European International Society Research Articles

The Council of Europe: The Institutional Limits of Contemporary European International Society?

This article traces the historical development of the Council of Europe and its role in post‐enlargement Europe. The evolving structures and functions of the organization demonstrate an ongoing commitment to a homogeneous European regional international society. It is argued that the Council of Europe’s liberal norm socialization process is incomplete and that this process is essential to the organization’s legitimacy as well as for the deepening of European Regional International Society, particularly in the face of non‐compliant member states and the complementary work of the European Union. In the post‐enlargement era, the Council of Europe has established itself as an important component of a historical project of Europeanization.

NATO: Within and Between European International Society

NATO’s role in forging European order is undeniable, but the clarity and focus of Alliance purpose has changed considerably since the end of the Cold War. The ramifications of this change are considered via analysis of the trajectory of enlargement and a conceptualisation of the enlarged Alliance based upon English School thinking. Four categories are put forward: these refer to geographic levels of operation, conditionality, legitimacy and great‐power management. The argument which emerges from this treatment is that NATO was and remains an essential component of European regional international society but its centrality has been modified both by developments consequent upon the end of the Cold War and the political fall‐out of the events of 9/11.

Russia and Europe: Whose Society?

Russia’s traditionally ambivalent relationship to ‘Europe’ is now assuming new forms. Although the country since 1991 has formally adopted the panoply of Western democratic norms, their implementation is impeded by both practical and political forms of resistance to the universalism proclaimed by its erstwhile Cold War protagonists. The unstable relationship between Russia and various levels of international society has given rise to a type of ‘cold peace’. Russia does not reject the norms advanced by the main institutions of European international society, but it objects to what it sees as their instrumental application. Thus Russia has emerged as a neo‐revisionist power, concerned not so much with advancing a set of alternative norms as ensuring the equal application of existing principles. Russia certainly does not repudiate engagement with international society, but at present is ready only for a relatively thin version. In this context Russia balks at being a passive norm‐taker but does not present itself as a norm‐innovator, and instead is trying to carve out a new role for itself as a norm‐enforcer.

Civilization and Empire: China and Japan’s Encounter with European International Society

Civilization and Empire: China and Japan’s Encounter with European International Society

Civilization and empire: China and Japan's encounter with European international society

Introduction 1. Socialization into International Society 2. The East Asian International Society 3. Acquiring Knowledge: Chinese and Japanese Perceptions of European International Society 4. Learning the Competence and Skill to be a 'Civilized' State: State Reconfiguration in China 5. Learning the Competence and Skill to be a 'Civilized' State: State Reinvention in Japan 6. Demonstrating 'Civilized' Identity: Dismantling the Tribute System. Conclusion.

Culture and international society

This article investigates a hypothesis drawn from Martin Wight, that a society of states lacking a shared culture, as a result of expansion beyond its original base, will be unstable. This instability hypothesis has been influential in how the English School has presented the history of the expansion of European international society to a global scale. The article starts by offering two models of how a global international society could have come about since the late classical era: a multicultural encounter among several expanding civilizations (polycentric), or the takeover of the system by one centre (monocentric). Using these models as a backdrop, two accounts of the expansion story are developed. The Vanguardist account emphasizes the exceptionalism of European culture, posits a 500-year period of western domination, sees multiculturalism and the decline of western power as problematic, and tends to pessimism about the future of international society. The Syncretist account emphasizes the permanence of cross-cultural exchange, posits only a 200-year period of western dominance, sees culture and international society as evolving together, and is not pessimistic about the stability of international society. These two models and two accounts are then used to assess the possible future of international society. The article argues that culture is less of a problem for international society than Wight, and much of the English School, suppose. The evidence for the substantial success of syncretism is strong and provides considerable stability to most of the likely outcomes. The key problem is not culture, but socio-political structure. How can what North et al. call natural states and open access orders find shared practices and institutions that do not destabilize international society?

Civilization and Empire: China and Japan's Encounter with European International Society

Civilization and Empire: China and Japan's Encounter with European International Society

Prognostic Value of International Neuroblastoma Pathology Classification in Localized Resectable Peripheral Neuroblastic Tumors: A Histopathologic Study of Localized Neuroblastoma European Study Group 94.01 Trial and Protocol

To assess the prognostic value of clinical, biologic, and morphologic data in peripheral neuroblastic tumors, International Neuroblastoma Staging System (INSS) stages 2A and 2B MYCN nonamplified, a multinational protocol entitled Localized Neuroblastoma European Study Group trial 94.01, with a trial of surgery as the only treatment, was initiated in 1995. We present the prognostic value of the revised International Neuroblastoma Pathology Classification (INPC) applied to the patients included in this protocol until its closure in 1999. A total of 120 neuroblastic tumors from trial patients were reviewed by the European International Society of Pediatric Oncology neuroblastoma pathology panel and assigned to a favorable or unfavorable prognostic category according to the INPC guidelines. Overall survival and relapse-free survival (RFS) were estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method and compared by the log-rank test. A total of 115 of 120 patients were assessable and were assigned to the favorable (90 patients; 78.3%) or unfavorable (25 patients; 21.7%) category. The 60-month survival rate was 97.7% in favorable patients compared with 73.8% in unfavorable patients (P = .0002). RFS analysis showed a 60-month relapse rate of 13.4% and 32% in favorable and unfavorable patients (P < .025), respectively. Statistical analysis demonstrated a significant association of unfavorable INPC category and high lactate dehydrogenase level (P < .045). This European study shows for the first time that the INPC prognostic categorization has a significant impact on outcome prediction in INSS stage 2 localized peripheral neuroblastic tumors.

