ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES IN THE ARGENTINA-CHINA RELATIONSHIP

This article presents a qualitative research with the aim of analysing and prognosing the future of relations between the European Union and hydrocarbon exporting countries in Central Asia, based on bilateral Partnership and Cooperation Agreements. The results of analysis, set within the broader geopolitical competition for influence in the region, distinguishes Turkmenistan's significant role as both potentially important state for the future of the EU's energy security, as well as the greatest challenge in building relations with the states of the region in a framework that requires a common axiological foundation.

Cooperation helps states realize mutual gains, but mistrust and disagreements over institutional design inhibit cooperation. This article develops a network explanation for how states achieve cooperation in the face of persistent coordination and collaboration problems. The analysis focuses on bilateral cooperation agreements, a vast body of treaties spanning multiple issue areas. Bilateral agreements constitute an evolving network of cooperative ties. This network defines the strategic environment in which states bargain over new agreements, endogenously influencing subsequent bilateral endeavors by revealing strategically valuable information about states’ trustworthiness and preferences over institutional design, while also generating externalities that incentivize bilateral partnerships. Inferential network analysis shows that states are more likely to create bilateral agreements if they (1) share agreements with common third parties, (2) accede to more agreements in general, and/or (3) share important exogenous characteristics with current bilateral partners. These network dynamics drive bilateral cooperation in everything from commodities to cultural exchange to fisheries.

Bilateral antitrust co-operation agreements are gradually becoming more prevalent in international antitrust. These agreements arguably constitute the principal tool for avoiding conflict in international antitrust given the absence of international antitrust rules. The same motivation that drives countries to conclude bilateral antitrust agreements, such as efficient and effective enforcement, could also provide the stimulus for multilateral antitrust initiatives yet does not. Countries have consistently placed greater emphasis on bilateral agreements than on multilateral initiatives such as the OECD Recommendations; often arguing that bilateral agreements reflect the specific relationship between signatories and thereby facilitate greater co-operation than a multilateral agreement could. This article engages in a comparative analysis of the principal antitrust co-operation agreements to assess whether bilateral agreements do reflect specific relationships; i.e. whether there is such a justification for not pursuing multilateral initiatives. Immediately apparent is that most bilateral antitrust agreements implement key principles, i.e. notification; enforcement co-operation and co-ordination; and primacy of domestic law. The article assesses whether the substance of these principles varies between the agreements, and concludes that a large amount of convergence has already taken place. Indeed, the article argues that the convergence achieved suggests that international antitrust has moved very close to a template for co-operation in international antitrust, and questions the rationale for the lengthy negotiation periods and the reluctance to pursue multilateral initiatives.

The international relations literature looks at the climate regime from a perspective of power distribution, state interests, institutions, and multilateral negotiations. The international law literature focuses on legal analysis and design of international climate agreements. The transnational governance literature examines the participation of transnational actors at different levels of governance. However, each of these disciplines overlooks the trend in bilateral cooperation between national and subnational actors in a multilateral setting, which arises as part of the construction of the international regime. Why do national and subnational public actors in global climate governance cooperate bilaterally when multilateral cooperation already exists? What type of bilateral cooperative agreements do these actors prefer, and why? Using qualitative methods, including both content analysis and subsequent interviews, this dissertation demonstrates the role and importance of bilateral transatlantic cooperation and informal agreements between national and subnational actors in global climate governance. Using a case study comparing the European Union and the United States, this research identifies a diagonal dimension of interaction between states and transnational actors while developing the concepts of "translateral cooperation" and "translateral agreements" in the new climate regime.

