The EU, Promoting Regional Integration, and Conflict Resolution

The EU, Promoting Regional Integration, and Conflict Resolution
Author: Thomas Diez
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2017-02-16
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3319475304

This book provides a comprehensive study into the promotion of regional integration as a central pillar of European Union (EU) relations with the rest of the world. It is a strategy to deal with a core security challenge: the transformation of conflicts and, in particular, regional conflicts. Yet to what extent has the promotion of regional integration been successful in transforming conflicts? What can we regard as the core mechanisms of such an impact? This volume offers a comprehensive assessment of the nexus between promoting integration and conflict transformation. The authors systematically compare the consequences of EU involvement in eight conflicts in four world regions within a common framework. In doing so, they focus on the promotion of integration as a preventative strategy to avoid conflicts turning violent and as a long-term strategy to transform violent conflicts by placing them in a broader institutional context. The book will be of use to students and scholars interested in European foreign policy, comparative regionalism, and conflict resolution.

The European Union’s Approach to Conflict Resolution

The European Union’s Approach to Conflict Resolution
Author: Laurence Cooley
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 379
Release: 2018-10-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1351043463

This book investigates and explains the European Union’s approach to conflict resolution in three countries of the Western Balkans: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Kosovo. In doing so, it critically interrogates claims that the EU acts as an agent of conflict transformation in its engagement with conflict-affected states. The book argues, contrary to the assumptions of much of the existing literature, that rather than seeking the transformation of conflicts, the EU pursues a more conservative strategy based on the regulation of conflict through the promotion of institutional mechanisms such as consociational power sharing and decentralisation. Drawing on discourse analysis of documents, speeches, and interviews conducted by the author with European Union officials and policy-makers in Brussels and the case-study countries, the book offers a theoretically grounded, methodologically rigorous and empirically detailed analysis of EU policy preferences, of the ideas that underpin them, and of how those preferences are legitimised. This book will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners interested in ethnic conflict and conflict resolution, the politics of the Balkans, and the external and foreign policies of the EU.

Divided Nations and European Integration

Divided Nations and European Integration
Author: Tristan James Mabry
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 417
Release: 2013-06-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0812244974

For ethnic minorities in Europe separated by state borders—such as Basques in France and Spain or Hungarians who reside in Slovakia and Romania—the European Union has offered the hope of reconnection or at least of rendering the divisions less obstructive. Conationals on different sides of European borders may look forward to increased political engagement, including new norms to support the sharing of sovereignty, enhanced international cooperation, more porous borders, and invigorated protections for minority rights. Under the pan-European umbrella, it has been claimed that those belonging to divided nations would no longer have to depend solely on the goodwill of the governments of their states to have their collective rights respected. Yet for many divided nations, the promise of the European Union and other pan-European institutions remains unfulfilled. Divided Nations and European Integration examines the impact of the expansion of European institutions and the ways the EU acts as a confederal association of member states, rather than a fully multinational federation of peoples. A wide range of detailed case studies consider national communities long within the borders of the European Union, such as the Irish and Basques; communities that have more recently joined, such as the Croats and Hungarians; and communities that are not yet members but are on its borders or in its "near abroad," such as the Albanians, Serbs, and Kurds. This authoritative volume provides cautionary but valuable insights to students of European institutions, nations and nationalism, regional integration, conflict resolution, and minority rights. Contributors: Tozun Bahcheli, Zoe Bray, Alexandra Channer, Zsuzsa Csergő, Marsaili Fraser, James M. Goldgeier, Michael Keating, Tristan James Mabry, John McGarry, Margaret Moore, Sid Noel, Brendan O'Leary, David Romano, Etain Tannam, Stefan Wolff.

Decentralization, Regional Diversity, and Conflict

Decentralization, Regional Diversity, and Conflict
Author: Hanna Shelest
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 378
Release: 2020-07-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3030417654

This edited volume focuses on the links between the ongoing crisis in and around Ukraine, regional diversity, and the reform of decentralization. It provides in-depth insights into the historical constitution of regional diversity and the evolution of center-periphery relationships in Ukraine, the legal qualification of the conflict in Eastern Ukraine, and the role of the decentralization reform in promoting conflict resolution, as well as modernization, democratization and European integration of Ukraine. Particular emphasis lies on the securitization of both regional diversity issues and territorial self-government arrangements in terms of Russia’s support for self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. The volume captures the complexity of contemporary “hybrid” conflicts, involving both internal and external aspects, and the hybridization and securitization of territorial self-governance solutions. It thus provides an important contribution to the debate on territorial self-government and conflict resolution.