Surgical Risk Factors in Primary Surgery for Localized Neuroblastoma: The LNESG1 Study of the European International Society of Pediatric Oncology Neuroblastoma Group

Although tumor resection is the mainstay of treatment for localized neuroblastoma, there are no established guidelines indicating which patients should be operated on immediately and which should undergo surgery after tumor reduction with chemotherapy. In an effort to develop such guidelines, the LNESG1 study defined surgical risk factors (SRFs) based on the imaging characteristics. A total of 905 patients with suspected localized neuroblastoma were registered by 10 European countries between January 1995 and October 1999; 811 of 905 patients were eligible for this analysis. Information on SRFs was obtained for 719 of 811 patients; 367 without and 352 with SRFs. Of these 719 patients, 201 patients (four without and 197 with SRFs) underwent biopsy only. An attempt at tumor excision was made in 518 patients: 363 of 367 patients without and 155 of 352 patients with SRFs (98.9% v 44.0%). Complete excision was achieved in 271 of 363 patients without and in 72 of 155 patients with SRF (74.6% v 46.4%), near-complete excision was achieved in 81 and 61 patients (22.3% v 39.3%), and incomplete excision was achieved in 11 and 22 patients (3.0% v 14.2%), respectively. There were two surgery-related deaths. Nonfatal surgery-related complications occurred in 45 of 518 patients (8.7%) and were less frequent in patients without SRFs (5.0% v 17.4%). Associated surgical procedures were also less frequent in patients without SRFs (1.6% v 9.7%). The adoption of SRFs as predictors of adverse surgical outcome was validated because their presence was associated with lower complete resection rate and greater risk of surgery-related complications. Additional studies aiming to better define the surgical approach to localized neuroblastoma are warranted.

Embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma of adult nasopharynx

Adult rhabdomyosarcomas in the head and neck are extremely rare and carry a poor prognosis. They should be considered as a distinct clinical entity. The authors report a case of embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma in an adult nasopharynx treated with a combined modality treatment of chemotherapy and radiotherapy as per the European International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP) MMT 89 study, group D. The patient responded to treatment and 10 years later, he is still alive with no signs of metastatic disease.

Japan’s Socialization into Janus-Faced European International Society

This article joins the debate on the entry of non-European states into International Society by examining the socialization of Japan into the normative framework of European International Society during the Meiji period. Despite recent arguments that the English School has pioneered an interpretivist approach in the study of international politics, their conceptualization of the expansion of International Society has paid scant regard to non-European perspectives. As a consequence, International Society is commonly portrayed as playing a progressive role in mitigating conflict and enhancing world order. The article challenges the lopsided portrayal of how non-European states were socialized into International Society. It illustrates that Japan was socialized into a Janus-faced International Society. Finally, it argues that the English School’s normative commitment to international order and exclusion of non-European perspectives is in danger of undermining its interpretivist credentials.

The latest Turkish–Greek détente: instrumentalist play for EU membership, or long‐term institutionalist cooperation?

The recent thaw in bilateral Greek–Turkish relations is promising, yet insufficient for future stability and cooperation in and around the Aegean Sea. The main reason lies in the prevalence of instrumental‐strategic thinking on the part of both states. Neither Greece nor Turkey has approached the settlement of their disputes from a perspective that would imply an eagerness to build a collective identity based on the institutional norms of European international society as represented by the European Union. On the contrary, Europeanisation has not been an end in itself but a means for the materialisation of their preconceived national interests. The underlying motivation behind their attempts to reach a solution appears to have arisen from instrumental concerns vis‐à‐vis both the EU and each other. The dynamics of their independent relations with the European Union seem to have compelled them to come to a modus vivendi over these issues, since otherwise their relative status vis‐à‐vis the EU would likely deteriorate. This article will discuss the main aspects of the latest Turkish–Greek cooperation process within the framework of rationalist instrumentalist and sociological institutionalist debate in international relations theory. It will be contended that a lasting and long‐term cooperation between the two countries can only follow the formation of collective identities and common national foreign policy interests, particularly as they relate to the European Union framework.

China's Entry into International Society: Beyond the Standard of ‘Civilization’

One of the major themes explored by the late Hedley Bull and others in their studies of the expansion of the European society of states across the globe is the entry of extra-European states into that society. It has given rise to two challenging and inescapable questions: when was each extra-European state drawn and accepted into the expanding European international society, and how? The answers to these questions are central to understanding when and how the contemporary global society which embraces states belonging to every culture and civilization emerged. Research in this area also raises questions about the future of the now universal international society. Can a global society of states devoid of cultural homogeneity survive? If so, how? Will the acceptance of common rules and institutions foster the perception of common interests by states of different cultural systems? Or conversely, will the perception of common interests move member states to work out new rules, institutions, and values to cement the structure of a universal international society? The inquiry into the historical process in which an extra-European state was drawn into the expanding international society cannot provide answers to these questions. Historical illumination is only capable of suggesting the direction in which those answers can be productively sought.

Negative sovereignty in sub-Saharan Africa

Martin Wight once compared ‘the increasing number of small states which are the debris of colonial empires’ to ‘the increasing number of small principalities’ of an earlier period in international history which were ‘the debris of feudalism’. The citystates, monarchies, republics, confederations and various other emergent states of Europe eventually found an alternative to the mediaeval societas Christiana on which their independence and intercourse could be legitimately based. This was, of course, the practice of dynastic legitimacy or what Burke glorified as ‘prescription’: the right of inherited and established states to international recognition which sufficed as the constitution of European international society until the French revolution. Burke invoked it to condemn the revolution and justify foreign intervention not only to destroy the Jacobins and restore the monarchy but also to defend ‘the college of the ancient states of Europe’.3 It was a lost cause.