East-West Economic Cooperation Research Articles

Unity and Diversity in Development Ideas: Perspectives from the UN Regional Commissions by Yves s> Berthelot (review)

I82 SEER, 84, I, 2006 laws were passed quicklywith little debate often borrowing nakedlyfrom the EU. The law of child-resistantfittingsin Hungary, for example, 'readsalmost word forword like the EU directiveit emulates'(p. 74). The great merit of 7heEnlargement oftheEuropean UnionandNATOis that it demonstratesand explains in detailwhen the internationalorganizationhave been influentialand when their impact has been limited.Jacoby achieves this goal by exploring a series of policy areas:health care, consumer protection, regional policy, agriculture, civilian control of the military and military professionalization.He points out thatin healthcareand consumerprotection the EU acquisdensity is low, providing much more scope for choosing or ignoring 'prevailing Western models' (p. I6), whereas in agriculture and regional development not least thanks to the financial incentives for faithful emulation therewas a largelyfaithfulreplicationof EU models. A few criticisms, however, deserve to be levelled at the book. Although Jacoby has interviewed many senior figuresfrom both countries, the lack of sources in Czech and Hungarian is striking. Motivations and justifications outlined in English by politicians from the region are often differentto those stressedin native languages. Nobody better illustratesthis phenomenon than former Czech Prime Minister VaiclavKlaus whose Thatcherite Eurosceptic messages to the international audience were often significantly different in tone and content to the homilies he delivered in Czech. Secondly, although I would not want to criticizeambition, the inclusionof both NATO and the EU lessened the book's punch. Jacoby's monograph might have been better if he had focusedjust on the EU and included another case studyfrom the region such as Poland. NATO could then have been used, alongside his brief foray into Poland,Bulgariaand Ukraine, as a comparatorin the concluding chapter alongside other international organizations which encouraged degrees of emulation such as the OECD. Nonetheless, these criticisms should not detract attention away from the significant contribution made by TheEnlargement of theEuropean Unionand NATO.As the book argues the 'key to explaining membership preparations forboth NATO and the EU lies not in seeingtheprocessasentirelyexternallydriven , but as a fusion of internationaland domestic factors(p. 235). Mixing thoughtful analysis and detail with great aplomb the publication of Jacoby's book isvery much to be welcomed. Centrefor Russian andEastEuropean Studies T. HAUGHTON European Research Institute University ofBirmingham Berthelot, Yves (ed.). UnityandDiversity inDevelopment Ideas.Perspectivesfrom the UN RegionalCommissions. United Nations Intellectual History Project. Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 2004. xxii + 445 pp. Boxes. Tables.Appendix. Notes. Index. $74.95. THE United Nations Intellectual History Project was launched in i999 to conduct and publish independent research into the economic and social development work of the United Nations: fourteen volumes are planned and REVIEWS I83 three more are envisaged on the UN's parallelpeace and securityoperations iffundingbecomes available.The volume underreviewisofparticularinterest to readersof thisjournal forits chapter 'The ECE:A Bridgebetween Eastand West', because during the Cold War membership of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) embraced the rival blocs otherwise divided into the WarsawPact and Comecon on the East and NATO and OECD on the West.The firstvolume of the Project,Ahead oftheCurve? UNIdeasandGlobal Challenges (Bloomington, IN, 2001), edited by Louis Emmerij, Richard Jolly and Thomas Weisswith a Forewordby Kofi Annan, pointed to the legacy of Nobel Laureate Gunnar Myrdal, ECE's founding Executive Secretary, as 'independence, long-establishedcontact with governments across ideological divides, sensitivityto differentvalues, and staffexpertise.As such, thisregional commission developed an open and eclectic style that permitted some of the only East-Westeconomic cooperation duringthe Cold War.In short,itplayed an importantbridgingrole' (pp. 154-55). Berthelot,a successorto Myrdal as ECE Executive Secretary, edits the volume under review and co-authors the chapter on the ECE with Paul Rayment, who was Director of the ECE's Economic AnalysisDivision for sevenyearsuntil his retirementin 2001. Instead of ECE's membership at its establishmentin I947 being confined to the seventeen European states (plus the United States) who were UN members at the time (among them the Belorusianand Ukrainian SSRs, with seats additional to that of the USSR), active participation was assured for most others, with consultation also from the Allied Zones of Occupation in Germany through the Control Authorities.This 'made ECE an all-European organization rightfrom the start,at a time when the question of admissionto membership of the United Nations of a...

