European Interest Research Articles

'Fezzan is the Siberia of Africa': Desert and Society in the Prison Memoir of Pavel Shatev (1882-1951), An Anarchist from Ottoman Macedonia

Abstract Between 1906 and 1908, the Ottoman anarchist Pavel Shatev was imprisoned along with hundreds of other political prisoners (Armenians, Young Turks, etc.) in the Ottoman province of Fezzan, present-day Libya. As a member of a group of anarchists from Ottoman Macedonia, he had participated in a series of bombings of Ottoman state institutions and western European financial and commercial interests in Salonica in 1903. Shatev wrote a memoir of his imprisonment, published in 1910, during a peak of efforts by states around the world to persecute anarchists and halt the spread of their ideas. This paper examines the meaning of the Saharan desert environment in Shatev's prison memoir as a mirror of global political struggles. In Shatev's writing, desert plants, rocks and sand become images that invoke political oppression and imperialism, while the desert animals become part of his radical arguments for animal rights. This paper challenges an understanding of Ottoman anarchists solely as recipients of anarchist and socialist writings from western Europe, even as it also departs from a scholarship that seeks to frame them within nationalist historiographical frameworks by studying them only as parts of emerging national liberation movements. By contrast, Shatev's prison memoir both engaged with global theoretical currents and contained new insights and ideas that arose from the particular environment in which he was imprisoned. This paper thus also contributes to the field of Ottoman environmental history by exploring the formation and function of ideas about the environment and ecology in the emerging radical social thought.

The China–Switzerland Free Trade Agreement and Economic Identity-Building

ABSTRACTThe free trade agreement signed between China and Switzerland in 2013 was a watershed event in the economic policies of both states, a successful identity-building exercise for both actors in addition to an economic endeavour. In the case of Beijing, the Switzerland free trade agreement (FTA) was a crucial step not only in promoting its trade interests in Europe, including the European Union, but also in planning future FTAs and promoting China as a supporter of globalization and economic liberalisation. For Switzerland, the FTA further cemented that country’s identity as a distinct European economic and political actor, including in its engagement of the Chinese market.

Comprehending the Qing Empire: Building Multilingual Competence in an Age of Imperial Rivalry, 1792–1820*

European knowledge of the four dominant languages of the Qing Empire, Chinese, Manchu, Mongolian, and Tibetan, was transformed between 1792 and 1820 as a consequence of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Although these conflicts did not dramatically alter European political relations with the Qing Empire, they inaugurated a series of more subtle changes that collectively produced this surge in linguistic ability. First, this period saw unprecedented European interest in, and access to, the inland frontiers of the Qing Empire. Such access convinced some that China was newly accessible through the empire’s diverse Inner Asian territories, leading them to plan bold ventures in diplomacy, trade, proselytization, and academic research. These ambitious projects, although rarely accomplishing their goals, stimulated research by seeming to demand new linguistic capabilities for their execution. The fact that they often envisioned crossing Inner Asia to reach China explains why progress in Chinese occurred together with Manchu, Mongolian, and Tibetan. Another factor promoting a sudden surge in multilingual competence was the speed with which breakthroughs could now be communicated through imperial and trans-imperial networks. Printing, evangelical and learned societies, and new professional opportunities, gave European scholars unprecedented access to advances made on or near the Qing frontier.

Redefining American Security Interests in Europe

Despite sometimes promiscuous claims by President Trump's critics, controversy about America's commitment under Article 5 dates back seven decades. If largely quiescent through the Soviet Union's collapse, it was because the core Article 5 commitment thankfully went untested. Controversy reemerged with NATO enlargement eastward. In a strange inversion, what c.1949 was a prime objection to its commitment to use force—what Senator Forrest Donnell called the illusory discretion of the “such action as it deems necessary” condition added by George Kennan and other proponents to rescue the Washington Treaty in the Senate—is now embraced, ahistorically, by Article 5 hawks: that the commitment is mechanical, not discretionary. It is substantially a unilateral American one, too. Chronic European underspending and anemic public support across the continent challenge whether most NATO countries could—or would—rally to an ally's defense.

