ABSTRACT The policy tools of counterterrorism reflect both the nature of the terrorist group in q... more ABSTRACT The policy tools of counterterrorism reflect both the nature of the terrorist group in question and the strategies of the actors that engage in counterterrorism. Historically governments have perceived terrorism primarily as a crime, a threat to the state's security or part of a broader political campaign. Accordingly, states have adopted counterterrorism policies based on law enforcement, military or diplomatic strategies, or a combination of these. While international organisations have played a supplementary role in terms of law enforcement and diplomacy, NGOs have, until recently, played a much smaller role in this field. Over the last couple of decades, however, with the rise of ‘sacred terror’ and as many states have accorded more weight to the propaganda element in terrorist campaigns, containment strategies that aim at managing and marginalising the threat have become more prominent. This article explores the increasing role of NGOs in this changing context, and suggests that the policy tools of NGOs are particularly well suited to combating network-type terrorist groups like al-Qa'eda and its franchises because such groups depend on complicit society, a convincing narrative and information asymmetry vis-à-vis their supporters. Here NGOs have distinct advantages because of their potential to credibly challenge terrorist narratives on the ground.
When the European Union took on ten new member states in 2004, it went through an unprecedented e... more When the European Union took on ten new member states in 2004, it went through an unprecedented enlargement that raised a number of questions about the future of the EU. The previous enlargements, from the original six member states to nine, then ten, twelve and fifteen states never admitted more than three new members at a time and the new member states had long track records of liberal democracy and market economies – or, in the case of the new Mediterranean member states in the 1980s, at least the latter. The debate about enlargement to formerly communist regimes began as soon as the Berlin Wall fell, and even in its earliest version it centred on the potential effects of a big round of enlargement on the EU's capacity for governance and further integration.1 This coincided with a debate on the prospects for liberal democracy in terms of both party politics and public policy in the Europe's new democracies.2 Apart from the questions about whether a wider Europe might mean...
The brief is a part of the project ‘Europe in transition – Small states and Europe in an age of g... more The brief is a part of the project ‘Europe in transition – Small states and Europe in an age of global shifts (EUNOR).
Parteien, die eine grundsatzlich oder bedingt ablehnende Haltung der europaischen Integration geg... more Parteien, die eine grundsatzlich oder bedingt ablehnende Haltung der europaischen Integration gegenuber vertreten, sind im gesamten politischen Spektrum zu finden. Ein kursorischer Blick auf die europaische Parteienlandschaft zeigt, dass Mitte-Links- und Mitte-Rechts-Parteien eher nicht zur Ubernahme einer grundsatzlich euro-skeptischen Position tendieren, obwohl sie bestimmte Aspekte der europaischen Integration ablehnen mogen, wenn diese programmatischen Zielen zuwiderlaufen. Bis auf einige bedeutende Ausnahmen beschrankt sich die prinzipielle Ablehnung auf Parteien an den Randern des politischen Spektrums bzw. auf Parteien, die spezifische Interessen und Identitaten repr asentieren. Basierend auf der Annahme, dass die Entscheidung einer Partei fur die Annahme einer europa-skeptischen Haltung bzw. deren Modifikation eine strategische ist, untersucht der Beitrag die Wurzeln fur den Euroskeptizismus der Partien und die Dynamiken seiner Unveranderlichkeit bzw. seines Wandels. Die Par...
The Nordic states all participate in European integration, but to different degrees and through s... more The Nordic states all participate in European integration, but to different degrees and through somewhat different institutional arrangements. Finland has been a full European Union (EU) member since 1995, and it is the only one of the four states discussed in this chapter that has adopted the EU’s single currency. Sweden has been a full EU member since 1995, but it decided unilaterally not to adopt the Euro. Denmark, an EU member since 1973, has a formal opt-out from European Monetary Union (EMU) and three other policy areas (citizenship, civil law and defence). Norway is perhaps best describers as a ‘quasi-member’ of the EU: despite two referendum decisions against joining the EU, the country is closely involved in most aspects of EU policy through the European Economic Area (EEA) and Schengen. The fifth Nordic country, Iceland (which is not covered in the present chapter), applied for full EU membership in 2009 (and is in the EEA and Schengen). The four ‘mainland’ states have all held referendums on European integration, and all but Finland have seen their governments defeated by popular vote. This chapter explores the political processes and patterns of Euroscepticism that have produced these different forms of participation in European integration, and some of its practical consequences.1
ABSTRACT The policy tools of counterterrorism reflect both the nature of the terrorist group in q... more ABSTRACT The policy tools of counterterrorism reflect both the nature of the terrorist group in question and the strategies of the actors that engage in counterterrorism. Historically governments have perceived terrorism primarily as a crime, a threat to the state's security or part of a broader political campaign. Accordingly, states have adopted counterterrorism policies based on law enforcement, military or diplomatic strategies, or a combination of these. While international organisations have played a supplementary role in terms of law enforcement and diplomacy, NGOs have, until recently, played a much smaller role in this field. Over the last couple of decades, however, with the rise of ‘sacred terror’ and as many states have accorded more weight to the propaganda element in terrorist campaigns, containment strategies that aim at managing and marginalising the threat have become more prominent. This article explores the increasing role of NGOs in this changing context, and suggests that the policy tools of NGOs are particularly well suited to combating network-type terrorist groups like al-Qa'eda and its franchises because such groups depend on complicit society, a convincing narrative and information asymmetry vis-à-vis their supporters. Here NGOs have distinct advantages because of their potential to credibly challenge terrorist narratives on the ground.
