European Regional Organizations Research Articles

Opting out of the ‘near abroad’ and moving towards eurointegration: A postfunctionalist analysis of Ukraine’s regional integration dynamics in the early 2010s

This article examines the utility of a revised postfunctionalist theory in explaining regional (dis)integration dynamics. The case study employed to test the theoretical framework is based on Ukraine’s regional integration processes with respect to Eurasian and European regional organizations in the early 2010s. The principal research question posed is: what factors contributed to Ukraine’s decision to opt out of deeper integration with Eurasia in the early 2010s and pursue integration with the European Union insead, and how can this case study move the postfunctionalist theory forward? Three assumptions proposed by postfunctionalism, enriched with insights from social constructivism, were applied to the (dis)integration processes: salience, politicization, and collective identity. The analysis suggests that the revised postfunctionalist framework is indeed instrumental in explaining both integration and disintegration, providing insights into the role of collective identity mobilization once public discussion reaches a critical juncture in the politicization process.

CODIFICATION AND PROBLEMS OF SUCCESSION REGARDING NATIONALITY IN INTERNATIONAL LAW

Author analyzes the problems of legal regulation of the citizenship of individuals in connection with the succession of states and the framework of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. European regional organizations are quite actively developing issues of citizenship in the succession of states, where significant progress has been made in this direction as well. It seems that the experience and results of the work on issues of nationality in connection with the succession of states can be claimed and applied as an example or a guide to action. And in legal sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan it was the first attempt undertaken to explore the contemporary trends in theory and practices regarding the settlement of modern issues of the succession of states and its application in international law. The example of Uzbekistan was also analyzed.

Introductory Thoughts about Peace, Politics and Religion

Recent years have seen a growing literature on the interactions between peace, politics and religion, including their diverse and often complex relationships. Underpinning this literature is an increase, more generally, in scholarly and policy interest in connections between religion and politics. The context is that over the last three decades, religion has made a remarkable return to prominence in various academic literatures, including sociology, political science and international relations. This was a surprise to many social scientists and confounded the expectations of both secularization theorists and secularists. In addition, religion retained a strong, some say growing, significance as a core source of identity for billions of people around the world. Numerous religious leaders and faith-based organizations are important carriers and focal points of religious ideas, playing an important role in many countries, both developed and developing, as well as internationally, including at the United Nations and to a lesser, although still notable extent, in the European Union and other regional organizations. This introductory article examines interactions between religious entities in relation to peace and conflict and sets the scene for the articles comprising this volume.

EU SECURITY & DEFENSE POLICY: THE EVOLUTION OF FORMATION

The task of building an effective security architecture facing the European Union is extremely important in that the approach to its solution will determine the nature of the relations between the countries in the region in the future. An analysis of the processes of building a common security and defense policy (EUSR) of the EU is impossible without addressing the interrelated problems: security in the EU with the European Union's place in the Euro-Atlantic processes and in the world at large. The development of the SPBO has a significant impact on all countries of Central and Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, which explains the relevance of its further study by national science. Until the scientific and legal literature has addressed the issue of forming and developing a common security and defense policy in the EU. In many ways, this is explained by the relatively short period of existence of the ESDC as a phenomenon, with the result that, in most cases, the study focused on considering the formation, rather than the functioning, of the ESDC mechanisms designed to prepare the EU component for further work. First of all, we are referring to studies on various aspects of the history and current activities of the European Union. In addition, the authors analyze the common issues of European security: from the problems of building security models for Europe to issues related to the activities of European regional military-political organizations on the security and interaction of European and US countries in the field of the common security and defense policy of the EU. Other authors have considered some aspects in the process of becoming an EU Security Council. However, the existing work does not allow for a holistic picture of the process of forming and developing a common foreign and security policy of the EU, in turn, the continued development of a common foreign and security policy of the EU necessitates the development of new aspects of identified issues and generalizations. In this article, the author focuses on highlighting the main stages of the EUSF formation and its importance for the effective functioning of the EU as a whole. There are four main stages in the development of the common security and defense policy: the first stage (1992-1997) is the signing of the Maastricht and Amsterdam Treaties; the second stage (1998-2002), when the EU declared its intention to form an ESDP in Saint-Malo (1998), as well as the decisions taken at the Cologne, Helsinki, Nice, Lachen summits; the third stage (since 2003), the Berlin Plus agreement was reached (March 2003). The Council of Europe adopted the first European Security Strategy (December 2003); and the final stage began with the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty on 1 December 2009. Within this framework, the European Union is trying to adequately respond to some of the new challenges that emerge in the process of globalization, shaping European identity.

De-centring the European union: policy diffusion among European regional organizations – a comment

This article comments on the special issue from a political science perspective. It starts with an attempt at interpreting the contributions from a diffusion perspective. The articles show a sophisticated understanding of diffusion as “interdependent decision-making”, that is multi- rather than uni-directional, focuses on diffusion as a process (not an outcome), and takes a decidedly agency-centered view. The article then highlights some of the empirical findings in this special issue. This concerns, among others, the crucial role of the Council of Europe (CoE) as a laboratory for generating new policy ideas and an agenda-setter, as well as the equally important function of the various parliamentary assemblies as mechanisms by which policy ideas diffuse. At the same time, there is also a power story in this special issue. The EC ultimately dominates the processes in most policy areas. The article concludes with remarks on the fruitfulness of an interdisciplinary dialogue between historians and social scientists as documented by this special issue.

