CEPS Working Documents


91 - 120 of 246
15 May 2008

The US has been and continues to be simultaneously a guardian of international norms; a norm entrepreneur challenging prevailing norms as insufficient; a norm externaliser when it tries to advance norms for others that it is reluctant to apply to itself; and a norm blocker when it comes to issues that may threaten its position, or that exacerbate divisions among conflicting currents of American domestic thought.

09 May 2008

The EU routinely asserts that the promotion of democracy and human rights is central to its international identity. However, while in some places the EU has a relatively strong record as a supporter of democratic values, it is failing to respond effectively to the emergence of a vastly more challenging environment for democracy promotion.

23 April 2008

With the Eastern Enlargement successfully completed, the EU is searching for a proper balance between internal security and external stabilisation that is acceptable to all sides. This paper focuses on an EU foreign policy instrument that is a case in point for this struggle: EC visa facilitation and readmission agreements. By looking on the EU's strategy on visa facilitation and readmission, this paper aims at offering a first systematic analysis of the objectives, substance and political implications of these agreements.

14 April 2008

The European Commission’s proposals for a European Border Management Strategy are based on an almost blind faith in the use of large-scale databases, identification measures and biometrics for immigration and border control purposes. Yet these measures entail a risk to the protection of not only the right to privacy and the right to data protection, but also to the freedom of movement and the principle of non-discrimination.

08 April 2008

The EU advocates a policy that includes a great deal of human rights promotion and support for Russian NGOs. The question for EU policy-makers is no longer whether but how to manage NGO involvement in a way that induces necessary changes in Russia’s human rights behaviour.

03 April 2008

In recent decades the EU has widened and deepened to such an extent that it now deals in almost all areas of policy-making. Its budget, however, has barely changed over this period. It thus needs to be radically reformed if it is to reflect the priorities of an expanding and deepening Union. Over 40% of spending still supports agriculture, a declining sector; spending for research and innovation, recognised as the main driving force of productivity growth, is too low, and there is no room in the budget for the new public goods of domestic and external security that the public demands.

22 February 2008

In this Working Document, Stefano Micossi, Director General of Assonime, argues that once the Union is recognised for what it is – an innovative polity, where power is shared by a large number of players with many participation and influence-wielding mechanisms, – it becomes apparent that on the whole it complies with democratic legitimisation standards no less than do member states, even if multiple, and potentially conflicting legitimisation channels and principles may confuse observers.

19 February 2008

This paper analyses India’s behaviour as a foreign policy actor by looking at India’s changing relations over the past decade with the EU, US, China, Japan, Myanmar, Pakistan, Nepal and, in a historical departure, the former princely state of Sikkim. It argues that though India has almost always been a normative actor, Indian foreign policy is today transiting from abstract, and frequently ‘unrealpolitik,’ views of what constitutes normative behaviour.

19 February 2008

This working paper argues that Russia is in the process of re-branding itself internationally, with a variety of normative arguments increasingly creeping into its wider international discourse. By appealing to norms, Russia tries to reformulate the key messages it sends to the world and implant the concept of its power worldwide. Yet given that Russia’s normative messages are often met with scarce enthusiasm in Europe, it is of utmost importance to uncover how the normative segment in Russian foreign policy is perceived, evaluated and debated both inside Russia and elsewhere.

19 February 2008

Although China’s foreign policy behaviour is often judged in terms of its compliance with Western norms, the evolution of China’s own norms merits serious attention. From early times to the present day, China’s international action has been structured in terms of norms. When China’s recent behaviour is described in terms of the normative structure proposed by Tocci, its unique perspective is highlighted, though tentative questions concerning the structure are also raised.

07 February 2008

This paper assesses the achievements of the European Commission and the member states over the last six years in the management of Europe's internal and external borders. The key stages in the development of the Schengen acquis are identified, including the creation of FRONTEX (the EU agency responsible for coordinating the operational cooperation between member states in the field of border security) and the recent Schengen enlargement.

23 January 2008

This is the second in a series of papers from a new project entitled “Who is a normative foreign policy actor? The European Union and its Global Partners”. The first paper – entitled Profiling Normative Foreign Policy: The European Union and its Global Partners, by Nathalie Tocci, CEPS Working Document No. 279, December 2007 – set out the conceptual framework for exploring this question.

21 January 2008

This paper provides background information on the likely challenges the rise of China and India will pose for the economy of the EU. The purpose is mainly descriptive, namely to spell out what kind of trading partner China and India will represent for the EU in the foreseeable future. A first observation is that India is several times smaller than China in economic terms. Moreover, because its investment rates in both human and physical capital are much lower than in China, its growth potential is likely to remain more limited.

