Greater Power Research Articles

The European Union's use of contractors in security and defence: blazing its own path of institutional change?

ABSTRACT The rise of global power competition raises unique challenges for the European Union (EU) as it seeks to reconcile its security and defence aims with those of its encompassing member states while confronting both new and old types of warfare and threats on various geopolitical fronts. In this context, our study examines the role of contractors in the EU's approach to security and defence. Using new institutionalism, the study analyses changes to structure, personnel, and environment that empower and hamper the EU as it aims to enhance its capacity and role using contractors. The study finds that while organisational pressures push the EU to follow a path similar to the US in its security and defence outsourcing, the EU is charting its own path of organisational change and customising its use of contractors to align with its institutional values, mission, and processes for global engagement in security and defence.

Narratives, Knowledge Objects, and the Making of Great Power Competition

Abstract What makes great power relations more (or less) competitive? One key argument in International Relations (IR) is that interpretations matter and shape how competitive great power relations are. This article seeks to further develop this argument. Drawing on objectual IR and the sociology of expectations, it proposes a constructivist framework that unpacks two crucial, yet surprisingly little studied aspects of the making of great power competition: (i) the constitution and organization of great power relations as a contest over scarce goods and (ii) the interplay of narratives and knowledge objects that underpins it. To illustrate the framework and contribute to theory development, the article reconstructs the dynamics of two prominent dimensions of great power competition in the past decade: The tensions between NATO and Russia in Europe and the economic competition between the United States and China. It shows that the making of great power competition involves three interrelated elements: the framing of relations among powerful states as contests over some valued goods, the production of knowledge about the distribution of these goods, and governance arrangements stipulating rules for the contests. What underpins the three elements is an interplay of narratives and knowledge objects: General narratives of what the competition is about and what is at stake preconfigure which knowledge objects are regarded as pertinent. The pertinent knowledge objects, in turn, shape the specific narratives that are told about how the competition unfolds.

Chinese and Hungarian Financial Relations

Banking and financial relations sometimes precede, sometimes follow, but in all cases reinforce economic and political cooperation. This is also the case between China and Hungary. China, which is increasingly assuming its role as a world power, is - for obvious pragmatic reasons - open towards the Central and Eastern European countries wedged between Asia and Western Europe. It is doing so along traditional Chinese trade routes, as part of the 'One Belt, One Road' programme. In this programme, Hungary can build on its known Eastern origins, its deeper understanding of different political systems, and its multifaceted personal relationships to establish successful economic and political cooperation with the financial sector playing its part.

Ruptures in Depiction—Recognition and Political Cartoons of Putin: From a Strategic Mastermind to the Object of Contempt and Mockery

Abstract This article contributes to discussions over the role of recognition in international relations by focusing on an aspect of popular culture, specifically political cartoons. It argues that studying political cartoons may contribute to capturing aspects of recognition that go beyond those rooted in formal interactions between states and thereby enhance our understanding of what Ringmar called the recognition game. The article focuses on political cartoons about Russia/Putin in two periods. The first is after the annexation of Crimea, while the second is after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. The tones of caricatures in these two periods differ radically. Images in the first depict a transgressive Putin to be feared. While not necessarily a flattering image, the article argues that this set of images can be interpreted as a form of recognition of Russia being a great power to be reckoned with and could encourage Russia’s reckless moves later. Once we get to the second period, however, there is a rupture. The tone of depiction changes, showing a pathetic, deplorable Putin. These images do not simply convey misrecognition, but convey humiliation, a difference somewhat overlooked by the discipline.

Global Power Transition: Where do Major European States Stand?

Global Power Transition: Where do Major European States Stand?

Medieval Pasts and Eugenicist Futures: Grant Allen, Masculinity and Early English History

ABSTRACT Grant Allen was a Victorian scholar and novelist who published widely on science, literature and history. Embedded within these publications is a fascination with early England, particularly early English masculinity. Allen saw in England's origins a blueprint for the kind of white, hegemonic masculinity he wished to see reproduced not only in contemporary English society and culture but also in the eugenic makeup of the English people as well. By reaching to early English history to legitimise his own visions of imperial white masculinity, Allen weaves a fantasy of medieval male virility into the fabric of his Victorian present. This essay discusses Allen's interest in the social apparatus of gender, contemporary eugenicist discourse and the interpretive potential of an imagined medieval past and argues that Allen uses early English history to justify ongoing colonial projects and to frame white men as the rightful heirs to global power.

