Turkey and the EU

The dual revolution in Turkish politics and the role of the European Union / Mario Zucconi. - Rome : Ethnobarometer, c2005. - 57 p. - (The Ethnobarometer working papers series ; 10). - ISBN 88-88235-09-4
This is the third report dedicated to Turkey by Ethnobarometer, the international network that carries out research on inter-ethnic policies and migration, in the framework of its programme of studies on southeastern Europe.
The study delves into matters already touched upon in the first two reports - the Kurdish question and the recent transformations in the country - putting the emphasis on Turkey's links with Europe and the role played in those transformations by the European Union's external conditionalities. The author asserts that the former would not have been possible without the latter and concludes by inviting European analysts and officials to focus more attention on internal factors and political mechanisms in candidate countries with which European conditionality could interact, given its enormous potential.

L'Europe avec ou sans la Turquie / Deniz Akagül, Semih Vaner. - Paris : Éditions d'Organisation, c2005. - X, 163 p. - ISBN 2-7081-3350-0
This slim volume - probably not necessarily meant for a specialist readership, even though it is written by two academics - looks into the geo-cultural and political aspects of Turkey's entry into the European Union, in an attempt to help the reader shape a personal opinion.
It is divided into three sections: the first presents the debate in France (up to the eve of the French referendum), the subjects debated and the resulting fragmentation of the domestic political scene; the second shifts attention to the debate in the European institutions and the member countries, as well as to the (mistrustful) Turkish public opinion; the third section provides the reader with an overall view of the economic advantages and disadvantages of Turkish integration and a survey of the negotiations that opened in October 2005.
The authors conclude by affirming that, while it is impossible to predict whether Europe will be with or without Turkey, it is already possible to imagine what Europe would be like with or without it.

Introduction to Turkish law / edited by Tugrul Ansay and Don Wallace Jr. - 5. ed. - The Hague : Kluwer Law International, c2005. - xvi, 244 p. - ISBN 90-411-23164
This is a textbook for second semestre law students at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, but at the same time was conceived - and could objectively be useful - as an introduction to the basic elements of Turkish law for foreign scholars and jurists. It is now in its fifth edition, reflecting the continual changes in Turkish law and, particularly, the recent efforts made in adapting it to the prerequisites for possible adhesion to the European Union.
The book is broken down into eleven chapters, written by as many Turkish experts, on the main principles, branches and institutions of Turkish law: the sources; constitutional law; administrative law; civil law [law of persons]; legal persons, firms and companies; family law; inheritance law; property, law of obligations; penal law; law of procedure.
The volume is endowed with a selected bibliography of English texts for non-Turkish readers

La politica di sicurezza esterna dell'Unione europea / Criseide Novi. - Padova : CEDAM, 2005. - XVIII, 474 p. - (Diritto internazionale e ordine mondiale ; 9). - ISBN 88-13-25965-4
A broad-ranging compendium and analysis of the external security policy of the European Union, taken to mean the set of instruments created by the Union to deal with situations perceived as threatening to its member states and/or the international peace.
It comprises eight chapters: the first analyses the antecedents of the CFSP, that is European Political Cooperation born in the seventies; the general characteristics of CFSP and their place within the EU are the object of the second; the third deals with the internal functioning of CFSP and, more in detail, the decision-making, executive and control functions; the fourth analyses the instruments the Union uses to assert its voice on the international political scene; the fifth defines the legal nature of CFSP in its three aspects of a mechanism for cooperation and for management of a legal personality and an instrument for harmonisation among member states; in the sixth, the focus shifts to the contribution of the so-called first pillar - the European Community - to the EU's external security policy; while the seventh considers the military and defence dimension, that is European security and defence policy. Finally, the eighth and last chapter deals with the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe and the changes it brings about in CFSP and ESDP.
The conclusion of the author, a lecturer in international law at Foggia, is that CFSP is moving towards a personification of the Union in that sector to favour the creation of a real Union policy destined to flank national policies.
The volume is completed by a rich critical apparatus and a 34-page strong bibliography.

Islam, NATO, terrorism

Dal dialogo alla partnership : la sicurezza nel Mediterraneo e la Nato: prospettive future / Senato della Repubblica. Ufficio rapporti organismi internazionali. - Roma : Senato della Repubblica, c2005. - VI, 153, p. - (Quaderni europei e internazionali ; 2)
NATO and weapons of mass destruction : regional alliance, global threats / Eric Terzuolo. - London : Routledge, 2006. - xvi, 246 p. - (Contemporary security studies). - ISBN 0-415-37963-6
Two different views of the role of the Alliance in the fight against new threats. The first is the product of a seminar organised in Rome in September 2002 by Italy's parliamentary delegation to NATO - the so-called "parliamentary diplomacy". The seminar was based on an introduction by NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson and talks by Roberto Aliboni, Vice President of the IAI, and Abdel Monem Said Aly, director of the Al Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo. An ample debate followed. Of note is that on that occasion already - long before the intervention in Iraq - a plea was made for more mature and stable forms of cooperation, if not real partnership, to be extended to the security sphere and the need for a strategy to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict as a political precondition for starting that partnership.
The second text is an original research study focused on WMD proliferation and NATO's ability to deal with these and other post- 9/11 threats. Above all, it considers the limits of the Alliance as an anti-proliferation organisation: its scarce attention to measures for countering chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats in the individual member countries; difficulties in interfacing with multilateral non-proliferation mechanisms, export control regimes and other international agencies; the lack of a definition of its role in the context of an evolving security and of the geographic framework in which it is to operate, etc. The author tries to establish how NATO should strengthen its diplomatic and political efforts to prevent and combat proliferation, define new rules of collective security to deal with non-state actors, establish the basis for the "pre-emptive" or "preventive" use of force.

