Finn Laursen, The Development of the EU as a Sea-Policy Actor (Cheltenman: E. Elgar, 2020)

A review of the book: Finn Laursen, The Development of the EU as a Sea-Policy Actor, Cheltenman, Northhampton: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020. ISBN 978 1 83910 124 3 (cased) ISBN 978 1 83910 125 0 (eBook) 225 pp.

EU–China Cooperation along the New Silk Road

This chapter examines higher education cooperation between the European Union (EU) and China in terms of its history, rationales, goals, mechanisms, instruments, and effects. It will first position the EU as a major policy actor in research and higher education and present a short history of its relations with China in these fields. It will sketch how this relationship has evolved over time, including the gradual changes to the modus operandi. An assessment will be made of policy effects and impacts, with a view to the search for a more balanced relationship. To what extent are the EU’s and China’s policies driven by common (global) goals? What are the patterns of convergence, divergence, cooperation, and competition? Are flows, partnerships and conditions for cooperation balanced? Challenges and persistent imbalances will be discussed with a view to how the relationship may be shaped in the next phase.

Political parties and policy analysis in Colombia

This chapter traces the development of the political party system in Colombia, focusing on characteristics related to their production or consumption of policy analysis. It stresses that political parties will not fully utilize policy analysis to guide their decisions and priorities, as long as clientelistic linkages prevail. It also mentions the third or nongovernmental sector, which is increasingly recognized as an important policy actor or potential policy actor in all countries. The chapter describes the historical trajectory of the Colombian party system, its make-up in the 21st century, and key institutional features affecting parties' use of policy analysis. It identifies some of the mechanisms through which 21st-century Colombian political parties produce or rely on policy analysis.

The value of agenda-setting in media relations: Examining how the Business Community Anti-Poverty Initiative used agenda-setting to leverage its role as a policy actor in New Brunswick’s 2014 provincial election

This case study explores how and to what extent the Business Community Anti‑Poverty Initiative (BCAPI), in Saint John, New Brunswick, used agenda-setting in media relations leading up to the 2014 provincial election. Research, including interviews with three people involved with BCAPI, a literature review, an analysis of media coverage, and a review of BCAPI’s strategy, indicated that BCAPI proactively engaged the provincial daily print newspaper, the Telegraph-Journal, to help influence party platforms and public interest on poverty reduction and ultimately received $300,000 in provincial funding for its initiatives. Keywords: media relations, agenda-setting, policy actors, framing, elections

Organizational Identity of Think Tank(er)s: A Growing Elite Group in Swedish Civil Society

Think tanks, defined as organizations that produce policy research for political purposes (McGann, 2007; Medvetz, 2008), are an increasingly ubiquitous type of policy actor world-wide. In Sweden, the last 20 years’ sharp increase in think tank numbers (Åberg, Einarsson, & Reuter, 2019) has coincided with the decline of the traditional Swedish corporatist model based on the intimate involvement of the so-called ‘popular movements’ in policy-making (Lundberg, 2014; Micheletti, 1995). Contrary to the large, mass-membership based and democratically organized movement organizations, think tanks are small, professionalized, expert-based, and seldom represent any larger membership base. Their increasingly important role as the ideological greenhouses in Swedish civil society might, therefore, be interpreted as an indication of an increasingly elitist and professionalized character of the latter. But what is a think tank? The article explores how a shared understanding of what constitutes a think tank is constructed by think-tankers themselves. In the study, interviewed think tank executives and top-level staff reflect upon their own organizations’ missions and place in the Swedish policy system.