; Hội nhập kinh tế quốc tế là một chủ trương lớn của Đảng và Nhà nước ta trong thời kỳ đổi mới. Chủ trương đó đã được đề cập đến trong nhiều nghị quyết quan trọng và được triển khai mạnh mẽ từ Đại hội IX đến nay. Qua các kỳ Đại hội Đảng, chủ trương hội nhập kinh tế quốc tế đã có những bước phát triển mới với những nội dung mới, vừa đáp ứng đòi hỏi của tình hình trong nước vừa phù hợp với xu thế chung của thời đại. Đại hội XI của Đảng đã phát triển đường lối, chính sách đối ngoại lên một tầm cao mới, trong đó, hội nhập quốc tế trở thành định hướng đối ngoại lớn. Với định hướng này, tính chất và trình độ hội nhập quốc tế được nâng cao, phạm vi hội nhập quốc tế được mở rộng.

Transparency is a widely used concept in debates on international politics, from transnational anti-corruption campaigns to renewed requests for greater disclosure on health, finance, or even security issues. Calls for transparency date back at least to the League of Nations, when internationalists demanded open diplomacy. Yet, it is in the subfield of GEG, and its developments on nonstate actors as a key research topic (see introduction), where the practice and theory of transparency has made the most profound inroads (Gupta 2010a). GEG has been a particularly fertile ground for the development of informational governance (Mol 2008) and the rise of numerous transparency initiatives which have been analyzed in a rapidly developing literature. Importantly, current GEG research is also highly relevant for other IR subfields. For one, recent GEG research can help IR scholars to further refine the concept of transparency and to increase conceptual clarity and sophistication. Second, research on GEG has improved our understanding of the factors that determine the effectiveness of transparency as a governance tool in international politics.

The EUROSUR system is supposed to further the surveillance of external borders of European Union Member States. From this point of view, it can be considered an important step in the construction of a controlled space. Drawing inspiration from the Foucauldian attention to programs and technologies, and mobilizing the Actor- Network-Theory concepts of setting and actant, the paper investigates EUROSUR main methodological operations. It highlights how the making of a controlled space is, first and foremost, a mise-en-discours going well beyond surveillance and pro- hibition: a continuous effort to make sense of a disparate multiplicity, encompassing both human and nonhuman elements, both controlled and controlling ones. From a theoretical perspective, the chapter contributes to on-going endeavors to reinvigor- ate the post-structuralist studies of International Relations with approaches inspired by Actor-Network-Theory.

Accounting for nearly 80% of the global population and occupying three quarters of the world' area, the developing countries are affirming their roles in the global progress. However, the independence and sovereignty of these countries are often faced with many challenges stemming from upheavals in the international security environment, globalization, violence policies of big countries and power competition among them. In this context, in order to preserve their independence and sovereignty, the developing countries need to build democratic and progressive states, improve their real national strengths, struggle against the "peaceful evolution" of the powerful nations. This paper analyzes factors which influence the independence and sovereignty as well as the current process of struggling and defending the independence and sovereignty of the developing countries ; Chiếm khoảng 80% dân số và ¾ diện tích toàn cầu, các nước đang phát triển đang khẳng định vai trò, vị thế của mình trong đời sống quốc tế. Tuy nhiên, độc lập, chủ quyền của các nước đang phát triển luôn đứng trước nhiều thách thức đến từ những biến động của môi trường an ninh quốc tế; chính sách cường quyền của các nước lớn; quá trình toàn cầu hóa; sự cạnh tranh quyền lực của các nước lớn. Trong bối cảnh đó, để giữ được độc lập, chủ quyền, các nước đang phát triển cần xây dựng một nhà nước dân chủ, tiến bộ; tăng cường thực lực quốc gia; đấu tranh chống "diễn biến hòa bình" của các nước lớn. Bài viết phân tích những nhân tố tác động đến độc lập, chủ quyền và quá trình đấu tranh bảo vệ độc lập, chủ quyền của các nước đang phát triển hiện nay.

Import and export activities have contributed greatly to the development of the Lao People\'s Democratic Republic over the last years. By means of descriptive statistical analysis, comparison, comtrast, synthesis, and generalization of the data released by the National Statistical Bureau and world's financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or the World Bank (WB), this paper will clarify the successes in the economic developments of Laos, the successes and shortcomings of import and export activities, the impacts of the results of the import and export activities on the country\'s economic growth. Finally, the article will make implications of the country\'s import development policies of the Lao People's Democratic Republic in the years to come. ; Hoạt động xuất nhập khẩu đóng góp rất lớn vào sự phát triển của nước Cộng hòa Dân chủ Nhân dân Lào trong những năm qua. Bài báo này bằng phương pháp phân tích thống kê mô tả, so sánh, đối chiếu, tổng hợp và khái quát hóa các số liệu của Tổng cục Thống kê nước này và của các định chế tài chính thể giới như Quỹ tiền tệ thế giới - IMF hay Ngân hàng thế giới WB. Từ đó bài báo đã làm rõ được những thành công trong phát triển kinh tế của Lào, những thành công và yếu kém của hoạt động xuất nhập khẩu, tác động từ kết quả của hoạt động xuất nhập khẩu tới tăng trưởng kinh tế của quốc gia này. Nội dung cuối cùng của bài viết là các hàm ý chính sách phát triển xuất nhập khẩu của nước Cộng hòa Dân chủ Nhân dân Lào trong những năm tới.