When the European Union took on ten new member states in 2004, it went through an unprecedented e... more When the European Union took on ten new member states in 2004, it went through an unprecedented enlargement that raised a number of questions about the future of the EU. The previous enlargements, from the original six member states to nine, then ten, twelve and fifteen states never admitted more than three new members at a time and the new member states had long track records of liberal democracy and market economies – or, in the case of the new Mediterranean member states in the 1980s, at least the latter. The debate about enlargement to formerly communist regimes began as soon as the Berlin Wall fell, and even in its earliest version it centred on the potential effects of a big round of enlargement on the EU's capacity for governance and further integration.1 This coincided with a debate on the prospects for liberal democracy in terms of both party politics and public policy in the Europe's new democracies.2 Apart from the questions about whether a wider Europe might mean...
The brief is a part of the project ‘Europe in transition – Small states and Europe in an age of g... more The brief is a part of the project ‘Europe in transition – Small states and Europe in an age of global shifts (EUNOR).
Parteien, die eine grundsatzlich oder bedingt ablehnende Haltung der europaischen Integration geg... more Parteien, die eine grundsatzlich oder bedingt ablehnende Haltung der europaischen Integration gegenuber vertreten, sind im gesamten politischen Spektrum zu finden. Ein kursorischer Blick auf die europaische Parteienlandschaft zeigt, dass Mitte-Links- und Mitte-Rechts-Parteien eher nicht zur Ubernahme einer grundsatzlich euro-skeptischen Position tendieren, obwohl sie bestimmte Aspekte der europaischen Integration ablehnen mogen, wenn diese programmatischen Zielen zuwiderlaufen. Bis auf einige bedeutende Ausnahmen beschrankt sich die prinzipielle Ablehnung auf Parteien an den Randern des politischen Spektrums bzw. auf Parteien, die spezifische Interessen und Identitaten repr asentieren. Basierend auf der Annahme, dass die Entscheidung einer Partei fur die Annahme einer europa-skeptischen Haltung bzw. deren Modifikation eine strategische ist, untersucht der Beitrag die Wurzeln fur den Euroskeptizismus der Partien und die Dynamiken seiner Unveranderlichkeit bzw. seines Wandels. Die Par...
The Nordic states all participate in European integration, but to different degrees and through s... more The Nordic states all participate in European integration, but to different degrees and through somewhat different institutional arrangements. Finland has been a full European Union (EU) member since 1995, and it is the only one of the four states discussed in this chapter that has adopted the EU’s single currency. Sweden has been a full EU member since 1995, but it decided unilaterally not to adopt the Euro. Denmark, an EU member since 1973, has a formal opt-out from European Monetary Union (EMU) and three other policy areas (citizenship, civil law and defence). Norway is perhaps best describers as a ‘quasi-member’ of the EU: despite two referendum decisions against joining the EU, the country is closely involved in most aspects of EU policy through the European Economic Area (EEA) and Schengen. The fifth Nordic country, Iceland (which is not covered in the present chapter), applied for full EU membership in 2009 (and is in the EEA and Schengen). The four ‘mainland’ states have all held referendums on European integration, and all but Finland have seen their governments defeated by popular vote. This chapter explores the political processes and patterns of Euroscepticism that have produced these different forms of participation in European integration, and some of its practical consequences.1
Since 1992, the European Union has put liberalisation at the core of its energy policy agenda. Th... more Since 1992, the European Union has put liberalisation at the core of its energy policy agenda. This aspiration was very much in line with an international political economy driven by the neo-liberal (Washington) consensus. The central challenge for the EU is that the energy world has changed, while the EU has not. The rise of Asian energy consumers (China and India), more assertive energy producers (Russia), and the threat of climate change have securitized the IPE of energy, and turned it more 'realist'. The main research question is therefore: 'What does a liberal actor do in a realist world?' The overall answer as far as the EU is concerned is that it approaches energy challenges as a problem of market failure: imperfect competition on the supply side; inadequate supply of public goods on the demand side and in terms of infrastructure; and large externalities that arise both from non-energy events and from large-scale consumption of fossil fuels. A Liberal Actor in a Realist World assesses the changing nature of the global political economy of energy and the European Union's response, and the external dimension of the regulatory state. The book concludes that the EU's soft power has a hard edge, which is derived primarily from its regulatory power. This works best when it targets companies rather than governments, and it is more effective in the 'Near Abroad' than at the global level. This makes the EU emerge an actor in its own right in the global political economy of energy - a 'Regulatory Power Europe'.
MANUSCRIPT VERSION OF Nick Sitter “Absolute Power? Hungary Twenty Years after the Fall of Commu... more MANUSCRIPT VERSION OF Nick Sitter “Absolute Power? Hungary Twenty Years after the Fall of Communism” in Elisabeth Bakke and Ingo Peters (ed.) Twenty Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall (Berlin: Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, 2011)
Svein S. Andersen and Nick SItter, in G. Fermann (ed) Energy and institution-building in Europe, ... more Svein S. Andersen and Nick SItter, in G. Fermann (ed) Energy and institution-building in Europe, Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, 2009
This chapter first discusses the EU as an actor in global energy, and shows that the EU – short o... more This chapter first discusses the EU as an actor in global energy, and shows that the EU – short of a strong set of policy tools – relies more than other players on exporting its own rules. It then explores the areas in which the Commission is capable of exerting (regulatory) external power in the energy sector. Next, it assesses the Commission's actions with regards to the challenges facing the EU along the energy value chain: upstream, midstream and downstream. Here, it pays most attention to the assessing the reach of the ‘regulatory state’ in the energy sector. A last section concludes the argument, and suggests that the Commission is emerging as an international actor that relies on the attractiveness of the EU’s domestic market in order to exert power beyond it.
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