20 November 2007

While energy security has gradually been incorporated into the EU's foreign policy calculus, the declared approach of extending a nexus of 'market-governance' energy norms has been realised only to a limited extent. The EU has eschewed a comprehensively political approach to energy security, with its energy security policy currently hovering ineffectively between market and geopolitical approaches. The EU needs more effectively to address the way that governance structures in producer states impact upon European energy interests.

22 October 2007

The EU has increasingly committed itself to fusing security and development. Developmental approaches to security are routinely seen as integral to the EU’s distinctive foreign policy identity. This paper finds, however, that much work remains to be done to implement this commitment. Few in the EU would doubt that development and security go hand in hand, but differences abound over what this implies for the allocation of finite resources and the nature of diplomatic engagements.

02 October 2007

This paper presents a composite indicator for euro area housing prices and compares its evolution over the long run with that of the US. The main findings are two-fold:
1. The euro area average index of real housing prices has risen almost as much as that of the US and is now (as is also the case with that of the US) about 40% above its 30-year average. This is similar to the overvaluation of Japanese real estate at the height of the Japanese bubble, which was then followed by over a decade of decline.

19 July 2007

This paper examines the EU’s external power through the prism of perceptions by non-EU countries, as shown in the case of this paper in the Western Balkans. The paper argues that the EU’s policy in the Western Balkans lacks a strong normative justification, which affects the degree of compliance with the EU’s demands in areas related to state sovereignty. The perceived lack of legitimacy opens up political space for domestic actors to contest the positions taken by the EU on normative grounds.

16 July 2007

Rarely has an EU Presidency been met with such high expectations as Germany’s in the first half of 2007. With hindsight, it might be said that these expectations have largely been fulfilled. The agreement on a detailed mandate for the upcoming Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) under the Portuguese Presidency now offers a way forward for a Union that has been ‘in crisis’ since the French and Dutch no-votes. This report offers an overview of the German Presidency’s aims in the various policy areas and makes an assessment of the achievements of its six-month term.

02 July 2007

Since the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the EU in January 2007, the South Caucasus has become a region of direct concern to the EU’s strategy in its wider neighbourhood. This study examines the trends affecting EU policies in the South Caucasus, with a specific focus on EU–Azerbaijan relations.

25 June 2007

Since the end of the cold war until 2004, Europe and America’s strategic outlooks towards the European neighbourhood ran largely in parallel. Washington’s foreign policy mantra was that of a Europe ‘whole and free’, where the dividing lines inherited from the cold war were to dissolve through the gradual inclusion of Central Europe in the Euro-Atlantic family of nations.

12 June 2007

Syria is almost unique among Arab states in that the only variant of political Islam to be found here is state–sanctioned. This paper observes how the trends, tendencies and central figures of political Islam in Syria have positioned themselves with regard to relations with Europe, the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and European Neighbourhood Policy.

03 May 2007

Focusing on the internal and geo-political dimensions of Armenia’s road to democracy, this paper considers the decision-making structure, the role of leadership, the development of political parties and various changes in Armenian civil society. We aim to shed light on the role of the EU in the democratisation process by looking at the relationship between Brussels and Yerevan, at the instruments and strategies in operation, such as the European Neighbourhood Policy, and at the wider international context in which these changes are taking place.

12 April 2007

This working paper is based on a contribution made to a conference on “Political Islam and the European Union” organised by CEPS and La Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior (FRIDE) and hosted by the Fundación Tres Culturas in Sevilla on 24-25 November 2006. At this conference, Arab and Turkish scholars presented papers on the ‘Muslim democrat’ political parties of the Arab Mediterranean states and Turkey.

10 April 2007

The social, political and economic power of moderate Middle East and North African Islamist movements has been growing for a generation or so. The question of how to deal with Islamists who reject violence, embrace democracy and outperform their competitors at the polls has therefore become a central concern not only of incumbent Middle East elites, but also of interested foreign actors such as the EU and US. Robert Springborg sees the need for the EU to clarify its policies towards the MENA region and Muslim democrats within it.

03 April 2007

Recent investigations, not least by the EP Temporary Committee, have shed light on the illegal practice of extraordinary renditions and unlawful detentions by foreign security services on European territory, suggesting that the line between cooperation and complicity has become blurred. This paper addresses the issue of how EU member states could not resist taking advantage of extraordinary renditions and unlawful detentions and how they still profit from such practice. Recent examples of this kind of profiteering are provided, together with an assessment of their legality.