Dragon Power Europe: maturation through hybridisation

ABSTRACT Zooming in on the European Union’s international identity, this paper argues that maturation, and the achievement of a solid international identity, may result from a process in which different identity traits are integrated, even strategically incorporated. It frames this hybridisation argument in terms of Dragon Power Europe and proceeds in two steps. In a first step, the paper develops an integrated analytical framework for studying the European Union’s international identity by comparing the Normative Power Europe and Market Power Europe conceptualisations along three dimensions, namely drivers, actions and impact. In a second step, the paper demonstrates the framework’s empirical value through an exploration of the European Union’s functioning in relation to health information standardisation, investigating the logics behind the inclusion of a new chapter on diagnoses and syndromes associated with Traditional (Chinese) Medicine in the eleventh revision of the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases in 2019. The involvement of the European Union and its member states in this specific case of health (information) standardisation shows initial but compelling evidence of NPE-MPE dynamics shaping the EU’s international functioning, in particular its drivers, actions and impact.

“Forced into the Shade”: Winston Churchill and America’s Naval Challenge

ABSTRACT The United States emerged as a naval competitor of Great Britain after the First World War. American naval ambitions exasperated Winston Churchill, who saw this challenge threatening Britain’s position as the world’s leading sea power. Faced by America’s growing economy and navy, Churchill lamented Britain’s decline as a world power. He confided to his wife Clementine: ‘Poor old England – she is being slowly but surely forced into the shade’. Despite America’s undoubted economic strength, Churchill was determined that Britain stay ahead of the United States in the naval arms race. My article examines Churchill’s views about America’s growing naval power and Britain’s ability to compete against the United States. Examining Churchill’s views in this period provides an opportunity to explore the question of how the leading world power responded to a rising international great-power challenger.

Trade, Power, and Welfare: An International Economic Political Analysis of Great Power Competition

Traditional international trade theories seldom consider the pursuit of power as maintaining and enlarging a country’s relative strength in the process of interstate competition. However, in the context of great power competition, the importance of power in the trade between advanced and latecomer countries has become more pronounced. Given this situation, we can establish a tractable and generalized international economic political framework for analyzing great power competition by introducing the power factor into classic two-country trade theory, treating the absolute welfare and relative welfare emphasized by economics and political science respectively as actors’ dual objectives, and making use of game theory methods. It can be found that in a two-country game composed of an advanced and a latecomer country, the latter will prefer a strategy of “enhancing its own strength and rectifying its own weak points,” while the former will favor a strategy that “worsens the other’s weak points and enhances the other’s strengths.” Once the technological gap that determines comparative advantage narrows, the advanced country will tend to totally suppress the latecomer and even “decouple” from it.

Austen Chamberlain and the Locarno Treaties revisited

ABSTRACT The approaching centenary of the Locarno conference in October 1925 provides a convenient reason to re-evaluate the significance of the treaties that emerged from it. Often styled as the ‘real’ peace settlement at the end of the First World War, the treaties of Locarno collectively represent one of the most important attempts to ensure lasting peace in Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. Central to the treaties’ reputation as the ‘real’ peace settlement is their role in rehabilitating Germany’s Great Powers status after the humiliation suffered at the Paris Peace Conference six years earlier. The Locarno agreements have been seen as one of the rare highpoints in post-First World War Western European diplomacy. They were viewed by contemporaries as a real diplomatic breakthrough that would allow finally for the ghosts of the enmities that had caused the First World War to be laid to rest, although subsequent generations of scholars have been much more critical about what the agreements achieved in the long-term. This article focuses on the contribution made to the conference by the head of the British delegation, the Foreign Secretary, Sir Austen Chamberlain. It re-examines his diplomatic priorities, especially his reputation as a Francophile. Its central thesis is that Chamberlain himself can be seen to embody the essential reasons why the Locarno agreements were heralded as a success at the time of their conclusion, but less so with the perspective of hindsight. The treaties contained within them two opposing diplomatic forces. On the one hand, the remnants of the pre-war national state system, with its emphasis on diplomatic self-interest, secret, private negotiations, versus the so-called ‘new’ diplomacy: international, open, democratic and accountable. This rendered most of the European diplomatic problems in the post-First World War era intractable; indeed that they were incapable of resolution by anyone. Chamberlain’s entire engagement with the western European security question during the mid-1920s can be seen as evidence not only of those tensions but of the futility of trying to resolve them.