Building a livable city is the top objective of local governments. 'Green City' is concerned, researched, and constructed effectively in some cities around the world. The paper is to identify a green city's benefits to humans and the environment. Moreover, this study also establishes criteria of the green city according to international standards in emerging cities, especially in 5 criteria such as green space and land use, atmosphere, water resource, and energy supply. Finally, the criteria of the green city established are used for scoring and assessing Vung Tau city. Currently, Vung Tau city has 60.9 scores below a green city's standards with 65 scores; however, it can be changed by proposals in development policies to get 69.3 scores. ; Việc xây dựng một thành phố đáng sống là một mục tiêu hàng đầu của các chính phủ địa phương. Thành phố xanh "Green City" đang được quan tâm, nghiên cứu, và xây dựng một cách hiệu quả tại nhiều thành phố trên thế giới. Bài báo này sẽ làm rõ ràng những chức năng mà một thành phố xanh mang lại. Ngoài ra, nghiên cứu này cũng xây dựng những tiêu chí của thành phố xanh đạt tiêu chuẩn quốc tế tại các thành phố đang phát triển, đặc biệt là 5 tiêu chí không gian xanh và sử dụng đất; giao thông; không khí; nguồn nước; nguồn năng lượng. Hơn nữa, việc ứng dụng các tiêu chí thành phố xanh cho việc chấm điểm và đánh giá Thành phố Vũng Tàu. Hiện nay, thành phố Vũng Tàu được chấm 60.9 điểm, mức điểm này ở dưới tiêu chuẩn của một thành phố xanh là 65 điểm, tuy nhiên trong tương lai gần với những chính sách phát triển phù hợp thì số điểm này có thể tăng lên đến 69.3 điểm.

Some states are widely recognized by policy makers and scholars as middle powers. The characteristics that were highlighted for these countries have become the basic guidelines for understanding middle powermanship and developing the corresponding theory. While those analyses offer rich in-depth insights into the foreign policy of specific countries, they have so far lacked a further step of generalization. When establishing such power-based rankings, we assume the possibility to determine states' capacities so as to identify their position in said ranking. As appealing as this theoretical model may be, the reality of international politics increasingly challenge it. Thus, we argue that this theoretical inadequacy is due to the fact that middle power theory as it has been developed so far should be understood as an inductive, not a deductive, approach . Consequently, the contemporary reality calls for yet another stage of development in this theory. The choice of Pakistan as our case study arises from the observation that while Pakistan can hardly fit into the current classification(s) of middle powermanship due to its poor economic and development performances, it is a nuclear state and is –at least– in the top twenty armies of the world. Moreover, we find several cases in which Pakistan has used the diplomatic tools characterizing middle powers, such as mediation or niche diplomacy. Our paper aims at answering two questions: (1) can middle power theory bring some light on Pakistan's positioning in world politics? (2) Alternatively, what does the case of Pakistan tell us about the (ir)relevance of middle power theory? We build upon role theory to develop the case of middle powermanship as a status-role bundle, by analyzing three specific cases of Pakistan's foreign policy: Pakistani nuclear posturing, its Afghan policy and its posturing vis-à-vis the Saudi-Iranian regional competition.

