Tag: International Relations

Ein Vorschlag zum Status der Krim

Ein Beitrag für das IPG Journal,7.4.2014

Die Zukunft der Ukraine entscheidet sich nicht auf der Krim. Deshalb wäre eine Strategie des Westens verfehlt, die Russland aufgrund der völkerrechtswidrigen Krim-Annexion nicht an der Neugestaltung des post-revolutionären ukrainischen Staates beteiligt. Sie würde die Ukraine zum Opfer einer neuen Ost-West-Konfrontation machen. Gegenwärtig sind die westlichen Staaten und Russland jedoch in einer Blockadekonstellation, die vor allem den russischen und ukrainischen Nationalisten in Russland und der Ukraine in die Hände spielt. read more

Germany’s Role in Timoshenko’s Release from Prison

Interview with Evgen Tei’ze, Deutsche Welle, Ukrainian-language service, 21.11.2013

European diplomatic pressure led the Ukrainian government to release the former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko from prison. How the German government assesses this decision in view of a pending ruling the European Court of Human Rights will declare on Timoshenko’s imprisonment.

A Eurasian European Union?

Relaunching Post-Soviet Economic Integration

A paper presented at the ECPR General Conference 4-7 September 2013, Bourdeaux, European Consortium for Political Research

Abstract In November 2011, the presidents of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia agreed to establish a “Eurasian Economic Commission” (EAEK) charged with the development and functioning of the Customs Union and a “Single Economic Space” comprising the three states. Their presidents and other political actors referred to the European Union and its formation to frame these projects and the envisaged creation of a “Eurasian Union” until 2015. The paper studies how these references are emulated in Russian public discourse and the legal regulation of the EAEK. Combining theories of policy transfer and gradual institutional change, the paper conceptualizes different modes of emulation. A weak authority of the EU model and weak powers of integration advocates suggest a “facade emulation” where formal similarities coexist with persisting inherited practices and behavioral patterns. This hypothesis is confirmed by (1) labeling and framing strategies that relate the EU model to familiar ideas in Russian political culture and previous initiatives of post-Soviet integration and (2) a limited emulation of labels and organizational structures from the EU within an essentially intergovernmentalist institutional arrangement. Go to project page Download paper:Brusis_EurasianEuropeanUnion

Trade Liberalization and Democracy

A Research Note for the Policy Planning Staff, Federal Foreign Office of Germany, 10 June 2013

Summary:

The aim of the proposed study is to analyze whether trade liberalization has facilitated market economy and democracy, how to reinforce this impact through complementary policies and how to use trade liberalization to achieve a democratization in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. This study is to be elaborated in a cooperation between economists and political scientists, and its findings / policy recommendations are to be discussed and agreed with scholars from France and Poland. To organize this cooperation, the research questions need to be addressed and operationalized in different modules. read more