European Regional Organizations, Political Conditionality, and Democratic Transformation in Eastern Europe

How and under which conditions have European regional organizations been effective promoters of democratic change in Central and Eastern Europe? In this article, the author argues that only the credible conditional promise of membership in the European Union and NATO has had the potential to produce compliance with liberal-democratic norms in norm-violating transformation countries. These incentives, however, were not sufficient when the power costs of compliance were high for the target governments. They did little to alter the policies of authoritarian governments, which forewent the benefits of accession rather than risk losing power as a result of democratic reforms. Thus, whereas political conditionality was largely redundant in the forerunner countries of democratization in Central and Eastern Europe (except for some specific reform issues) and generally ineffective with entrenched authoritarian regimes, it proved highly effective in supporting democratic forces and locking in democratic reforms in the unstable democratic countries of the region.

Why Comply? Social Learning and European Identity Change

Why do agents comply with the norms embedded in regimes and international institutions? Scholars have proposed two competing answers to this compliance puzzle, one rationalist, the other constructivist. Rationalists emphasize coercion, cost/benefit calculations, and material incentives; constructivists stress social learning, socialization, and social norms. Both schools, however, explain important aspects of compliance. To build a bridge between them, I examine the role of argumentative persuasion and social learning. This makes explicit the theory of social choice and interaction implicit in many constructivist compliance studies, and it broadens rationalist arguments about the instrumental and noninstrumental processes through which actors comply. I argue that domestic politics—in particular, institutional and historical contexts—delimit the causal role of persuasion/social learning, thus helping both rationalists and constructivists to refine the scope of their compliance claims. To assess the plausibility of these arguments, I examine why states comply with new citizenship/membership norms promoted by European regional organizations.

Avoiding Risk and Responsibility

Essay| November 01 1992 Avoiding Risk and Responsibility: The United States and Eastern Europe Jenonne Walker Jenonne Walker Jenonne Walker, a former State Department official with extensive experience in United States-European relations, wrote this article while a guest scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. She is working on the potential of European regional organizations to mitigate ethnic and other conflicts within states under a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Her most recent publication is Fact and Fiction About a European Security Identity and United States Interests (Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Council, April 1992). Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Current History (1992) 91 (568): 364–368. https://doi.org/10.1525/curh.1992.91.568.364 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Jenonne Walker; Avoiding Risk and Responsibility: The United States and Eastern Europe. Current History 1 November 1992; 91 (568): 364–368. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/curh.1992.91.568.364 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentCurrent History Search This content is only available via PDF. © 1992 by The Regents of the University of California1992 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Human Rights Minus Liberty?

AbstractInternational agreements, of the United Nations as well as of the West European and Inter-American regional organizations, affirm commitments to such personal liberties as freedom of thought and religion, of opinion and expression, of assembly and association, and of emigration. But these liberties, until recently considered central to the concept of human rights, are under increasing threat within the U.N. system.In 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted, followed in 1966 by the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Both focused on these values. Forty-eight nations have ratified the Covenant, including nearly all the Communist and some radical leftist Third World states—but not, paradoxically, the U.S., even though this, more than any other U.N. convention, reflects the Western civil liberties tradition.

European Bureaucrats in European Regional Organizations

European Bureaucrats in European Regional Organizations

European Regional Organizations in the Communications Satellite Field

European Regional Organizations in the Communications Satellite Field

The Reality of International Law

Machiavelli begins his Discourses by observing that “the curious nature of men, so prompt to blame and so slow to praise, makes the discovery and introduction of any new principles and systems as dangerous almost as the exploration of unknown seas and continents.” The Political Foundations of International Law runs this hazard, as it is both a splendid pioneering venture and vulnerable to all sorts of criticism. Although it most suggestively studies the theoretical interaction of law and politics, it provides scant doctrinal support. Although it brilliantly applies systems analysis and prudently uses decision-making theory, structural functional approaches, institutional studies, and a subtle form of historicism, it flirts outrageously with the relevance of game theory to the role of law in international affairs. Although it advances its views of international jurisdiction with unprecedented sophistication, it resorts to amateurish simplification when it discusses the United Nations Charter or the major European regional organizations. In sum, Political Foundations is at once profoundly provocative and frustratingly unrealized. However, its achievements are so much greater than its defects that it warrants high praise and mild rebuke.

Prospects for European Political Unification

HE RECENT RATIFICATIONS of the Rome treaties of March, 1957, creating the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Community focus attention on the possibilities for achieving European political unification. Indeed, the entry into force on January 1, 1958, of the common market and Euratom, as they are more popularly known, has been hailed in some quarters as an important step toward political unity in Western Europe. It is the purpose of this paper to set forth some of the assumptions underlying this concept, to examine some of the problems involved, and to suggest conclusions relative to the practical attainability of European political unification. While scholars and statesmen have for centuries espoused some form of European political unification, until recently there has never existed widespread enthusiasm on the part of European intellectuals and political leaders for the idea. This enthusiasm is reflected in the establishment since World War II of an increasing number of European regional organizations designed to break down the traditional rivalries of the past. The movement for economic, military, and political unification has been spearheaded by such leaders as Winston Churchill, Paul Henri Spaak, and Konrad Adenauer. It was Churchill who provided the impetus for European political unity in 1946 in a speech in Zurich in which he advocated the formation of a United States of Europe. To understand the movement since 1946 one must inquire into the reasons which prompted Churchill and other leaders to propose a solution which had received only casual attention in the past. The deterioration of the Western European economic and political position as a result of World War II must be listed as an important consideration in their thinking. The postwar world which emerged revealed a balance of power controlled by two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, with the consequent shift of the center of the balance away from Europe. Among informed leaders and statesmen there was the realization that Europe could not regain its former glory unless concrete steps were taken to effect an economic and political unification strong enough to supersede the narrow economic and political nationalisms which had produced two horrible world wars, depression, and the evils of totalitarianism. Simultaneously with the degeneration of the international political supremacy of Western Europe, there occurred a serious threat to free institutions with the movement of Soviet might into Eastern Europe. This posed