Transculturality and the German Discourse in the Age of European Colonialism by Chunjie Zhang

Reviewed by: Transculturality and the German Discourse in the Age of European Colonialism by Chunjie Zhang Christine Winter Transculturality and the German Discourse in the Age of European Colonialism. By Chunjie Zhang. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2017. Pp. 252. Cloth $99.95. ISBN 978-0810134782. Paper $34.95. ISBN 978-0810134775. This mature and well-researched book moves from the Pacific to Germany and traces encounters, meetings, and engagement of Germans and Pacific Islanders by analyzing the resulting entangled texts: travel writing, stage plays, and philosophical works. It asks how transculturality shaped discourses, culture, and thought in an evolving Germany. Chunjie Zhang thoroughly contextualizes and theorizes her approach. She analyzes not the making of German imperialism and its impact on a colonized world, but rather the impact of the Pacific on German culture, German nation building, and German ideas about itself and a wider world. She is, as the introduction states, "reading from the other side" (3). Reading this book from the perspective of the Global South is an intellectual delight. It resonates with innovative research on the distinctiveness and contribution of the South to the creation of knowledge, theories about human diversity, and ideas about community and nation building. Since the publication of sociologist Raewyn Connell's Southern Theory (2007) that argued for the appreciation of distinct Southern voices, namely those of the dispossessed non-Europeans, the debate has moved on to include the colonizers. Warwick Anderson, a scholar of race and ethnicity, has argued that the South draws theorists and scientists into engagements and thought that are different from the North, and are characterized by more fluid boundaries and fewer hierarchical constructions of human difference and diversity. Nicholas Thomas has theorized colonialism's culture and the entanglement of objects, and he argues that encounters remain part of dislocated objects though their appreciation changes in their move from the South to the metropol museums of the North and the Southern Settler nations (Entangled Objects, 1991; Colonialism's Culture, 1994). Chunjie Zhang's book extends this analysis to literature understood in a wide sense, and reappraises some core texts of German culture in a new and intellectually fascinating light. Chunjie Zhang problematizes claims that nation states and nationalism engaged with, or rather generated, imperial desires and colonial expansion. She turns this [End Page 145] analysis on its head through her focus on German cultures and discourses. Colonial voyages and the observations they generated informed German culture throughout the long process of nation building. The German case is therefore a case study Zhang employs to reexamine the connections of colonialism and the nation. Her analysis focuses on the mid-eighteenth to the early nineteenth centuries, a "period of tremendous transformation in German and European conceptions of identity and difference, of self and others" (3–4). The volume deals in six chapters with three different genres that, according to the author, represent three prominent cultural practices of this period with regard to cultural and geographic difference and diversity: observing and reporting; entertaining and educating; and philosophizing and shaping intellectual and public discourse. The first two chapters deal with the two great voyage accounts written by travelers of German heritage. George Foster, naturalist, Enlightenment scholar, and journalist, traveled with his father to the South Pacific on Captain James Cook's second voyage (1772–1775), and published his accounts in English and German. Adalbert von Chamisso, poet and botanist, published on his voyage around the world, undertaken with a Russian expedition aboard the Rurik (1815–1818). Zhang opts to focus on these voyages due to their impact on German culture and their occurrence before the onset of European imperialism, although European interests and staging ports were already encroaching on the South Pacific. More importantly, both Foster and Chamisso were border crossers within Europe before and after their respective voyages. Their life-long experiences with otherness and willingness to engage make them ideal case studies for Zhang's analysis. Chapters 3 and 4 engage with the work of two writers who drew upon Foster's travel writings in imaginative ways, namely Joachim Heinrich Campe's adaptation of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe in Robinson der Jüngere (1779–1780), and some of the plays and...

