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IN THIS ARTICLE, THE AUTHOR INVESTIGATES THE POTENTIAL FOR REFORM WITHIN THE EUROPEAN UNION (EU). SPATIAL MODELS ARE EMPLOYED TO EXPLORE THE EXTENT TO WHICH DOMESTIC CONSIDERATIONS PREVENT THE ORGANIZATION FROM INTENSIFYING COOPERATION AMONG MEMBER STATES. HE SLOWS THAT INTERGOVERNMENTALISM WILL ULTIMATELY REMAIN THE PREDOMINANT DECISION MAKING MODE DESPITE RECENT INTRODUCTION OF THE CODECISION PROCEDURE WHICH YIELDS UNCONDITIONAL BLOCKING POWER TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT. THE CAPACITY FOR INSTITUTIONAL INNOVATION IS LIMITED BECAUSE OF THE COEXISTENCE OF INTERGOVERNMENTALIST AND SUPRANATIONALIST AGENDA-SETTING PROCEDURES. THIS DUALISM OFFERS OPPORTUNITIES TO OVERTURN LEGISLATIVE DECISIONS. AFTER EXPERIENCING A DEFEAT IN THE DOMAIN OF "LOW POLITICS" GOVERNMENTS MAY CREATE 'NEGATIVE SPILLOVERS" BY ASKING FOR COMPENSATION IN THE UNANIMITY-RULED AREA OF "HIGH POLITICS."

Traditional integration theories disagree over the scope of the main foreign policy instrument of the European Union (EU), the so-called European Political Cooperation (EPC). While intergovernmentalism suggests that EPC actions are weak, neofunctionalism maintains that cooperation within the EPC framework is characterised by strong measures. In this article, we present a game-theoretic and statistical analysis of these conflicting propositions and show that European foreign policy making is much more diversified than predicted by the predominating theoretical approaches. A signalling game demonstrates that the exploitation of uncertainty by a possible profit-seeker outside the organisation can cause inadequate EPC decisions. The formal model also explores the extent to which joint interest in closer foreign policy coordination can help to overcome diverging national policy preferences. The empirical test of some game-theoretic hypotheses shows that European foreign policy making has become more intensive. The increasing number of declarations is, however, also a sign of the proliferation of non-committing statements. Logit regressions reveal a close relationship between the economic salience of an EPC target nation to the European Union and the intensity of an EPC reaction. (European Journal of Political Research / FUB)

THE EMERGENCE OF AN INCREASING NUMBER OF STATES WITH A HIGH CONFLICT PROPENSITY CONSTITUTES A MAJOR CHALLENGE TO INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY. THIS ARTICLE EXAMINES HOW INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS CAN COUNTER THE THREATS POSED BY RISKY STATES. IT ARGUES THAT LIBERAL APPROACHES UNDERESTIMATE THE ABILITY OF ACTORS EXTERNAL TO AN INSTITUTION TO DISRUPT THE COLLECTIVE ATTEMPTS TO ELICIT CO-OPERATION FROM RISKY STATES. IT OFFERS A MODEL-BASED TYPOLOGY OF MULTILATERAL MECHANISM AND DISCUSSES THE LIMITS OF CURRENT STRATEGIES FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF NON-CO-OPERATIVE GAME THEORY.

Recent research on European integration has largely profited from the institutionalist turn in political science. Theoretical progress has, however, hampered by the diverse understandings of this new research tradition. This paper tries to tackle the conceptual diversity in a positive way. We first analyse the neo-institutionalist turn in political science and European studies and then move on to detailed analysis and comparison of the three competing approaches - sociological, historical, and rational choice institutionalism. Next, we will show that the main differences are as much epistemological as theoretical. A convergence towards a unifying institutionalist approach can thus only be possible if some sort of a methodological convergence takes place. We sketch how a synthesis between the competing schools might appear. (European Journal of Political Research / FUB)

In the domain of civil and military surveillance and reconnaissance sensors and exploitation systems of different producers are used to achieve an overall picture of a critical situation. In today's multinational cooperation's on security and peace keeping it is essential to be able to share data that is produced by one national asset with other systems or even other nations. Therefore interoperability has to be established between those various systems, since each of them is currently dealing with different metadata/data formats and interfaces. Within the multinational intelligence and surveillance project MAJIIC (Multi-Sensor Aerospace-Ground Joint ISR Interoperability Coalition) various standards have been developed enable sharing data. Those range from common data representation (e.g. imagery or radar data), metadata models and communication protocols to Coalition Shared Data (CSD) servers. The CSD servers provide a decentralized storage facility in which the standardized information is persisted and available to all participants through synchronization. Using standardized client interfaces relevant data can be found and retrieved from the storage facility. By the approach of standardization, many of the interoperability issues have been overcome on a data representation level, resulting in the ability to share the data. However, to be able to understand the data and translate it into information more work has to be done. The integration of the various systems into a single coherent approach needs to be continued on the process, semantic interpretation and pragmatic level in order to achieve full interoperability. The usage and semantic of the metadata has to be defined as well as user roles and responsibilities. Rules have to be established to enable the correct. Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. interpretation and validation of data. The paper describes the exercise based approach that is used in the project and reflects on the necessity of a multilevel approach to achieve interoperability.

This article presents new measures of foreign economic openness in the transition countries that allow us to distinguish between non-tariff barriers to trade and capital controls. We argue that this distinction is important for the analysis of foreign economic relations in the postcommunist world. While most states lowered barriers to trade since 1993, they increased the number of capital controls, which had been low at the beginning of the transition process. The ELITE (Economic Liberalization in the Transition Economies) data set, which is based on the IMF statistics on exchange arrangements and exchange restrictions and encompasses 24 transition countries, further demonstrates important exceptions to this trend. The comparison of the ELITE indicators with alternative measurements of economic openness indicates the need to move towards more refined analyses of the political economy of the transition process.

This article presents new measures of foreign economic openness in transition countries that allow us to distinguish between non-tariff barriers to trade & capital controls. We argue that this distinction is important for the analysis of foreign economic relations in the postcommunist world. While most states have lowered barriers to trade since 1993, they have increased the number of capital controls, which had been low at the beginning of the transition process. The ELITE (Economic Liberalization in the Transition Economies) data set -- which is based on the IMF statistics on exchange arrangements & exchange restrictions & encompasses 24 transition countries -- further demonstrates important exceptions to this trend. The comparison of the ELITE indicators with alternative measurements of economic openness indicates the need to move toward more refined analyses of the political economy of the transition process. 2 Tables, 4 Figures, 10 References. Adapted from the source document.