scholarly journals Key institutional actors of European security: Current state and challenges

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 37-49
Author(s):  
Boris Tučić
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
State Level ◽  
European Security ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Face ◽  
Security Actor ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Institutional Actors ◽  
The Eu

This paper addresses the adaptability and ability of three institutional actors of European securitythe EU, the NATO, and the OSCE - to properly respond to security challenges facing Europe, especially those existing at the non-state level. The position, status, nature and functions, and the relations within and between the key institutional actors of European security are considered within the study of international relations. Weaknesses in their operation have been identified, which are of a structural nature, but also a consequence of the international environment. In the EU, it is possible to identify a wide range of security policies, different developments and efficiencies. As a "civil force", the EU addresses security challenges using civil, political and economic instruments, focusing on the stability of its immediate environment. However, in order to play the role of a global security actor, the EU must build an autonomous security identity, which is, for now, an unsolvable problem. The NATO continues to be the personification of hard, military power in the face of security challenges, which does not sufficiently guarantee its security, and often means breaching the security of other countries. The OSCE, like NATO, is a relic of the past and its basic quality is diplomatic inclusiveness. It is an organization of "displaced" political power, without the necessary authority. The weaknesses of these three institutional actors, as well as the complexity of international relations, require a far higher level of political, functional and operational adaptability in order to understand and address the existing security challenges.

The Regional Path to Peaceful Change: What the Asian and European Experiences Tell Us

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 535-545
Author(s):  
Mark Beeson
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
International System ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
Comparative Historical Analysis ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
The Eu

AbstractOne of the more striking, surprising, and optimism-inducing features of the contemporary international system has been the decline of interstate war. The key question for students of international relations and comparative politics is how this happy state of affairs came about. In short, was this a universal phenomenon or did some regions play a more important and pioneering role in bringing about peaceful change? As part of the roundtable “International Institutions and Peaceful Change,” this essay suggests that Western Europe generally and the European Union in particular played pivotal roles in transforming the international system and the behavior of policymakers. This helped to create the material and ideational conditions in which other parts of the world could replicate this experience, making war less likely and peaceful change more feasible. This argument is developed by comparing the experiences of the EU and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and their respective institutional offshoots. The essay uses this comparative historical analysis to assess both regions’ capacity to cope with new security challenges, particularly the declining confidence in institutionalized cooperation.

The EU as an “enforcement patchwork”: the impact of national enforcement for compliance with EU water law in Spain and Britain

2013 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 331-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mónica García Quesada
Keyword(s):  
Waste Water Treatment ◽  
National Level ◽  
State Level ◽  
Detailed Examination ◽  
Deterrent Effect ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Eu

AbstractFailures of compliance with European Union (EU) directives have revealed the EU as a political system capable of enacting laws in a wide range of different policy areas, but facing difficulties to ensure their actual implementation. Although the EU relies on national enforcement agencies to ensure compliance with the EU legislation, there is scarce analysis of the differential deterrent effect of national enforcement in EU law compliance. This article examines the enforcement of an EU water directive, the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive, in Spain and the UK. It focuses on the existing national sanctions for disciplining actors in charge of complying with EU requirements, and on the actual use of punitive sanctions. The analysis shows that a more comprehensive and active disciplinary regime at the national level contributes to explain a higher degree of compliance with EU law. The article calls for a detailed examination of the national administrative and criminal sanction system for a more comprehensive understanding of the incentives and disincentives to comply with EU law at the national state level.

How Can EU Law Respond to Populism?

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-213
Author(s):  
Mark Dawson
Keyword(s):  
Legal Order ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
Road Map ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Severe Anxiety ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Populist Movements

Abstract The rise in Europe of populist movements has created severe anxiety about the stability of the EU legal order. This article argues that, while populist ideas challenge numerous elements of the EU’s constitutional settlement, there exists no fundamental incompatibility between populism and EU law. By comparing its response to populism with attempts by EU law to stabilise its legal order in the face of political contestation arising from other political cleavages, the article discusses three different ways to understand the interaction between EU law and populism. EU law may seek to ‘survive’ the growth of populism by (i) bracketing or insulating its institutions from populist contestation, (ii) accommodating populist ideas or (iii) confronting the constitutional strategies populists utilise domestically. In examining the constitutional foundations of populism and its relation to emerging doctrines of EU law, the article seeks to build a road map of how populist movements might utilise or resist EU law in their development.