Allen Leeper, the Foreign Office and the Diplomacy of Air Disarmament, 1932-1934

ABSTRACT As the resident Foreign Office expert on air disarmament during the World Disarmament Conference, Allen Leeper was at the forefront of a campaign for the elimination of military aircraft as a radical bid to address German claims to equality and French demands for security. His motivations derived from a deep-seated fear that legitimising a German air force posed an unacceptable risk to European stability by provoking an all-out arms race, heightening continental tensions and raising the spectre of war. But Leeper’s sweeping solution for military aircraft, with its intertwined repercussions for civil aviation, fell victim to an increasingly truculent government in Berlin that refused to delay equality, claimed substantial increases in German military strength and boosted defence spending while surreptitiously rearming behind the scenes. In these altered circumstances, Leeper abandoned disarmament as a diplomatic tool for treating the Franco-German question and, instead, resorted to other traditional methods for ensuring continental stability. In doing so, he displayed the strengths of the ‘world leadership’ school of foreign-policy making that placed a premium on Britain’s active engagement in great power politics to uphold its position as the pre-eminent global power.

Arming Sheīkh Saīd: Conflict and Cooperation in Italian and British Imperial Policy in the Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea, 1927-1940

ABSTRACT After the Great War, Imam Yahya, the spiritual and temporal ruler of Yemen, established control over the Yemeni highlands and fought wars against his rivals to extend his power. Jacopo Gasparini, the governor of Italy’s Eritrean colony, increased Italian trade with Yemen, primarily by shipping arms to Imam Yahya. Italian influence in the Arabian peninsula worried British officials. Britain’s primary goal was to protect its imperial road through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea by ensuring that no European Power established itself on the eastern shore or on strategic islands of the Red Sea. In 1927, Italy and Britain signed the Rome Understanding, agreeing to limit their imperial competition in the peninsula. Both parties maintained the Rome Understanding and its successor agreement in the 1938 Easter Accords until the outbreak of the Second World War, although both violated its spirit and letter when convenient. In the latter half of the 1930s, Imam Yahya wanted to acquire naval cannon to defend Sheīkh Saīd, a promontory that overlooked the strategically important Bab al-Mandeb Strait. Both Italian and British officials resisted providing them, as both feared that the other could seize Sheīkh Saīd and use these cannon to bar the southern exit of the Red Sea. After lengthy negotiations, the Italians eventually relented and shipped four naval cannon to Imam Yahya to try to earn his favour before the outbreak of Anglo-Italian conflict in World War Two. The episode of arming Sheīkh Saīd shows the nature of conflict and cooperation in Anglo-Italian relations in the Arabian Peninsula and the ultimate failure to reconcile their imperial interests.

Asymmetric relations and systemic misperceptions: Why and how Australia and China talk past each other

Caught by conflicts, both Australia and China exhibited confused attitudes towards each other’s motives. For China, despite the common interests of strong economic and trade complementarities, Australia acts as a vassal state of the USA, campaigning against China for no reason. For Canberra, it has been frustrated by China’s ignorance of Australia’s independent position and concerns. This article explores the fundamental cause behind this misperception, arguing that asymmetric relationships lead two countries to put their attention on different levels, generating misinterpretations from both sides. As a great power, China concentrates on worldwide competition with the USA and prioritizes its global strategy while underplaying concerns of Australia. However, in Australia’s agenda, regional security and China’s expansion deepened its anxiety, so its over-attention spotlighted Beijing’s moves in a sensitive scenario. The asymmetry exacerbates each other’s threats. The article provides a systematic explanation of the China–Australia tension and clarifies the mechanism behind asymmetric relations.

Pressure, Vibration, and Percussion in Athletic Recovery: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

Pressure, Vibration, and Percussion in Athletic Recovery: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

Keratin 17 and Collagen type 1 genes: Esophageal cancer molecular marker discovery and evaluation.

One hundred eighty pairs of tissues of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) were tested by the transcriptome sequencing in order to explore etiology factors. The chi-square test and correlation analysis demonstrated that the relative expression levels of keratin 17 (KRT17) and collagen type I α1 chain (COL1A1) were significantly higher in EC with diabetes. Expression of KRT17 was correlated with blood glucose (r = 0.204, p = 0.001) and tumor size (r = -0.177, p = 0.038) in patients. COL1A1 correlated with age (r = -0.170, p = 0.029) and blood glucose levels (r = 0.190, p = 0.015). Experimental results of qRT-PCR: KRT17 and COL1A1 genes were highly expressed in ESCC (p < 0.05). When the two genes were used as a combination test, the positive detection rate of EC was 90.6%, and the ROC curve had greater power. The KRT17 and COL1A1 genes had the potential to be biomarkers for the diagnosis of ESCC.

Multi-hierarchy Network Configuration Can Predict Brain States and Performance.