Abstract: This research was conducted to determine the realization of the digital economy cooperation agreement between Indonesia and Singapore regarding the Nongsa Digital Park Special Economic Zone in Batam, in this study the author describes how the realization and the opportunities and challenges of the two countries in collaborating in the digital economy sector, as well as outlining the conditions of the digital economy in Indonesia before and after the bilateral cooperation agreement. The research method that the author uses is a qualitative method with a descriptive analysis approach and uses techniques to collect data from primary sources, namely in the form of interviews and secondary data, namely in the form of data obtained through literature studies, in the perspective of international relations, namely with a focus on discussion in the field of bilateral cooperation. This research shows the results of the Indonesia-Singapore bilateral cooperation agreement in the digital economy through the realization of the Nongsa Digital Park Special Economic Zone on Batam in March 2018.Keywords: Digital Economy, Special Economic Zones, Bilateral Cooperation, Realization, Nongsa Digital Park

The major problem associated with the regulation of transnational mergers, which affect several national markets, is the allocation of jurisdiction. Each country concerned may wish to exert jurisdiction and apply its national competition law to regulate the anti-competitive effects a merger may have in its territory. However, this approach may lead to risks of inconsistent decisions regarding the legality of mergers. Indeed, the national competition laws applied by the regulating authorities may diverge in several aspects, which raise the likelihood of inconsistency. Therefore it is desirable to opt for regulatory approaches which are more sensitive to the transnational nature of mergers and which allow cooperation between competition authorities. A possible solution may be bilateral cooperation agreements through which two countries coordinate the enforcement activities of their national competition authorities. However, the benefits of these agreements are enjoyed only by the signatory parties. The sole reliance upon bilateral agreements does not appear to be the optimal regulatory approach towards transnational mergers.

This chapter starts the analysis of the different ideas that have been proposed regard to internationalisation of competition law. Such ideas may be subsumed into the bilateral and the multilateral strategies. The chapter provides an overview of the historic background of the bilateral cooperation. It briefly describes the contribution of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to bilateral cooperation. The chapter examines the US/European Community (EC) bilateral cooperation agreements and evaluates the achievements of this cooperation arrangement. It looks at the regional trade agreements that include competition rules. The chapter focuses on Europe Agreements entered into by the EC with the neighbouring countries. It also provides an assessment of the cooperation schemes contained by regional agreements, and weighs the advantages of bilateral cooperation agreements against their disadvantages. The chapter discusses the viability of bilateral strategy as regulatory approach for the assessment of anti-competitive effects of transnational merger.Keywords: bilateral strategy; OECD; regional trade agreements; transnational merger; US/EC bilateral cooperation

Bilateral Cooperation Agreements

A Bilateral Nuclear Cooperation Agreement serves as a means to promote effective and universal cooperation while simultaneously guaranteeing overall nuclear nonproliferation. This agreement is legally binding and establishes a significant nuclear relationship between the two countries with strategic, economic, technological, and political aspects. It serves to meet the needs for industrial cooperation on both sides while also reinforcing the principles of nuclear transparency and nonproliferation. Additionally, the agreements are established and defined differently depending on the specific situation, taking into account the country and the type of cooperation. Authorities that sign such agreements must efficiently manage and control the entire process, considering practical aspects. At the implementation level, items subject to the bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement, also known as “Obligated items,” are internationally controlled items that require inventory management and tracking from import to export, including retransfer. The Republic of Korea mandates the management of internationally regulated items, including nuclear materials, in its domestic law. However, the management procedures became more complex following the revision of the Korea-United States Nuclear Cooperation Agreement in 2015, leading to various issues at the field level related to obligated item management. Consequently, a system called the Obligation Tracking System (OTS) for internationally controlled items was developed to strengthen and streamline the scheme, providing necessary information to both Korean regulators and nuclear licensees in a timely manner. This paper explains how the OTS was developed to efficiently fulfill all related obligations imposed on the items subject to the agreement. The main functions of the OTS include (1) establishing a database of obligated items, (2) monitoring items and linking related regulatory information, and (3) generating annual reports.

This study reveals the problem of protecting the rights of migrant workers in the CIS countries. The authors conduct a comparative analysis of international law in the context of the protection of the rights of migrants. The study demonstrates the priority use of bilateral international cooperation agreements that provide the necessary level of protection of the rights of migrant workers. In comparison with bilateral agreements between countries, international cooperation within the framework of bilateral regulation allows for a higher level of protection of migrant workers and their social security. The article demonstrates that the international legal field basically contains generalizing norms and provisions on the status, rights and obligations of migrant workers. On the other hand, the bilateral agreement is being concretized and relevant regulatory legal acts are being implemented more successfully.