The Muslim world after 9/11 /Angel M. Rabasa ... [et al.]. - Santa Monica, CA : RAND Corporation, c2004. - xl, 525 p. - ISBN 0-8330-3534
This huge volume presents a research study carried out in 2003 - and later updated - in the framework of one of the four study programmes of the RAND Project Air Force (PAF), a division of the RAND Corporation financed by the US Air Force.
The aim of the study was to provide an overview of the events that impact on the Muslim world, but also and especially to analyse the basic trends that determine them and to outline a possible strategy for the US in this field. More in detail, the study intends to:

a) develop a typology of ideological orientations in the various regions of the Muslim world in order to be able to identify the sectors in which the US can operate to promote democracy and stability, countering extremist and violent tendencies;
b) identify the main cleavages in the Muslim world, for example between the Shia and the Sunni or between Arabs and non-Arabs, tribes and clans, in an attempt to spot areas of strategic leverage for the United States;
c) examine the factors causing Islamic radicalism, classified in conditions, catalytical events and processes (for example, the development of networks of Muslim individuals and associations and the emergence of regional media via satellite dishes).

The strategic options proposed by the study to defend the interests and the security of the United States in the Muslim world are to "promote moderate network creation; disrupt radical networks; foster madrassa and mosque reform; expand economic opportunities; support "civil Islam"; deny resources to extremists; balance the requirements of the war on terrorism and of stability and democracy in moderate Muslim countries; seek to engage Islamists in normal politics; engage Muslim diasporas; rebuild close military-to-military relations with key countries; build appropriate military capabilities" [sic].
The chapters following the analysis (Overview) apply the conceptual framework to the following regions: Arab Middle East, Maghreb, Turkey, Pakistan, India, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Western Africa, communities and Muslim networks abroad.

Pakistan and the emergence of Islamic militancy in Afghanistan / Rizwan Hussain. - Aldershot : Ashgate, c2005. - xiii, 288 p. - ISBN 0-7546-4434-0
This interesting studies applies a historical methodological approach to the panorama of relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan since the birth of the Pakistani state (1947) to date, analysing the involvement of the former in Afghan domestic politics especially during the anti-Soviet period, and the relations between Pakistani elites and the Talibans.
The essay, based on a plurality of sources, including interviews, is broken down into seven chapters: the first is a historical introduction to relations between the Indian sub-continent and Afghanistan from the Mogul period to 1947, in particular the 19th Century; the second takes into consideration the period 1947 -1978 (the year in which Zia-ul-Haq came to power) with particular reference to the Pashtunistan question and the role played by the nature of the new state in its external relations; chapter three concentrates on the military regime of Zia-ul-Haq and especially the support provided Afghan dissidents after 1978 (the coup in Kabul); the fourth chapter examines the period following Zia's exit (1988) and the end of the Soviet Union (1991); the fifth chapter studies Pakistan's approach to its neighbour and the role played in support of the Taliban throughout the Rabbani period (1992-96); the sixth chapter highlights the help given by Pakistan to the prosperity of the Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001, the Taliban-Pakistani religious groups-Pakistani army triangulation and the Taliban-Pakistan-US one, the US' policy of containment towards Iran and its effects on the Pakistan-Afghanistan connection and, finally, the changes in Pakistani policy towards the Taliban after 11 September 2001. The seventh chapter concludes on a slightly pessimistic note: the picture is evolving but, as the historical evidence shows, the interests in and the regional and extra-regional influences on the Afghan state continue and make the future development of the Afghan crisis unpredictable.

