Suchergebnisse

The research dataset 'Statistics on international financial and capital transactions (SIFCT)' provides the microdata collected by the Deutsche Bundesbank for the compilation of the financial account, capital account and investment income of the German balance of payments statistics. The research dataset provides detailed information on capital transfers receivable and payable between residents and nonresidents, the acquisition and disposal of nonproduced, nonfinancial assets as well as transactions involving financial assets and liabilities and investment income. It is supplemented by the country of the counterparty and the sector classification of the resident firm. The research data are available from 2001 as a panel dataset with a monthly frequency.

The article discusses the politicisation of international politics and its effects on the legitimacy of international institutions. It is argued that a more complex understanding of the interplay of institutional and non-institutional practices of resistance is needed and that one has to draw from theories of international relations as well as from approaches from democratic heory to better understand the developments and its effects on the legitimacy of international institutions. The article proceeds by, first, reconstructing how research in IR has responded to the emergence of civil society critique, focusing in particular on the debate about inclusion through liberal governance mechanisms and the discussion of the regulatory power of counter-hegemonic actors in critical theories; it then turns to democratic theoretical approaches, in which the concept of "opposition" becomes a cipher for legitimate critique, yet the value of opposition and its form is determined very differently in different lines of thought. Finally, it is shown that the debate on the politicisation of international relations would particularly benefit from a republican understanding of politics, since the analytical focus and normative impetus lies in the relation between the visibly controversial nature of order and the creation of sites for opinion formation in civil society.

The Orient/East-Med Corridor, connecting central and southeastern Europe, provides important business potential for European rail freight. However, freight transport by rail faces a number of challenges in terms of quality, cost competitiveness, service features and political/societal acceptance and support. A particular challenge is the slow implementation of a truly Single European Rail Area, leading to high costs and time losses at borders. As a response to this, so-called EU Rail Freight Corridors (RFCs) have been set up, one of them being the Orient/East-Med RFC No. 7, established in November 2013 and aiming at better cross-border coordination and cooperation in the field of infrastructure and traffic management and improved customer orientation and involvement of corridor users. Key features of the Rail Freight Corridors are strong governance structures with clearly defined tasks. Among the early positive effects are the elaboration and testing of new solutions for cross-border processes, better coordination in timetable planning and the setting up of cross-border working groups, bringing relevant actors together to address specific issues. At the same time there is room for further improvement both conceptually and in terms of the corridor geography. The establishment of two further Rail Freight Corridors in the region, the Alpine-Western Balkan RFC No. 10 and the Amber RFC No. 11 closes some remaining gaps in the network of corridors.

Peace and justice have been a preferred couple in theoretical writings - but what do we know about their empirical relationship? Insights from other disciplines suggest that humans are highly sensitive to violations of justice and that justice concerns permeate social relations. Neuroscientists have located the parts of the brain responsible for negative reactions to violation of claims for justice. Evolutionary biologists have identified rules of distribution and retribution not only in early human societies but among other socially living species as well. Psychologists have observed the emergence of a sense of justice in very early childhood, while behavioral economists have identified behavior of average persons in experiments that deviated significantly from the model of the "economic man" and could only be explained by a sense of justice. The chapter summarizes these findings and outlines their implications for peace research. It highlights the ambivalent nature of justice for social relations. Justice concerns can exacerbate conflicts between individuals and groups but justice can also provide standards for arriving at durable peaceful solutions to conflicts. Understanding these ambivalences and their repercussions for international and intrastate relations provides a promising path towards understanding conflict dynamics.

As the old adage goes: never let a good crisis go to waste. Many policy-makers across the world - representing individual countries and international organisations - deserve credit for having launched a serious debate about reforming the WTO, in light of the many serious challenges the system faces today. This reform debate has been a long time coming. But in its current state, the conversation remains largely inward-looking, and thus fundamentally inadequate. The problems confronting trade multilateralism have deep roots; technocratic fixes within the WTO, while important, can play only a small part in resolving them. A fundamental rethinking and renegotiation on the narratives that underpin globalisation is necessary if we are to address the crisis trade multilateralism faces today. This article offers some concrete recommendations to facilitate this.

The rural environment is a complex system in which the differences in development are evident both at the subnational and international level. The difficulties related to methodological analysis are due to such rural diversity and the partial lack of comparable indicators which lead to the development of objectives and indicators that respond to both national and international needs. Harmonization should be easier in view of the common goal, but policies and strategies do not always provide the required coherence. The presence of programmatic documents such as the Agenda 2030 reveals a path that can lead to good practices and reliable results even if they do not offer
universal or global certainties.