From the beginning of the 1990's onwards, political analysts in all Western European countries discovered the contours of what they thought to be a widespread crisis of democracy. The alleged decline of political trust and public participation, and the rise of electoral volatility pointed out that the gap between politicians and citizens had never been wider. This political climate characterized by a deep-rooted crisis of democratic legitimacy offered an excellent breeding ground for critical reflection on the role, shape and function of democracy in modern societies. It gave rise to a fruitful quest for new and innovative ways of governing a democracy. It is in this turbulent period that the ideal of a deliberative democracy was coined (Dryzek 2000). A community of international scholars and philosophers, inspired by the work of Jürgen Habermas, became more and more convinced that a vibrant democracy is more than the aggregate of its individual citizens, and that democratic politics should be about more than merely voting. The quality of a democracy and the quality of democratic decisions, according to them, did not depend on the correct aggregation of individual preferences, but rather on the quality of the public debate that preceded the voting stage. Democratic decisions were thus no longer considered a function of mere compliance with aggregation rules. Instead, they were determined by extensive argumentation about political choices before voting on them. Because of its strong focus of public involvement in politics, this deliberative model of democracy started out in life as a theory of legitimacy (Benhabib 1996; Cohen 1997; Dryzek 2001; Parkinson 2006). By including everyone who is affected by a decision in the process leading to that decision, deliberation has important political merits: it is capable of generating political decisions that receive broad public support, even when there is strong disagreement on the aims and values a polity should promote (Geenens & Tinnevelt 2007, p. 47). After all, talking about political issues allows citizens to hear other perspectives to a problem and to see their own perspectives represented in the final decision. However, deliberation's beneficial effects do not come about easily. If deliberative democracy wants to contribute to increasing the legitimacy of the political system as a whole, it has to be legitimate in itself. In other words, deliberative events have to reflect the principles of legitimacy in their own functioning before their outcomes can generate legitimate political decisions. It is therefore crucial to assess the internal legitimacy of deliberative mini-publics before making claims about their contribution to the legitimacy of the political system as a whole. Our research question is therefore: to what extent can deliberative mini-publics live up to the criteria of democratic and political legitimacy? In this paper, we set out to assess the internal legitimacy of one specific deliberative event, namely the G1000 project in Belgium (Caluwaerts & Reuchamps, 2012). The G1000 project takes a particular place in the world of deliberative practice because it was not only grassroots in its process and its results, but also in its organization. Most deliberative events are introduced and funded by either public administrations or scientific institutions. The G1000 was rather considered a genuine citizens' initiative from its very inception. All of the organizers of the event were volunteers, and all of the funds were gathered using crowd funding. So instead of a scientific experiment, the G1000 was more of a democratic experiment by, through, and for citizens. This grass-root structure makes it a very interesting case for students of legitimacy, because as we will see later on it situated at the heart of the democratic trade-off between input and output legitimacy.

From the beginning of the 1990's onwards, political analysts in all Western European countries discovered the contours of what they thought to be a widespread crisis of democracy. The alleged decline of political trust and public participation, and the rise of electoral volatility pointed out that the gap between politicians and citizens had never been wider. This political climate characterized by a deep-rooted crisis of democratic legitimacy offered an excellent breeding ground for critical reflection on the role, shape and function of democracy in modern societies. It gave rise to a fruitful quest for new and innovative ways of governing a democracy. It is in this turbulent period that the ideal of a deliberative democracy was coined (Dryzek 2000). A community of international scholars and philosophers, inspired by the work of Jürgen Habermas, became more and more convinced that a vibrant democracy is more than the aggregate of its individual citizens, and that democratic politics should be about more than merely voting. The quality of a democracy and the quality of democratic decisions, according to them, did not depend on the correct aggregation of individual preferences, but rather on the quality of the public debate that preceded the voting stage. Democratic decisions were thus no longer considered a function of mere compliance with aggregation rules. Instead, they are determined by extensive argumentation about political choices before voting on them. Because of its strong focus of public involvement in politics, this deliberative model of democracy started out in life as a theory of legitimacy (Benhabib 1996; Cohen 2002; Dryzek 2001; Parkinson 2006). By including everyone who is affected by a decision in the process leading to that decision, deliberation has important political merits: it is capable of generating political decisions that receive broad public support, even when there is strong disagreement on the aims and values a polity should promote (Geenens & Tinnevelt 2007, p. 47). After all, talking about political issues allows citizens to hear other perspectives to a problem and to see their own perspectives represented in the final decision. As such, deliberative democracy seeks to score high on input, throughput and output legitimacy. However, deliberation's beneficial effects do not come about easily. If deliberative democracy wants to contribute to increasing the legitimacy of the political system as a whole, it has to be legitimate in itself. In other words, deliberative events have to reflect the principles of legitimacy in their own functioning before their outcomes can generate legitimate political decisions. It is therefore crucial to assess the internal legitimacy of deliberative mini-publics before making claims about their contribution to the legitimacy of the political system as a whole. In this paper, we set out to assess the internal legitimacy of one specific deliberative event, namely the G1000 project in Belgium (Caluwaerts & Reuchamps, 2012a). Our research question is therefore: to what extent does the G1000 live up to the criteria of input, throughput and output legitimacy? The G1000 project takes a particular place in the world of deliberative practice because it was not only grass roots in its process and its results, but also in its organization. Most deliberative events are introduced and funded by either public administrations or scientific institutions. The G1000 was rather considered a citizens' initiative from its very inception. All of the organizers of the event were volunteers, and all of the funds were gathered using crowd funding. So instead of a scientific experiment, the G1000 was more of a democratic experiment by, through, and for citizens. This grass-root structure makes it a very interesting case for students of legitimacy, because as we will see later on it situated at the heart of the democratic trade-off between input and output legitimacy.