Suchergebnisse

Reforming the EU is hardly possible without coalitions of "builders" - member states willing and able to engage in sustainable coalition building at EU level. Since 2008, the EU and its members have found themselves in the middle of yet another formative phase. Will member states eventually succeed in shaping a Union able to guarantee the prosperity, security, and freedom of its citizens? This publication explores new patterns of member state interaction that emerged during recent crises and proposes ideas for strengthening coalition building at the EU level to encourage a sustained effort for EU reform by policymakers across Europe.

Traditional economic development at the local level has been characterized as competitive, driven by local governments vying to attract business to their locality. This approach has largely created more losers than winners and pushed local governments to seek new ways to build sustainable economic development programs by leveraging opportunities within their regions. Contributing to the changing relationship between urban and rural areas, state-level policies incentivize interlocal cooperation among localities. This article examines the use of revenue-sharing agreements and regional infrastructure agreements in Virginia; used as tools to overcome interlocal competition among localities; and foster creative approaches to economic development, job growth, and quality of life.

This book traces the emergence of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) from 1955 to 1963 amid the broader reshaping of the institutional architecture of post-war Europe. It considers the ill-fated Free Trade Area (FTA) proposal, the subsequent creation of EFTA, and the resulting division of Western Europe into two distinct trading blocs. At its core, the book provides an international history of a formative moment of post-war and European integration history, and explores the intense technical discussions among European states as they grappled with the prospect of deeper economic and political unity. It thus provides the first detailed analysis combining the FTA and EFTA negotiations, considering both state and non-state actors. Drawing on archives from Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the US, as well as the records of the OEEC and EFTA, it examines the decision-making processes of those intimately involved as well as the institutional settings within which they were forced to reconcile their positions. At a key moment of contemporary European friction, the book offers a dialogue between the past and those trying to make sense of events that continue to shape Europe today.

This book traces the emergence of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) from 1955 to 1963 amid the broader reshaping of the institutional architecture of post-war Europe. It considers the ill-fated Free Trade Area (FTA) proposal, the subsequent creation of EFTA, and the resulting division of Western Europe into two distinct trading blocs. At its core, the book provides an international history of a formative moment of post-war and European integration history, and explores the intense technical discussions among European states as they grappled with the prospect of deeper economic and political unity. It thus provides the first detailed analysis combining the FTA and EFTA negotiations, considering both state and non-state actors. Drawing on archives from Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the US, as well as the records of the OEEC and EFTA, it examines the decision-making processes of those intimately involved as well as the institutional settings within which they were forced to reconcile their positions. At a key moment of contemporary European friction, the book offers a dialogue between the past and those trying to make sense of events that continue to shape Europe today.

Local governments do not stand alone-they find themselves in new relationships not only with state and federal government, but often with a widening spectrum of other public and private organizations as well. The result of this re-forming of local governments calls for new collaborations and managerial responses that occur in addition to governmental and bureaucratic processes-as-usual, bringing locally generated strategies or what the authors call "jurisdiction-based management" into play. Based on an extensive study of 237 cities within five states, Collaborative Public Management

The great nineteenth-century military theorist Carl von Clausewitz changed the art of war forever with his masterwork, "On War." This text illuminated one of Clausewitz's greatest contributions to military thought: the Trinity of war. Clausewitz argued that a successful military campaign requires the balanced cooperation of three important levels of society: the political wing (the government), the military wing (the army), and the popular wing (the citizenry). In modern warfare, Clausewitz's Trinity still remains an important lesson, especially for non-state actors. By examining the Irish Republican Army and Hezbollah, we can better understand how non-state actors balance the three branches of the Trinity and achieve their sociopolitical objectives.

There is a general assumption that there is no serious communication barrier among speakers of a common language. This action research study examines that assumption in the context of intercultural communication among three English-speaking teams, with each team representing a major national travel organization located in the USA, Ireland, and the UK respectively. The results of an online survey sent to all participants (N = 82) indicate stark differences between the US and the UK/Ireland respondents' perceptions of the quality of communication and the effectiveness of their cooperation on a day-today basis. The causes of these differences are examined, recommendations are offered for ways in which cultural pitfalls can be avoided, and suggestions are provided for avenues for future research.

This paper, based on the legal regulations, investigates the role and contribution of the Croatian Coast Guard in the implementation of the prevention and surveillance of smuggling and trafficking in human beings by sea. The analysis of the current migrant routes has identified the area of possible migration routes in the Adriatic Sea, and the focus of addressing the problem has been transferred to the Mediterranean. An analysis of the current situation and a cross-section of the past participation in operations under the auspices of the European Union in the Mediterranean provides a proposal for continuing and increasing the contribution to the implementation of joint cooperation in the fight against illegal migration with the aim of strengthening security and preventing further humanitarian disasters.