The EU and Conflict Resolution

The EU and Conflict Resolution
Author: Nathalie Tocci
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2007-05-22
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 113412337X

Through the study of five ethno-political conflicts lying on or just beyond Europe's borders, this book analyzes the impact and effectiveness of EU foreign policy on conflict resolution. Conflict resolution features strongly as an objective of the European Union's foreign policy. In promoting this aim, the EU's geographical focus has rested primarily in its beleaguered backyard to the south and to the east. Taking a strong comparative approach, Nathalie Tocci explores the principal determinants of conflict dynamics in Cyprus, Turkey, Serbia-Montenegro, Israel-Palestine and Georgia in order to assess the impact of EU contractual ties on them. The volume includes topical analyzis based on first-hand experience, in-depth interviews with all the relevant actors and photography in ongoing conflict areas in the Middle East, the Eastern Mediterranean, the Balkans and the Caucasus. This revealing study shows that the gap between EU potential and effectiveness often rests in the specific manner in which the EU collectively chooses to conduct its contractual relations. The EU and Conflict Resolution will be of interest to all readers who wish to acquire an excellent understanding of the EU's impact on conflict contexts and will appeal to scholars of European politics, security studies and conflict resolution.

Regional Trade Integration and Conflict Resolution

Regional Trade Integration and Conflict Resolution
Author: Shaheen Rafi Khan
Publisher: IDRC
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2009
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0415476739

Explores the linkage between trade, peace and conflict in South America, Southern Africa, South Asia, and South East Asia. Highlights the significance of regional trade agreements for peace building between the countries.

Democracy Promotion and the Normative Power Europe Framework

Democracy Promotion and the Normative Power Europe Framework
Author: Marek Neuman
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2018-07-20
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 331992690X

This book presents a topical, holistic assessment of the European Union’s democracy promotion in South-East Europe, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, analyzed through the prism of the Normative Power Europe (NPE) framework of transnational policy formation. To do so, it brings together three scholarly domains that traditionally stand apart and are discussed separately. The first addresses the notion of the European Union conducting a normatively-driven foreign policy both near and far abroad. The second is concerned with the legitimacy, operationality, and effectiveness of promoting democracy in third-world countries. The third addresses the quality of the relationship the European Union has been able to establish with some vital – yet often troubled – countries in South-East Europe, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. Finally, based on the empirical findings presented in each chapter, this volume concludes by rethinking the concept and relevance of NPE to the field’s understanding of the EU’s foreign policy making. This edited volume offers the reader both a theoretically and empirically rich analysis of the European Union’s efforts to promote democracy abroad. As such is scholars and students of EU studies, particularly EU foreign policy, as well as policy makers at EU and national level and civil society representatives responsible for designing/implementing democracy promoting projects on the ground.

The United Nations and the Regions

The United Nations and the Regions
Author: Philippe Lombaerde
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2012-02-07
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9400727518

This unique book investigates the implications of the rising importance of supra-national regional organizations for global governance in general, and for the United Nations, in particular. It touches upon issues such as regional representation at the UN, high-level dialogues with regional organisations, as well as the coordination of UN member states’ voting behaviour in the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council. The book further explores the regional dimension and coordination of UN operations in areas such as peace and security, human rights, and sustainable development. The contributions to the book are both in-depth chapters and shorter viewpoints, written by a combination of academics, policy-makers at regional organizations, and experts from international think tanks. The book is essential reading for anyone interested in the future of global governance.

EU-Japan Security Cooperation

EU-Japan Security Cooperation
Author: Emil J. Kirchner
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2018-09-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0429850751

This book assesses EU-Japan security relations, examining how they have developed in individual security sectors and how they could be affected by international developments. The conclusions of the Economic Partnership Agreement and the Strategic Partnership Agreement in 2017 demonstrate the steady growth in EU-Japan political relations. Since the 1990s, dialogues between the EU and Japan have benefitted from extensive trade and investment ties and shared liberal values. Based on collaborative research by European and Japanese scholars, this book provides an in-depth, systematic and comparative analysis of the extent to which the EU and Japan have achieved concrete actions in the pursuance of security cooperation across a range of key areas such as nuclear proliferation, regional security, international terrorism, and energy and climate security. Further, it seeks to explain why some security sectors (such as economic and cybersecurity) have resulted in more extensive EU-Japan cooperation, while others lag behind (such as military and regional security). Common declarations and actions of shared interest and concerns have often led to only modest levels of security collaboration, and the book highlights factors that may be seen as intervening between intention and action, such as the role of external actors, for instance China and the US, and the constraints of internal EU and domestic Japanese politics. This book will be of much interest to students of European security, Japanese politics, diplomacy studies and international relations.