Research on productive structures has shown that economic complexity conditions economic growth. However, little is known about which type of complexity, e.g., export or industrial complexity, matters more for regional economic growth in a large emerging country like Brazil. Brazil exports natural resources and agricultural goods, but a large share of the employment derives from services, non-tradables, and within-country manufacturing trade. Here, we use a large dataset on Brazil’s formal labor market, including approximately 100 million workers and 581 industries, to reveal the patterns of export complexity, industrial complexity, and economic growth of 558 micro-regions between 2003 and 2019. Our results show that export complexity is more evenly spread than industrial complexity. Only a few—mainly developed urban places—have comparative advantages in sophisticated services. Regressions show that a region’s industrial complexity is a significant predictor for 3-year growth prospects, but export complexity is not. Moreover, economic complexity in neighboring regions is significantly associated with economic growth. The results show export complexity does not appropriately depict Brazil’s knowledge base and growth opportunities. Instead, promoting the sophistication of the heterogeneous regional industrial structures and development spillovers is a key to growth. This study demonstrates that industrial complexity, which accounts for all employment sectors, provides a more accurate basis for designing effective and inclusive industrial policies in emerging economies like Brazil, compared to export-based complexity.

Heat, light, industrial production, transport - every government, in its energy policy, has to balance the competing claims of economic benefit, public opinion, and environmental impact. In this book, leading representatives of the various types of energy generation - coal and oil, gas, nuclear power, and alternative technologies - set out the pros and cons of these energy sources and discuss their environmental consequences.

Globalisation and International Antitrust Co-operation

The transformation from the Kyoto Protocol to the Paris Agreement has been analyzed by international relations scholars, international law, and transnational governance theory. The international relations literature looks at the climate regime from a perspective of power distribution, state interests, institutions, and multilateral negotiations. International law theory focuses on legal analysis and design of international climate agreements. The transnational governance literature examines the participation of transnational actors at different levels of governance. However, each of these theories overlooks a bilateral trend of cooperation in a multilateral setting that arises as part of the construction or reconstruction of the international regime. Why do national and subnational public actors in global climate governance cooperate bilaterally when multilateral cooperation already exists? What type of bilateral cooperative agreements do these actors prefer, and why? Using qualitative methods, combining content analysis subsequent interviews, this research empirically demonstrates the role and importance of bilateral transatlantic cooperation and informal agreements between national and subnational actors in global climate governance. Using the EU-US case study, this research identifies a diagonal dimension of interaction between states and transnational actors. It introduces and defines the terms “translateral cooperation” and “translateral agreements” in the new climate regime.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10784-022-09575-6.

This paper presents the contribution of nuclear energy in the development of the of energy sector in Egypt. Governments of some Middle East countries like Egypt, Jordan, United Arab of Emirates and Saudi Arabia decided to start the challenge to produce electric power dependent on the nuclear energy. This step is considered the best solution to produce economic and clean energy and there are many countries in the world have achieved a great success in the nuclear energy generation field. However, there are many countries in the Middle East definitely think about nuclear energy because of the wrong belief about nuclear energy that is very dangerous and has fatal accident and harmful radiation to the environment. This paper also shows the generation cost of nuclear energy and explains how it can be considered as economic and clean energy generation type when it is compared with other types of energy generation like coal and natural gas-fired energy generation types. History and techniques of nuclear fission to produce thermal energy required to convert water into saturated steam needed to drive the steam turbine to generate electricity will be discussed in this paper. This paper handles the subject of nuclear energy generation in Egypt and shows the concern of the Egyptian government to purchase the first nuclear power plant located in El-Dhabaa city, north of Egypt. This nuclear power plant is proposed to generate 4800-MW containing four 1200-MW nuclear reactor with corporation with Russian Rosatom company. This project would be constructed throughout 9 years from 2019 to 2028. Finally, safety and environmental considerations which must be applied in the nuclear power plants will be discussed because it is considered the definitive proof which invalidates allegation that nuclear energy is dangerous energy generation type and able to cause fatal radiation accidents.