Terrorism and counter-terrorism : impact on defence and other security systems / edited by Joonas Sipilä and Erko Mikkola. - Helsinki, Maanpuolustuskorkeakoulu, 2004. - 94 p. - (Series 2: Research reports ; 25). - ISBN 951-25-1498-2
International terrorism and Finland / Toby Archer. - Helsinki : UPI [Finnish Institute of International Affairs], 2004. - 107 p. - (FIIA reports ; 2004/7). - ISBN 951-769-155-6
Two books that present the same case-study in the field of studies on Islamism and the fight against terrorism: Finland. This reflects the concern of the Finns in the wake of the attack on Helsinki in October 2002.
The first contains the proceedings - slightly out of date but still interesting - of a seminar organised by the Finnish National Defence College in Suomenlinna, Finland, on 5-6 June 2003. The aim of the seminar was to gather international opinions, ideas and suggestions on the new anti-terrorism emergency, thereby contributing to a greater opening of Finnish strategic studies to foreign experience.
The book, like the seminar, is divided into four parts: the first, called "Worldwide response" defines the concepts of terrorism and anti-terrorism, with particular emphasis on the US view and the role of the United Nations; the second focuses on Europe and organisations such as NATO, the EU and the OSCE; in the third part, attention is turned to the individual states and in particular the response of Great Britain, Russia and Germany; the fourth and final part is devoted to possible solutions and in particular the Finnish experience with the Total Defence concept.
The second book is a study of the implications of international terrorism in Finland. On the basis of a functional definition of terrorism tout court ("use of violence, or threat of violence, by non-state actors in an effort to influence, persuade, cower or destroy a society or state, in pursuit of some political, ideological o religious aim"), the report focuses on Islamist terrorism, a term preferred to the perhaps more common "Islamic terrorism". The author seems to identify the anti-Soviet conflict in Afghanistan as the main source fuelling the phenomenon, which gathered together and forged hosts of Islamists, marginalised and oppressed by their countries of origin and subsequently - after the fall of the Soviet Union - scattered throughout the world to form the first nuclei of a terrorist network. Considered of no less importance is the marginalisation of the Muslims, above all the young, in Europe.
The study examines the measures taken by the large international organisations such as the UN, the EU and NATO, deducing that the success of anti-terrorist cooperation lies above all in the relations between intelligence and law enforcement agencies. As for Finland, the author concludes that, even though the country is not one of the prime objectives of international terrorism, nor one of the easier ones, the risk of an attack cannot reasonably be ruled out.

Development and aid

Beyond transition : development perspectives and dilemmas / edited by Marek Dabrowski, Ben Slay, Jaroslaw Neneman. - Aldershot : Ashgate, c2004. - xxiv, 283 p. - (Transition and development). - ISBN 0-7546-39703
The book brings together (18) selected papers presented at a conference by the same title, organised in Falenty (Poland) by the Center for Social and Economic Research, Warsaw, in April 2003. The papers/chapters can be grouped into five thematic groups: the first six chapters investigate various aspects of the monetary policies of the emerging markets, to see whether the countries of eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America can maintain independent monetary policies or whether they should join one of the major currencies (dollar/euro). The second group (chap. 7-9) deals with reform of the labour market. Chapters 10 and 11 are devoted to fiscal reform in the transition economies. The fourth bloc (chap. 13-15) is concerned with the rules and practice of corporate governance: theoretical foundations and practical examples, policies and institutional measures, framework laws and the privatisation process. The fifth and last group of chapters (16-18) deals with the influence of European enlargement on post-communist countries and the protectionist tendencies of the EU with regard to the CIS, with a reflection on the prospects of interaction between the EU and non-candidate countries.

Catalysing development? A debate on aid / Jan P. Pronk et al. - Oxford : Blackwell, 2004. - xii, 213 p. - (Development and change special issues). ISBN 1- 4051-2119-X
This interesting and thought-provoking text starts out from a series of articles published in "Development and change", the journal of the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, and represents a kind of round table response to a paper by Jan P. Pronk, who also authored the conclusions ("a rejoinder") to the debate.
Pronk's main thesis is that aid does not generate development but may act as a catalyst, contributing to the search for the right way to reach development. "At this juncture, what is required is a special focus in aid policy on social harmony, political stability and peace, as preconditions for economic growth and development not the other way around".
A number of commentators are called upon to react to this statement, each analysing different aspects of development aid from diverse theoretical and political points of view. The results are various conclusions and proposals, that all start out, however, from the assumption that aid in its current configuration is not achieving the desired results.

La cooperation au dévelopement de la Communauté européenne / Francesc Granell. - 2. éd. - Bruxelles : Éditions de l'Université de Bruxelles, 2005. - 475 p. - (Etudes européennes. Commentaire J. Mégret : le droit de la CE et de l'Union européenne ; 13). - ISBN 2-8004-1354-9
An amply revised version of two volumes on development aid published in 1986 and 1990 as part of the "Commentaire J. Mégret" series. The situation and the instruments have indeed changed since the first edition came out: the European Community - now with 25 rather than 12 members - has become one of the principal actors in development cooperation and the prime importer from the Third World, the Lomé accords have been replaced by the Cotonou partnership, and assistance has been extended to most countries in the developing world. In addition, the internet has provided much easier access to many documents. The current edition - edited by a specialist in the field who has held important positions on international organisations, not least the EC - is made up of ten chapters: the first generally introduces the subject and gives the international context; the second inserts it more specifically in the framework of the external action of the European Union; the third is on the transformations undergone by European development cooperation policy from its origins to date (more beneficiaries, qualitative growth); the fourth chapter is dedicated to the community development aid instruments; the fifth the actors; the sixth the geographic areas that receive aid (ACP, OCT, southern Africa, the Mediterranean, Asia, Latin America, the former socialist countries); the seventh chapter analyses the sectors of intervention; the eighth the management of aid; the ninth the interaction with the international development agencies; the tenth illustrates the future challenges of community development cooperation.
The volume closes with a document annex and an ample bibliography.