EUROPEAN CHAIN OF LITERARY CONTINUITY OF G. SAND, I.S. TURGENEV, E. ZOLA

The relationship of I.S. Turgenev with the French literature, with G. Sand, P. Merime, G. Flobert, G.de Maupassant, J. and E. Goncourts, E. Zola is one of the important aspects of studying world literary interactions. The purpose of the article is to consider the writers’ similarity in literary continuity arising from the general features of European social and cultural life of the second half of the XIX century. The article analyzes the theme of the literary continuity of Russian and French writers of G. Sand, I.S. Turgenev, E. Zola. The attitude to the work of George Sand inRussiawas of a special character, I.S. Turgenev declared the recognition of her talent and its admiration. It’s interesting also the relationship between works by Turgenev with E. Zola. E. Zola’s novels in his homeland did not attract the attention of the discerning French public. Turgenev was absolutely right believing that George Sand and E. Zola would communicate mutual benefits with Russian readers. The European interests were quite clear in the general plan of the worldview of that era. The tasks of the era in any form were in the center of attention of the works by George Sand, I.S. Turgenev, E. Zola. The inseparable connection between the love theme and the political theme is a characteristic feature of the 19th century for west European novels. Versatile love aspects go through the works by I.S. Turgenev, G. Sand, E. Zola. The themes of running time inexorably, elemental nature forces, love as passion found the full embodiment in the stories and novels by George Sand, Turgenev, Zola. In comparison with the incomprehensible beauty and nature indifference, the characters of Turgenev and George Sand are aware of their “emotionality”. The organic plexus, the fusion of social and lyrical themes constitute the substantial and structural basis of both Turgenev’s novels and George Sand’s stories. In our work we came to the conclusion that the strong and many-sided personal and creative connections of Turgenev and the greatest French writers as George Sand and E. Zola inscribed bright pages to the history of traditional Russian-French literary relations.

The Design of a European Unemployment (Re)Insurance Scheme: Lessons from US Experience

The American system of unemployment insurance (UI) is often cited as a model for potential European unemployment re-insurance schemes. While oversimplified comparisons are to be avoided, there are lessons Europe can learn from US federal-state relations regarding UI. We distinguish three aspects of the US system: first, in the 1930s the federal government was able to solve a collective action problem that impeded the development of state-level UI programs; second, during the 1950s Congress enacted a federal backstop for depleted state UI trust funds that are used to finance regular UI benefits; third, in the 1970s the federal government added an extra layer of UI to the state system, based on an intergovernmental co-financing of benefits which intensifies during crises and thus reinforces protection and stabilization where and when it is most needed. The second and third aspects now exercise European interest, which is about buttressing national systems with a supranational layer of insurance. The American experience shows that federal-state cooperation has overcome problems of collective action and enhanced stabilization. It proved to be of great importance in the Great Recession to effectively expand the protection of unemployed workers and to backstop state UI programs in a period of high and rising unemployment and thereby to contribute in a relevant way to the stabilization efforts of the Obama Administration. However, there are also some structural weaknesses in the American system. With a view to what might be developed in the EU, we identify two risks when an extra layer of unemployment protection is added at the supranational level. First, depending on the set-up of the system, federal-level financing of UI can lead to retrenchment of state-level efforts in terms of UI schemes and macroeconomic stabilization. Second, state-level retrenchment can lead to divergence between state UI programs. The US UI model is vulnerable to these two risks, although this may not be its main current challenge. Simultaneously, these risks – and the other problems besetting the American model – are not insurmountable. We draw both positive and cautionary lessons from the American experience. A lesson is that minimum requirements regarding generosity and coverage levels of UI programs are fundamental prerequisites for any supranational re-insurance.

Mérsékelhető-e Óroszország európai geopolitikai aktivitása az olajár mesterséges befolyásolása révén?

Among the geopolitical challenges facing Europe – as has been the case in history – is now one of the most important threats facing Russia. Russia is increasingly aware of the use of hybrid warfare tools in Europe as well as of traditional military actions: annexation of Crimea, its military aircrafts regularly violate the airspace of European countries, launched military operations in Syria seriously violating of European interests.Due to the significant Russian army and nuclear weapon arsenal, direct military conflict is not a real alternative to act against aggressive geopolitical activity of Russia, so European countries have to act in a different way against hostile Russian actions. Beside intelligence (secret services) and IT protection, the tools of economic warfare should also be considered. As a result of annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, several economic sanctions have been imposed onRussia since 2014, but other economic warfare instruments may also be considered.In my research, I investigated whether the artificial influence of oil prices could be an effective economic warfare tool against Russia's actions violating European interests. Analysing oil market data and military spending database linear regression relationship can be discerned between the price of crude oil and the evolution of military spending of Russia. So, the average negative effect on Russian military spending of 1%fall in oil prices can be quantified. According to my research results, European countries alone do not have sufficient economic potential to induce a sustainable and significant price drop on the world oil market, nevertheless in alliance with its allies–first of all the United States –it can/could be an effective geoeconomic tool against hostile Russian geopolitical steps. &nbsp