The brain is a hierarchical modular organization that varies across functional states. Network configuration can better reveal network organization patterns. However, the multi-hierarchy network configuration remains unknown. Here, we proposed an eigenmodal decomposition approach to detect modules at multi-hierarchy, which can identify higher-layer potential submodules, and is consistent with the brain hierarchical structure. We defined three metrics: node configuration matrix, combinability, and separability. Node configuration matrix represents network configuration changes between layers. Separability reflects network configuration from global to local, whereas combinability shows network configuration from local to global. First, we created a random network to verify the feasibility of the method. Results show that separability of real networks is larger than that of random networks, whereas combinability is smaller than random networks. Then, we analyzed a large data set incorporating fMRI data from resting and seven distinct tasking conditions. Experiment results demonstrates the high similarity in node configuration matrices for different task conditions, whereas the tasking states have less separability and greater combinability between modules compared with the resting state. Furthermore, the ability of brain network configuration can predict brain states and cognition performance. Crucially, derived from tasks are highlighted with greater power than resting, showing that task-induced attributes have a greater ability to reveal individual differences. Together, our study provides novel perspectives for analyzing the organization structure of complex brain networks at multi-hierarchy, gives new insights to further unravel the working mechanisms of the brain, and adds new evidence for tasking states to better characterize and predict behavioral traits.

Sim-to-Real Global Maximum Power Point Tracking With Domain Randomization and Adaptation for Photovoltaic Systems

Sim-to-Real Global Maximum Power Point Tracking With Domain Randomization and Adaptation for Photovoltaic Systems

Sustainable Development Goals Need for India to Refocus on Measurement and Monitoring

The first and most important Global Goal set in the Charter of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by the United Nations in 2015, is “NO POVERTY.” Countries estimate the extremely poor population based on the International Poverty Level (IPL), which uses Global Purchase power parities (PPP) set by the World Bank International Comparison program. Some claims state that India has made substantial progress in fighting extreme poverty during the last few decades. Published data shows there is no headcount below the National Poverty line. This paper attempts to study the relevance of the national statistical data sets on the limits and levels for the poverty line in India as against the international poverty level, taking into consideration of the Purchasing Power Index, Gross GDP, and per capita GDP, Gross National Income, and Per capita Income, minimum wedge regulations, and the critical parameters for the Hunger Index.

„Strategiczny Kompas” Unii Europejskiej. Większe bezpieczeństwo i skuteczniejsza obrona UE – plan działań do 2030 r.

A “STRATEGIC COMPASS” OF THE EUROPEAN UNION. STRENGTHENED SECURITY AND MORE EFFECTIVE DEFENSE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION – THE PLAN OF ACTION UNTIL 2030 The article focuses on the analysis of A Strategic Compass for Security and Defence of European Union adopted on March 2022 with the perspective of its implementation over the next 5-10 years. The return of war in Europe due to Russia’s aggression against the sovereign Ukrainian state accelerated the start of an intense debate in the EU on building common military defense capabilities of the EU member states and strengthening the issue of defending its interests. The EU must develop it to act independently and must draw conclusions from recent crises by reducing “critical dependencies.” Can the Strategic Compass become a response to threats in the new constellation of forces in the international order and thus a real project for building its own strategic power projection in international relations? The expansion of military component of the implementation of security policy should achieve an equivalent level of intervention in relation to the economic and civilian activities implemented so far as a comprehensive EU approach to responding to external conflicts and crisis challenges of the modern world. Should the EU be a global military power? The EU’s four main priority activities within its “strategic compass” were analyzed in detail: acting, securing, investing, partnership with NATO and the UN and with the countries of the global South; the EU’s security in the context of China and Russia; the “Strategic Compass”; and the EU’s taking greater responsibility for its own security and defense on a regional and global scale.

The Implications of Strengthening ‘European Strategic Autonomy’ and Its Defence Capabilities for the Growth of France’s Global Importance and Power

France occupies a key position in Europe’s defence and security structures and the promotion of a ‘Europe of defence’ has been one of the political priorities of French leaders since the late 1990s. One of the key initiatives strengthening multilateral military cooperation in the EU is the European Intervention Initiative (EI2), which aims to instil a French strategic culture among Europeans. The aim of the study is to show that France is ‘shifting’ its power ambitions to Europe, which is to become a significant actor in international relations, equipped with mechanisms of political representation and credible military forces, enabling it to conduct a global-scale independent policy. The analysis leads to the conclusion that the strengthening of ‘European strategic autonomy’ serves to preserve a multipolar world, in which France will play the role of Europe’s ‘leader,’ and is expected to be conductive to the development of defence industry cooperation.