The European Union in international relations of Canada at the end of XX – beginning of XXI century

2017 ◽  
pp. 90-95
Author(s):  
Anatoliy Goncharenko
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Security ◽  
Common Component ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
Bilateral Cooperation ◽  
Common Vision ◽  
The Eu

Canada and the EU had a common vision of the fundamentals of the international relations system in the late XX – early XXI century and the need to respect the principles of international law. Canada in this matter has always acted together with other international actors on a coalition basis, accumulating defense potential. The EU has seen in Canadians close partners who share its values and have similar approaches to resolving conflict, so there are prospects for development of bilateral cooperation in the international arena. This was possible also due to the emergence of the Common foreign and defense policy of the EU and the implementation of important steps towards the development of European security policy and defense (ESDP). Therefore, at least a hypothetical European defense identity allows Canada to establish international cooperation with the EU in the defense sphere. Ottawa sought to demonstrate that Europe remains important to Canadian and international security interests, so he ESDP must not lead to the destruction of traditionally close relations between Canada and the European partners. Constitutive remains also link Europe with Canada in the framework of NATO. After the Maastricht Treaty of 1992 and the terrorist attacks of 2001, the EU is particularly interested in boosting relations with Canada. Despite the unity of views and approaches to solving most of the problems of international relations in the late XX – early XXI century between Canada and the EU, a common component in bilateral relations is still far from perfect, leaving the prospects for improving the Canadian-European cooperation on the international arena. Keywords: Canada, the European Union, international relationships, foreign policy

January to March: Vaccinating Europe

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-54
Author(s):  
Peter Ludlow
Keyword(s):  
State Level ◽  
World Order ◽  
Management Style ◽  
European Council ◽  
Good News ◽  
Political Class ◽  
Member States ◽  
Autonomous Action ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Eu

The three European Council meetings which are discussed in these Notes covered a wide range of subjects and included sessions with the new US president and NATO's secretary general. They were nevertheless dominated by the pandemic and more particularly by the efforts of the EU and its member states to vaccinate their citizens as rapidly as possible. It was not an easy task and the EU rollout during the first three months of 2021 was significantly slower than that of either the UK or the US. There were many explanations, including the European Commission's failure to invest enough money early enough, inefficiencies at member state level and the production difficulties of the manufacturers in general and of AstraZeneca in particular. As the months have passed, many if not most of these difficulties seem, however, to be less consequential than they did at the time. The Commission and most of the member states learned from and made good their early failures and, AstraZeneca apart, BioNTech and the other manufacturers succeeded in delivering even more vaccines than they had promised to do. These improvements were already beginning to make themselves felt before the end of the first quarter. They were not widely acknowledged however, either inside or outside the political class. Partly because good news is always slow to drive out bad news, but still more because the debate about the vaccination rollout was driven by forces which were only loosely connected with the pandemic, including in particular the German-German debate in an election year, the British government's need to find and proclaim a post-Brexit success and the blunders of the European Commission's president. The politics of the rollout are indeed as interesting as, if not more interesting than the objective challenges which policymakers grappled with. Above all because the process highlighted once again the significance of the European Council. Despite strong countervailing pressures in the media, which continued to propagate the story of 'Europe's failure' and widespread dislike of von der Leyen's management style, the European Council maintained its commitment to an EU-wide rollout strategy and endorsed a string of initiatives, including an EU certificate, which aimed to defend the Union against the corrosive effects of the pandemic. The non-Covid business which the European Council addressed between January and March may have been overshadowed by the pandemic but it was far from unimportant, and the debates which it provoked anticipated both the concerns and the language of European Council discussions later in the year about the EU's role in a rapidly changing world order. The sessions with Jens Stoltenberg and Joe Biden in February and March respectively were reassuring rather than dramatic, but it was already apparent, particularly in the debate before and during the February meeting, that the lines between 'Atlanticists' and 'Europeans' have shifted significantly and that the buzz words of the emerging EU consensus – 'resilience', 'the reduction of dependencies' and 'a European capacity for autonomous action' – were well on the way to becoming common currency.

26. Common Foreign and Security Policy

2014 ◽  
pp. 494-513
Author(s):  
Ian Bache ◽  
Simon Bulmer ◽  
Stephen George ◽  
Owen Parker
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
European Security ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
Defence Policy ◽  
Foreign And Security Policy ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Eu

This chapter examines the European Union’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). From 1993 to 2009, external political relations formed the second pillar of the EU, on CFSP. Although CFSP was officially an intergovernmental pillar, the European Commission came to play an important role. There were serious attempts to strengthen the security and defence aspects of the CFSP in the face of the threats that faced the EU from instability in its neighbouring territories. However, the EU remains far from having a truly supranational foreign policy and its status as a ‘power’ in international relations is debatable. The chapter first provides a historical background on the CFSP, focusing on the creation of the European Political Co-operation (EPC), before discussing the CFSP and the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). It concludes with an assessment of EU power and its impact on world politics.

scholarly journals The European Union’s Security Conceptualisation vs. its Risk Prevention Capabilities

2020 ◽  
pp. 125-140
Author(s):  
Agata Dziewulska
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Global Strategy ◽  
Processes Of Change ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Security ◽  
Security Strategy ◽  
Member States ◽  
Peace Of Mind ◽  
The Face ◽  
European Security Strategy

The European Union, as an area of unquestionable prosperity, on which the countries that make up it have been working since the 1950s, faces the constant challenge of combating threats to the security of its societies. In a changing world, these threats are constantly evolving. They were first summarised in the European Security Strategy and the list of threats was revised in Global Strategy published in 2016. The Union is therefore aware both of the processes of change in international relations and of the threats that this entails for the Union, its Member States and society. Does this awareness motivate Member States and EU authorities to consolidate their defence efforts? Are the measures to address the risks to the Union adequate to the degree of danger? Are the policies of the Union so developed as to maintain peace of mind in the face of threats? This article analyses the risks and attempts to answer these questions.

scholarly journals Challenges for Security and Defence Cooperation in Central Europe: Will the EU be able to manage the crisis in the EU periphery?