East-West economic cooperation

Beyond the existing forms of East-West cooperation in Europe such as economic assistance, loans, joint ventures and association agreements, both sides are looking for suitable ways of establishing more institutionalized relations. Already existing institutions, membership of which could be offered to the new market economies, are EFTA, the European Economic Area (EEA) and the EU. This article discusses the effects of membership for both eastern and western countries in the light of their differing interests.

The Revival of Countertrade in East-West Economic Cooperation

The Revival of Countertrade in East-West Economic Cooperation

Socialist Countries in GATT

The present stage in East-West economic cooperation has reached the point at which four socialist countries have become members of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and were thus admitted to the world trade system on the basis of non-discrimination and the most-favored-nation clause. Of those, Poland, Romania and Hungary are also members of the Council for Mutual Economic Aid (CMEA, Comecon) while Yugoslavia-not a formal member-is extensively engaged in the socialist system of economic cooperation. Trade between socialist and free economy countries has a long history, and foreign trade experts are quite familiar with socialist foreign trade techniques.1 Free world exporters and importers in a number of countries represent today an impressive business milieu professionally engaged in East-West economic cooperation. It is also true however that East-West trade operations are, compared with world trade volume, relatively insignificant. Even today, the foreign trade policy of the socialist countries seems to be directed at preventing their full integration into the world economic system. The main reason seems to be that the function of foreign trade is primarily to obtain financing for transforming the national economies of these countries into industrial societies, according to programs fixed in their long term economic plans.2 While this remains true today, it is also true that joining GATT was connected with an important change of mind as regards the function of foreign trade in socialist economies. The Communique on the 25th session of the CMEA (6 July 1971) stated that: The session declared that any country that is not a Comecon member can fully or partially participate in the implementation of the measures envisaged by the comprehensive program. The CMEA member countries will continue to develop economic, scientific and technical ties with

Les raisons de développer la coopération économique Est-Ouest

Some Reasons far Developing East-West Economic Cooperation. Parallel to the trend of more flexible and increasingly standardized political relations between East and West, preoccupations of a social and economic nature are beginning to play a decisive role in economic cooperation between the two spheres, progressively overcoming political prejudices and existing obstacles. The author attempts to make a tabulation of the economic and social motivations which determine East-West cooperation, because, in the final analysis, since they are aimed at precise economic advantages, they are the ones that further the normalization of international economic relations. The more general goal of economic activity, including the exchange of goods, is the increase of labor productivity, which cannot be achieved either by the East or West in a condition of economic autarchy. Other structural or conjunctural objectives are linked with it: for the socialist countries, that of bringing to an end or reducing the deficit of the internal market, improving the quality of production, importing technology and managerial techniques, procuring credit, etc. For the capitalist countries there is: fuller utilization of idle production capacities, assuring the supply of energy and raw materials through long-term agreements and combating inflation by importing less expensive products, etc. According to the author, economic cooperation can be expected to become increasingly important if not decisive in the near and distant future.

Multinational Corporations and East-West Economic Co-operation

Multinational Corporations and East-West Economic Co-operation

On the Relationship between East-West Economic Cooperation and Political Change in Eastern Europe

This paper deals with the relationship between East-West economic cooperation and political change in Eastern Europe. Obviously, economic cooperation across East-West borders depends on political dispositions on both sides. In turn, the cooperation triggers and interferes with economic and political change in the West as well as in the East. There are important feed-back mechanisms involved which we are going to discuss at some length. However, we restrict the discussion to the Eastern European part of the problem complex. In the first section, we shall compare the economic and industrial cooperation developing at present with past Soviet behavior in the field of foreign economic relations, analysing its future prospects on that background. We then turn to a discussion of more general regime characteristics, particularly of the main political groups and constellations that make themselves felt in Eastern Europe, in an effort to assess the political acceptance of and motivation for expanded cooperation westwards, and the receptivity to Western influence inherent in and transmitted through economic cooperation. In the following section, economic cooperation is seen in the broader context of East-West interaction, focusing upon the nature of Western influence and the methods used. Finally, we sum up our findings and draw conclusions with regard to the future of East-West economic cooperation.

The Conference on East-West Economic Cooperation

The Conference on East-West Economic Cooperation