Daniel Wincott's article issues a welcome challenge to liberal intergovernmentalist (I) ... more Daniel Wincott's article issues a welcome challenge to liberal intergovernmentalist (I) explanations of European integration.'He offers a bold, wide-ranging and insightful critique, posing questions not just of theoretical and empirical interest, but of philosophical and methodological import as well. Wincott is correct that LI, as currently elaborated, would profit from greater rigour and refinement and cannot account for all aspects of European integration. His focus on the complex issues that arise when power is delegated to ...
The Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) that produced the Treaty of Amsterdam was from the start a... more The Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) that produced the Treaty of Amsterdam was from the start a negotiation in search of a purpose. Large-scale negotiations in EU history-from the Treaty of Rome to Maastricht-have usually centred on a major substantive agenda, normally either trade liberalization or exchange-rate stabilization, with secondary issues and institutional changes dragged in its wake. In the Amsterdam IGC, by contrast, there was no compelling reason to negotiate these particular issues at this particular time. The Member ...
Yet he was doomed from the start. Right-wing MPs engineered his election as party leader two year... more Yet he was doomed from the start. Right-wing MPs engineered his election as party leader two years ago to block more eminent centrists, Kenneth Clarke and Michael Portillo, despised by the hard-core Thatcherites. A political unknown, Duncan Smith was not considered electable as a prime minister. He was perceived as a right-winger in a right-wing party who could not secure agreement on a party program. At question time, Blair managed to make him appear nasty yet impotent. Above all, he seemed unable to fully exploit Blair's weakness on Iraq and public- ...
Jan. 10 issue-The new year will bring new faces to the administration in Washington, as well as a... more Jan. 10 issue-The new year will bring new faces to the administration in Washington, as well as a new European Commission in Brussels. Hopes for a warmer relationship are rising on both sides of the Atlantic. Can the United States and Europe pursue a common agenda? Or is the West destined to endure another half-decade of discord? At first glance, optimism seems unwarranted.
“THE ADVENT AND CONTINUED DEVELOPMENT of the internet (or Web) provides a tremendous boon for tea... more “THE ADVENT AND CONTINUED DEVELOPMENT of the internet (or Web) provides a tremendous boon for teachers of the EU. Benefits include the availability of vast new sources of information for use in the classroom or for student projects. The Web provides teachers and students with direct and quick assess to official documentation and even policy makers. It also creates new possibilities for teaching courses on the EU, allowing teachers and students to transcend the limitations of distance and time that constrain conventional ...
The ambitious Treaty on the Constitution for Europe was the outcome of a complex bargaining proce... more The ambitious Treaty on the Constitution for Europe was the outcome of a complex bargaining process involving all twenty-five governments of the enlarged European Union. Notwithstanding the problems of ratification that have emerged since, the treaty was a significant achievement, because it required difficult concessions on issues on which governments had privately and publicly committed themselves. We argue that such commitments are an important element of intergovernmental bargaining, but that public ...
You will find that I am less enthusiastic about encouraging democratic participation and delibera... more You will find that I am less enthusiastic about encouraging democratic participation and deliberation than my colleagues, particularly Professor Føllesdal. As I have chosen a more populist mode of presentation today, I hope I don't insult anybody's intelligence by summarizing academic research in a relatively non-academic way.
The process of European integration that has produced the European Union (eu) is the most ambitio... more The process of European integration that has produced the European Union (eu) is the most ambitious and most successful example of peaceful international cooperation in world history, In the last half-century, Europe has liberalized trade, coordinated macroeconomie policies, and centralized regulatory decision-making. The single market and single currency mean that most new western European laws and regulations covering commercial and financial matters no¥/originate in Brussels rather than in national capitals. A majority of ...
Unrepentant idealists in the European Parliament propose to relaunch the debate on common Europea... more Unrepentant idealists in the European Parliament propose to relaunch the debate on common European values, promulgate a revised but comprehensive constitution, and hold another referendum–this time on a continental scale. National leaders, they claim, are paralysed and confused and only the Europeans can kick-start the process again. Pundits echo them, proclaiming that the EU faces an institutional crisis.