A Unified Market Model for Swaptions and Constant Maturity Swaps

Internal-rate-of-return (IRR) settled swaptions are the main interest rate volatility instruments in the European interest rate markets. Industry practice is to use an approximation formula to price IRR swaptions based on Black model, which is not arbitrage-free. We formulate a unified market model to incorporate both swaptions and constant maturity swaps (CMS) pricing under a single, self-consistent framework. We demonstrate that the model is able to calibrate to market quotes well, and is also able to efficiently price both IRR-settled and swap-settled swaptions, along with CMS products. We use the model to illustrate the difference in implied volatilities for IRR-settled payer and receiver swaptions, the pricing of zero-wide collars and in-the-money (ITM) swaptions, the implication on put-call parity, and the issue of negative vega. These findings offer important insights to the ongoing reform in the European swaption market.

Las estrategias de seguridad de la Unión Europea (2003, 2016): contexto político, cambios esenciales y evolución de las prioridades políticas europeas relativas a África en materia de seguridad

En el presente artículo, examinamos los cambios más significativos existentes en el planteamiento y la formulación de las dos estrategias de seguridad de la Unión Europea, presentadas en 2003 y 2016, lo cual nos permite abordar cuestiones fundamentales relativas a la evolución de la política exterior y de seguridad de la Unión Europea desde el comienzo del nuevo milenio, analizando en particular las implicaciones para el continente africano. Por un lado, el análisis de los elementos centrales de las dos estrategias nos permite observar un cambio de rumbo y una redefinición de la política exterior y de seguridad de la UE, desde presupuestos normativos hasta nuevas aproximaciones más centradas en los objetivos e intereses propios de Europa. Por otro lado, podemos también observar la evolución de las prioridades de la Unión Europea en lo que respecta a su aproximación al continente africano. En este sentido, en lugar de abordar los diferentes ámbitos de interés mutuo, las relaciones UE-África se enmarcan en un enfoque limitado de política exterior centrado de manera preponderante en los asuntos de seguridad en África.

Handelspolitik mit Afrika und Bekämpfung von Fluchtursachen

Abstract There is renewed interest in Europe to deepen trade with Africa in the hope that this will reduce migrant flows. While improved trade with Africa will not reduce but likely stimulate migrant flows, it could promote African development and further European long-term economic interests. To deepen trade, this article argues for further trade integration with North Africa with a long-term EU membership perspective. To further trade with Sub Saharan Africa, it suggests greater use of unilateral trade opening on the part of the EU, including more flexible application of rules of origin.

PENGARUH PERGERAKAN NILAI TUKAR DAN VOLUME TRANSAKSI TERHADAP PENDAPATAN TRANSAKSI DEVISA (STUDI KASUS PADA PT. BII, TBK KANTOR CABANG BOGOR)

Exchange or conversion rate is one of the important factors in an open economy since its big impact on the running transaction balance, foreign balance or other economical factors. Exchange rate plays a central role in international trade because exchange rate enables us to compare all products and services prices from other countries. The policy to predict and react on the exchange rate fluctuation is developing in line with the growing understanding of how the national and international monetary systems work. In addition transparency in accounting and taxation rules concerning the un/profitability from the exchange transactions and more familiar of economical effect of foreign currencies on cash flow and market value in the future. This research was carried out at PT. BII Ltd. Bogor Branch Office, and based on the problems, the purposes of the study were: (1) to know what factor that influence the movement of exchange rate (2) to see whether the movement and the volume of the exchange rate have significant relationship on the income from foreign exchange transactions (3) to identify if there is an influence of foreign exchange movement on the income from foreign exchange transactions and (4) to know is there an influence of transaction volume on the income from foreign exchange transactions. There were several factors that influence the foreign exchange rate on US Dollar, they are: (1) economical foundation (including inflation rate, BI interest rate, government control and income rate) (2) external factors (including American interest rate and policy, the rise of world crude oil price, European interest rate, American economic condition etc.) (3) market bias (including supply and demand, expectation and rumors). The influence of both foreign exchange rate (FER) and transaction volume (TV) analysis on the income of foreign exchange transactions (IFET) at PT. BII Ltd. Bogor Branch Office the writer found the regression equation as = -432050000.042 + 4762.800NT + 0.000595VT. The doubled regression linear of collected data gave a parameter value 4762.800NT and 0.000595VT and a constant value -432050000.042. The double correlation of the FER variable and the TV on the IFET at this company was positive and the coefficient correlation (r) was 0.577. The determinant coefficient (r squared) was 0.333 that means 33.30% of the IFET variety was caused by doubled regression between the IFET with FER and TV. The remaining 66.70% was explained by variables other than FER and TV that influence the IFET.