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (54) ◽  
pp. 195-222
Author(s):  
Jaroslav Ušiak ◽  
◽  
Dominika Trubenová ◽  
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Security ◽  
The Past ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
Gradual Development ◽  
Defence Cooperation ◽  
Visegrad Group ◽  
The Eu

Europe has undergone various security changes in the past and needs to prepare itself for managing the present and future security challenges appearing on the horizon. Within Central Europe, we can see a significant change in its security orientation and a gradual development by continuous involvement in security initiatives such as the current EU-led PESCO. This article aims to show the present Visegrad Group (V4) interest in maintaining an autonomous European security, as well as to analyse the current possibilities and security capabilities of Central European countries. The V4 countries are an important part of NATO and the European Union, even though they are small to medium-sized countries with limited security capabilities. Participation in the creation of collective security under NATO has a stable, several-year position in the countries, but the European Union is on the rise in its security agenda, and that is assumed by the V4 countries with its participation in EU initiatives such as PESCO and the integrated involvement of the V4 in ongoing military projects.

scholarly journals Genomics Insights: Inter-Laboratory Variability in Array-Based RNA Quantification Methods

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. GEI.S11909
Author(s):  
Victoria Y. Wong ◽  
Manuel X. Duval
Keyword(s):  
Large Fraction ◽  
State Level ◽  
Measurement Procedure ◽  
Subsequent Treatment ◽  
Biological Information ◽  
Dna Arrays ◽  
Ribonucleic Acids ◽  
Rna Molecules ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Stability

Ribonucleic acids (RNA) are hypothesized to have preceded their derivatives, deoxyribonucleic acids (DNA), as the molecular media of genetic information when life emerged on earth. Molecular biologists are accustomed to the dramatic effects a subtle variation in the ribose moiety composition between RNA and DNA can have on the stability of these molecules. While DNA is very stable after extraction from biological samples and subsequent treatment, RNA is notoriously labile. The short half-life property, inherent to RNA, benefits cells that do not need to express their entire repertoire of proteins. The cellular machinery turns off the production of a given protein by shutting down the transcription of its cognate coding gene and by either actively degrading the remaining mRNA or allowing it to decay on its own. The steady-state level of each mRNA in a given cell varies continuously and is specified by changing kinetics of synthesis and degradation. Because it is technically possible to simultaneously measure thousands of nucleic acid molecules, these quantities have been studied by the life sciences community to investigate a range of biological problems. Since the RNA abundance can change according to a wide range of perturbations, this makes it the molecule of choice for exploring biological systems; its instability, on the other hand, could be an underestimated source of technical variability. We found that a large fraction of the RNA abundance originally present in the biological system prior to extraction was masked by the RNA labeling and measurement procedure. The method used to extract RNA molecules from cells and to label them prior to hybridization operations on DNA arrays affects the original distribution of RNA. Only if RNA measurements are performed according to the same procedure can biological information be inferred from the assay read out.

Promotion de la démocratie dans les Balkans: L'efficacité inégale de la conditionnalité et des incitatifs

2006 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 803-825 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Éthier
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Stability Pact ◽  
South Eastern Europe ◽  
Organisations Internationales ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The Eu

Résumé.Certains travaux indiquent qu'en matière de promotion de la démocratie, la conditionnalité des élargissements de l'Union européenne (UE) vers l'Europe du Sud et de l'Est s'est avérée plus efficace que les incitatifs employés par diverses organisations internationales. Cet article confirme la validité de ce constat en démontrant que, dans les Balkans, la conditionnalité du Processus de stabilisation et d'association de l'UE a eu des retentissements plus marqués que les incitatifs du Pacte de stabilité pour l'Europe du Sud-Est. En outre, à l'aide des théories des relations internationales, l'article analyse les fondements de l'efficacité de la conditionnalité de l'UE et les raisons pour lesquelles celle-ci a néanmoins des effets inégaux d'un pays à l'autre.Abstract.Various works indicate that, in the matter of democracy promotion, the conditionality of the European Union (EU) enlargements towards Southern and Eastern Europe has proved to be more effective than incentives of many international organizations. This article confirms the validity of this finding. It shows that, in the Balkans, the conditionality of the EU Stabilization and Association Process has had more significative impacts than the incentives of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe. Furthermore, with the help of international relations theories, it explains the determinants of the EU conditionality efficiency and the reasons why its effects nevertheless vary from one target state to another.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document