China's growing military and economic power has become something of an American obsession. R... more China's growing military and economic power has become something of an American obsession. Recent books, like" Red Dragon" or" The China Threat," combined with warnings from Washington—like the Pentagon's designation of China as an emerging" peer competitor"—have contributed to an abiding sense of fear. Analysts such as Robert Kaplan, pointing to Beijing's rising defense spending, now caution that" the American military contest with China in the Pacific will define the 21st century."
This memo outlines the liberal approach to theorizing international relations. Like realism, inst... more This memo outlines the liberal approach to theorizing international relations. Like realism, institutionalism, or non-rational approaches, it is a name given to a family of related theories of international relations. Here it will not be used, as many use it in international relations, to designate theories that stress the importance of international institutions. Nor to designate theories that stress the importance of universal, altruistic or utopian values of a liberal sort, such as human rights or democracy. Nor to designate theories favored by left-wing (“ ...
It is fashionable to view the global system in the 21 st century as dominated by the US, China an... more It is fashionable to view the global system in the 21 st century as dominated by the US, China and India. How many times have we read that “the most important relationship in the 21 st century is that between Washington and Beijing”? 2 Or that the “rise of the rest” is the great phenomenon of our time? 3 Europe's reputation for sluggish economic and demographic growth and weak military forces has convinced most foreign analysts that the future belongs to Asia and the US. 4 Some analysts concede that the 21 st century could ...
Daniel Wincott's article issues a welcome challenge to liberal intergovernmentalist (I) ... more Daniel Wincott's article issues a welcome challenge to liberal intergovernmentalist (I) explanations of European integration.'He offers a bold, wide-ranging and insightful critique, posing questions not just of theoretical and empirical interest, but of philosophical and methodological import as well. Wincott is correct that LI, as currently elaborated, would profit from greater rigour and refinement and cannot account for all aspects of European integration. His focus on the complex issues that arise when power is delegated to ...
The Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) that produced the Treaty of Amsterdam was from the start a... more The Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) that produced the Treaty of Amsterdam was from the start a negotiation in search of a purpose. Large-scale negotiations in EU history-from the Treaty of Rome to Maastricht-have usually centred on a major substantive agenda, normally either trade liberalization or exchange-rate stabilization, with secondary issues and institutional changes dragged in its wake. In the Amsterdam IGC, by contrast, there was no compelling reason to negotiate these particular issues at this particular time. The Member ...
Yet he was doomed from the start. Right-wing MPs engineered his election as party leader two year... more Yet he was doomed from the start. Right-wing MPs engineered his election as party leader two years ago to block more eminent centrists, Kenneth Clarke and Michael Portillo, despised by the hard-core Thatcherites. A political unknown, Duncan Smith was not considered electable as a prime minister. He was perceived as a right-winger in a right-wing party who could not secure agreement on a party program. At question time, Blair managed to make him appear nasty yet impotent. Above all, he seemed unable to fully exploit Blair's weakness on Iraq and public- ...
Jan. 10 issue-The new year will bring new faces to the administration in Washington, as well as a... more Jan. 10 issue-The new year will bring new faces to the administration in Washington, as well as a new European Commission in Brussels. Hopes for a warmer relationship are rising on both sides of the Atlantic. Can the United States and Europe pursue a common agenda? Or is the West destined to endure another half-decade of discord? At first glance, optimism seems unwarranted.
“THE ADVENT AND CONTINUED DEVELOPMENT of the internet (or Web) provides a tremendous boon for tea... more “THE ADVENT AND CONTINUED DEVELOPMENT of the internet (or Web) provides a tremendous boon for teachers of the EU. Benefits include the availability of vast new sources of information for use in the classroom or for student projects. The Web provides teachers and students with direct and quick assess to official documentation and even policy makers. It also creates new possibilities for teaching courses on the EU, allowing teachers and students to transcend the limitations of distance and time that constrain conventional ...
The ambitious Treaty on the Constitution for Europe was the outcome of a complex bargaining proce... more The ambitious Treaty on the Constitution for Europe was the outcome of a complex bargaining process involving all twenty-five governments of the enlarged European Union. Notwithstanding the problems of ratification that have emerged since, the treaty was a significant achievement, because it required difficult concessions on issues on which governments had privately and publicly committed themselves. We argue that such commitments are an important element of intergovernmental bargaining, but that public ...