„Memoriale Loimicum” – gdański pamiętnik z czasów zarazy w 1709 roku autorstwa Johanna Christopha Gottwaldta

One of the largest epidemics in the modern period that affected Gdansk was the plague from 1709. A lot of historical sources have survived from that time, including a text by physician Johann Christoph Gottwaldt, rarely used by researchers. It was published in German in 1710, and also in English in 1712 in the journal Philosophical Transactions. This source is one of the few examples of Gdansk texts which have gained such European interest. This article's task is to discuss this source and point to the most interesting, translated extracts with their interpretation. This is the result of the work aimed at publishing a critical edition of both version of Gottwaldt's work.

La Renta Básica Universal basada en la evidencia

Los proyectos pilotos de Renta Básica Universal (RBU) que se han ido implantando en distintos países del mundo han generado en Europa un gran interés, tanto por los datos recopilados, como por su alcance teórico. Este artículo analiza la evidencia empírica y modelos de experimentación de las políticas de RBU, a partir del mayor o menor grado de información sobre la previsibilidad de su impacto social que nos proporciona cada uno de ellos. Para ello revisamos la intención, el diseño y los resultados obtenidos de los diferentes casos y modelos experimentales a lo largo del tiempo y en diferentes países. En general, encontramos que ninguno de estos experimentos es en sí mismo suficiente para dotarnos de la evidencia que permita anticipar el impacto en todas las variables implicadas en el desarrollo de una RBU a largo plazo en contextos concretos. Pero al mismo tiempo este conjunto de evidencias traslada la carga de prueba hacia los detractores de la RBU: ninguno de sus efectos negativos queda probado con el análisis empírico. Este conjunto de evidencias apunta a una heterogeneidad de efectos que debe ser una referencia insoslayable para reducir la incertidumbre sobre el impacto de la RBU, para incorporar al análisis nuevas variables relevantes o para mejorar el diseño de su implementación.

What role for the rotating Presidency in European development policy? the case of ACP-EU relations

ABSTRACTThe European Commission has the legal right of initiative to propose both legislative and non-legislative actions, including in areas where competence is shared with the member states such as development policy. This article uses the case of ACP-EU relations to show the trade-offs between the Commission’s right of initiative to promote the European interest, and its own interests in the field of development policy. It presents detailed empirical observations of Commission-Presidency dynamics during the preparation of the Union’s negotiating mandate for ACP-EU relations after the expiration of the Cotonou agreement in 2020. In this process, the Commission had considerable control over the calendar and on the substance of Council Working Group exchanges, while the rotating Council Presidency had comparatively little influence on the process. Developments during the first half of 2018 increased political uncertainty and raise questions marks as to the longer-term effectiveness of the Commission’s post-Cotonou strategy.

Socio-economic challenges to Tunisia’s democratic transition

Among those countries that faced the so-called Arab Spring in 2011, Tunisia is the last one for which hope for a successful democratic transition remains justified. However, the country’s comparatively favourable institutional evolution has led to a dangerous complacency not only in Europe but across the West. While important reforms have been implemented, democracy has so far failed to fulfil the high expectations it has raised within the population. Tunisians’ discontent with their living conditions and the new system’s perceived inability to deliver are fundamental threats to the country’s transition. This article argues that the EU has a major interest in making Tunisia a democratic and socio-economic success story, as failure would not only constitute a lost opportunity to create a role model in the region but would also jeopardise European security interests. The EU should therefore provide more substantial support with the aim of realising socio-economic improvements in Tunisia.