This chapter gives an overview of the most important features of the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) survey as it pertains to two main goals. First, only a well-designed survey will lead to accurate and comparable test scores across different countries and languages both within and across assessment cycles. Second, only an understanding of its complex survey design will lead to proper use of the PIAAC data in secondary analyses and meaningful interpretation of results by psychometricians, data analysts, scientists, and policymakers. The chapter begins with a brief introduction to the PIAAC survey followed by an overview of the background questionnaire and the cognitive measures. The cognitive measures are then compared to what was assessed in previous international adult surveys. Key features of the assessment design are discussed followed by a section describing what could be done to improve future PIAAC cycles.

This methodological book aims to summarise existing techniques for analysing data resulting from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). The present chapter provides an overview of the programme, outlining its goal, the participating countries, the survey cycles, and the research questions that can be addressed with the available data. In addition, the structure of the textbook is described.

International climate cooperation needs to be negotiated among sovereign countries. The key to cooperation, and to countervail free riding, is reciprocity. Using game theory and a human subject experiment, we show that reciprocity can be built into the negotiation design. Human players negotiating a reciprocal common commitment are substantially more successful in promoting cooperation than when negotiating individual commitments. Moreover, focusing on a uniform common commitment strongly facilitates agreement, as compared to negotiating a vector of commitments, one for each player. Because a carbon price is a natural candidate for a uniform common commitment, our findings suggest that international climate negotiations should focus on reciprocal carbon pricing. Economists advocate carbon pricing for its cost efficiency, yet the role of carbon pricing for promoting cooperation could be at least as important.

The long lasting unsolved spatial problems and the lack of a sustainable integrated transport system in Greece indicate the insufficiency of the formal planning procedures. For such complex problems, the complementary use of informal processes, like the test planning process, is especially useful. In 2015, at the initiative of ETH Zurich, three European universities (ETH Zurich, University of Patras, and National Technical University of Athens) collaborated on the pilot implementation of the test planning process revolving around the issue of the railway and spatial development in Patras, the third largest city on the Peloponnese. Such an attempt to use informal planning methods in the rather conventional milieu of Patras was directed towards creating a new planning culture in Greece. Furthermore, such a European project that enhances international cooperation and the transfer of know-how finally leads to the strengthening of European cohesion, a vital goal of any international project.

Controversial constitutional and institutional reforms voted in May in parliament opened the way for President Gnassingbé to stand for a fourth and fifth term (2020 and 2030) because the law does not apply retroactively. The first local elections since more than 30 years resulted in the victory of the ruling party. Grand expectations of the opposition which had hoped for a fundamental change at least at the grassroots were again dashed. The human rights situation sharply deteriorated due to growing political and social tensions related to the prospects of the head of state running for a fourth term. Islamist terrorist violence spread from Mali to the northern frontier region of Togo. The autonomous deep-water port of Lomé developed as a growth pole and hub for the sub-region. China became the major partner beside the established partners the EU, France and Germany. The informal sector still dominated the economy. Economic freedom remained with the overall status 'mostly unfree'.

Compares cosmopolitan versus communitarian issue positions by mass publics and elites across our study. We investigate whether there is an attitude gap between elites, who tend to adhere to cosmopolitan positions, and mass publics with more communitarian leanings. Contrasting mass opinion surveys with results from our own elite survey, we show that the mass-elite divide on globalization issues is indeed pervasive and found in all five countries of study. We consider both economic causes in the shape of diverging material interests and cultural ones, the latter pointing towards cultural capital and symbolic boundaries defining transnational cosmopolitan class consciousness. The results align more with the cultural than with the economic explanation. Political elites in the five countries display convergent cosmopolitan positions across issues as varied as international trade, climate change, migration and supranational integration. Mass publics are much more divided on these issues. Also, education alone does not explain the mass-elite gap because the elites are still significantly more cosmopolitan than highly educated members of mass publics, even within the same country.

Consumers are becoming increasingly more informed about food systems and are interested not only in healthy, safe, and tasty food but also sustainable production, animal welfare, climate changes, and food waste. Consumers are also more focused on changing their lifestyle related to improved health knowledge and nutrition education (Timmer 2005). Maxwell and Slater (2004) have proposed criteria to evaluate food systems, including nutrition and health, rights and influence, security, sustainability, equality, and social inclusion. The authors also point out that the primary international institutions in the food value chain are not only the Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization but also United Nations Industrial Development Organization, International Labour Organization, and World Trade Organization. The emerging trends in the food system are features of the {\dq}new economy.{\dq} This term describes the outcome of the transition from production- and manufacturing-based economy to a service-based or post-industrial economy at the end of the twentieth century. The traditional production factors such as cheap labor, land, and raw materials lose their importance in generating profits and competitiveness. The key is understanding of food consumer demand, knowledge of food industry and agriculture employees based on creativity, and flexibility of processes of production.