You will find that I am less enthusiastic about encouraging democratic participation and delibera... more You will find that I am less enthusiastic about encouraging democratic participation and deliberation than my colleagues, particularly Professor Føllesdal. As I have chosen a more populist mode of presentation today, I hope I don't insult anybody's intelligence by summarizing academic research in a relatively non-academic way.
The process of European integration that has produced the European Union (eu) is the most ambitio... more The process of European integration that has produced the European Union (eu) is the most ambitious and most successful example of peaceful international cooperation in world history, In the last half-century, Europe has liberalized trade, coordinated macroeconomie policies, and centralized regulatory decision-making. The single market and single currency mean that most new western European laws and regulations covering commercial and financial matters no¥/originate in Brussels rather than in national capitals. A majority of ...
Unrepentant idealists in the European Parliament propose to relaunch the debate on common Europea... more Unrepentant idealists in the European Parliament propose to relaunch the debate on common European values, promulgate a revised but comprehensive constitution, and hold another referendum–this time on a continental scale. National leaders, they claim, are paralysed and confused and only the Europeans can kick-start the process again. Pundits echo them, proclaiming that the EU faces an institutional crisis.
China's growing military and economic power has become something of an American obsession. R... more China's growing military and economic power has become something of an American obsession. Recent books, like" Red Dragon" or" The China Threat," combined with warnings from Washington—like the Pentagon's designation of China as an emerging" peer competitor"—have contributed to an abiding sense of fear. Analysts such as Robert Kaplan, pointing to Beijing's rising defense spending, now caution that" the American military contest with China in the Pacific will define the 21st century."
This memo outlines the liberal approach to theorizing international relations. Like realism, inst... more This memo outlines the liberal approach to theorizing international relations. Like realism, institutionalism, or non-rational approaches, it is a name given to a family of related theories of international relations. Here it will not be used, as many use it in international relations, to designate theories that stress the importance of international institutions. Nor to designate theories that stress the importance of universal, altruistic or utopian values of a liberal sort, such as human rights or democracy. Nor to designate theories favored by left-wing (“ ...
It is fashionable to view the global system in the 21 st century as dominated by the US, China an... more It is fashionable to view the global system in the 21 st century as dominated by the US, China and India. How many times have we read that “the most important relationship in the 21 st century is that between Washington and Beijing”? 2 Or that the “rise of the rest” is the great phenomenon of our time? 3 Europe's reputation for sluggish economic and demographic growth and weak military forces has convinced most foreign analysts that the future belongs to Asia and the US. 4 Some analysts concede that the 21 st century could ...
This article reformulates liberal international relations (IR) theory in a nonideological and non... more This article reformulates liberal international relations (IR) theory in a nonideological and nonutopian form appropriate to empirical social science. Liberal IR theory elaborates the insight that state-society relations—the relationship of states to the domestic and transna-tional social context in which they are embedded—have a fundamental impact on state behavior in world politics. Societal ideas, interests, and institutions influence state behavior by shaping state preferences, that is, the fundamental social purposes underlying the strategic calculations of governments. For liberals, the configuration of state preferences matters most in world politics—not, as realists argue, the configuration of capabilities and not, as institutionalists (that is, functional regime theorists) maintain, the configuration of information and institutions. This article codifies this basic liberal insight in the form of three core theoretical assumptions, derives from them three variants of liberal theory, and demonstrates that the existence of a coherent liberal theory has significant theoretical, methodologi-cal, and empirical implications. Restated in this way, liberal theory deserves to be treated as a paradigmatic alternative empirically coequal with and analytically more fundamental than the two dominant theories in contemporary IR scholarship: realism and insti-tutionalism., and three anonymous referees. I thank also two other critics: Peter Katzenstein encouraged a more direct comparison with constructivist approaches and John Mearsheimer invited me to state the liberal case visa `-vis realism in a series of public debates. I am also indebted to participants in seminars at the
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