This paper is in closed access. ; Island societies are states with distinct inherent characteristics and vulnerabilities. Their features are important constraints in the development and adaption of actions towards environmental disclosure. Since 1992, international bodies and institutions have been emphasising the importance of international cooperation and partnerships for helping island societies overcome their inherent obstacles and engage in environmental matters and consequently environmental disclosure. Although international bodies and institutions have been pointing out the importance of studying island societies for many years, in academic research it remains relatively unexplored. This research adopts neo-institutional theory and Scott's theoretical framework on institutional carriers to examine the role of partnerships in imposing institutional carriers and influencing organisational behaviour towards environmental disclosure. The study examines island societies that have been cooperating through partnerships with large developed countries. Social actors are analysed at three levels, partnerships being one of them, (a) transnational through the European Union, (b) societal through domestic society and politics, and (c) the organisational field through industrial sectors, in an attempt to examine the role of social actors in shaping the structure of organisations and ascertain their interaction in diffusing institutional carriers for environmental disclosure. Qualitative content analysis was used to examine and interpret semi-structured face-to-face interviews with private and public sector organisations and the governmental environment representative.

Patriotic issues have been becoming now the focus of socio-political discussions and management practices. Multilayered challenges and determinants of world political development actualize the interrelation of internal and external tasks corresponding to ensuring national security, identity formation and achieving national consolidation. Patriotic education is gaining fundamental importance as one of the main directions on this path. Its constitution as an autonomous sphere of state policy implies the need to improve the previously established mechanisms and regulatory framework. Additional opportunities and tools are also available in the sphere of integration cooperation between the Russian Federation and its closest ally, the Republic of Belarus. The basis is a set of pro-integration factors that stimulate the humanitarian dimension. The institutionalization of the patriotic education policy is considered as a dynamic process of formalization and ordering of the corresponding expectations and intentions, clothed in the norms of national law and integration institutions. The normative and organizational elements characterizing its state and potential within the Union State are analyzed. The incompleteness of legislative institutionalization in the domestic dimension and the absence of specific integration regulations in this area are emphasized, which follows, among other things, from the institutional design peculiarities of the participating countries and the amorphous model of Russian - Belarusian integration, which does not have clear conceptual parameters and methodological foundations. The creation of a union system of patriotic education largely depends on the improvement of the overall integration system, including by deepening its institutionalization and the introduction of integration law.

Introduction. The issues of formation of modern ideas about the actor structure and driving forces of influence in the global educational policy framework are considered. Topic. The understanding of global educational policy is formed in several contexts: as a function of the state; as the activity of non-governmental organizations; as a compromise between multidirectional groups representing the interests of different countries and others. Methods. The application of the multipolarity methodology as the main position for global educational policy is justified. Results. The significance of globalization for the education development is clarified, and its main drivers (political, economic, cultural, technological, and financial) are highlighted. It is shown that establishing the structure of actors is not enough to form a holistic view of global educational policy without specifying in a single methodological structure the reasons for changes in the type and composition of actors and the value of innovations in the future educational agenda. The authors highlight the driving forces that influence global educational policy: scientific and technological progress, transformation of the world economic system, and development of communications; dynamism of foreign policy strategies, which makes it possible to implement the concept of"competition through cooperation". It is proved that the set of possible actions of actors is realized through a sequence of scenarios (economic, institutional, and social scenarios) that lead to the formation of a globalizing scenario as an integral one. Discussion. The presented proposals to clarify the actor approach allow us to get away from the declarative nature and subjectivity of the justification of actors, combining the assessment of possible actions, policies and scenarios to obtain a methodologically significant identification of actors within the available set of knowledge in the chosen field-education.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the U.S. government's international science and technology (S&T) agreements that support and encourage international cooperation in research and development, focusing on the: (1) number of international S&T agreements active during fiscal year (FY) 1997; and (2) number of these agreements that resulted in research projects or other activities."

This open access book examines key aspects of international cooperation to enhance nuclear safety, security, safeguards, and nonproliferation, thereby assisting in development and maintenance of the verification regime and fostering progress toward a nuclear weapon-free world. Current challenges are discussed and attempts made to identify possible solutions and future improvements, considering scientific developments that have the potential to increase the effectiveness of implementation of international regimes, particularly in critical areas, technology foresight, and the ongoing evaluation of current capabilities.