Crab! How a dispute over snow crab became a diplomatic headache between Norway and the EU

Norway and the European Union (EU) are closely interlinked. However, one issue has arisen where interests have clashed: snow crab. A newcomer to Norwegian Arctic waters, this resource has attracted attention as projections of future profit have soared. Why is the EU pursuing a relatively minor issue over the right to catch snow crab in the Barents Sea? This issue has also brought to the fore the underlying disagreement between Norway and the EU over the status of the maritime zone and related continental shelf around the archipelago of Svalbard, stemming from the 1920 Spitsbergen Treaty. Is the EU using the snow-crab issue to challenge Norway’s Svalbard regime? How are EUropean interests in this resource best understood? At stake are also the prospects of oil and gas, as well as Arctic governance and environmental protection. The EU is a multi-faceted creature, where special interests can hijack the machinery and bring issues to the table, depending on the circumstances. This article outlines these circumstances, as well as the process concerning the dispute over snow crab and the background, which relates to economic interests, but also international politics as well as law. Further, it examines the EU’s interests, drawing on scholarly work on the EU’s position on Svalbard and interviews with Brussels-based decision-makers, officials and politicians.

Gustav Cohn’s Jewish Cemetery: A Cultural History

‘The old€€ Jewish cemetery has recently been enjoying increasing interest as a historical source of eminent significance.’ These are the opening words of the booklet Der jüdische Friedhof: Seine geschichtliche und kulturgeschichtliche Entwicklung, published in 1930 by the community rabbi of Leipzig, Gustav Cohn (1881–1943).1 This observation of the growing interest in Europe’s Jewish cemeteries was as true in Cohn’s day as it is in ours, with Jewish cemeteries figuring in works of scholarship, literature, and the fine arts since at least the beginning of the nineteenth century—albeit that the chasm of the Holocaust has inspired the present-day interest in Jewish cemeteries for fundamentally different reasons. The plethora of works old and new, long and short, general and specific pertaining to Jewish cemeteries is innumerable: a sense of this abundance can be gleaned from an almost 800-page bibliography on the subject.2 Published in 2005, this bibliography could today already be augmented with many titles that have been published since.

Armaments decision-making: Are European states really different?

When states make decisions on armaments policy, it is generally agreed they try to achieve combinations of foreign, security, industrial, economic, and technological policy goals alongside equipping their armed forces as efficiently as possible. It is, however, consistently argued in both the defense-economics and EU-studies literature that for European states things are (or should be) different. This article contributes to this debate by bringing together these disparate literatures to critically examine the proposition that the existence of a semi-regionalized European defense economy fundamentally changes state calculations on armaments policy. It critically examines the two main claims made about behavioral change: that European states accept a liberalized European defense market governed by the EU and make armaments decisions on a value-for-money basis, or that defense interdependence is so advanced that European states no longer need to consider their national interests because these are subsumed in the European interest. The article then considers an alternative perspective, that state behavior has not changed but is restricted by the existence of a European defense market that, intentionally or not, works to protect the interests of the biggest European arms-producing states.

Codes of conduct and practical recommendations as tools for self-regulation and soft regulation in EU public affairs

During the 2000s–2010s, EU Commission and Parliament and European interest groups advanced a specific model of regulation. It combines, on one side, lobbyists self-regulation—the codes of conduct for EU lobbying professionals' associations, such as SEAP and EPACA—with institutional nonbinding or “soft” regulation on the other side—the EU Transparency Register framework for registered interest groups, its code of conduct, the related system of checks, alerts, and complaints about interest groups misconduct put forward by the EU Joint Transparency Register Secretariat, the list of Dos and Don'ts by the EU Ombudsman. This paper examines the peculiar lobbying self-regulation and soft regulation tools and practices, as implemented within the EU model: SEAP and EPACA codes of conduct, EU Transparency Register, EU Interest Groups Code of Conduct, Commissioners and MPs codes of conduct, the procedures of the EU Joint Transparency Register Secretariat, and the Ombudsman list of Dos and Don'ts, underlining their growing impact on interest groups registration to the EU Transparency Register. This EU innovative regulatory model-based on a peculiar mix of self-regulation and institutional, incentive-based, soft regulation-stands as a concrete alternative to the traditional North American top-down binding regulatory pattern. The EU model is based on a participatory, cooperative, and pragmatic dialogue between European policy makers and interest groups. Clarifying the concept, the nature, and the functions of this model, while underlining its peculiarity is the purpose of this paper.