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CIAO DATE: 02/01
Volume XXXV, No. 3 (July - September 2000)
IAI Library Notes
By Maritza Cricorian
The challenge of global capitalism : the world economy in the 21st century / Robert Gilpin, with the assistance of Jean Millis Gilpin. - Princeton : Princeton University Press, c2000. - xii, 373 p. - ISBN 0-691-04935-1 Another contemplative essay on the world economy and globalisation from the author of The political economy of international relations (Princeton, 1987). Starting out from the assumption that the international economy is influenced by international politics and that a solid economy must have an equally solid political base, Gilpin argues that the global economy is threatened today by a number of factors (regional and national priorities, lack of domestic consensus, trends toward economic regionalism and protectionist tendencies). Each of the eleven chapters is devoted to one of the weaknesses of current world political economics, ranging from the birth of capitalism to the demise of communism, from European integration to Asian regionalism, from trade liberalisation to financial vulnerability. The author concludes that the undeniable albeit fragile globalisation occurring today requires the support of strong states willing to cooperate with one another.
La citoyenneté européenne : droits, politiques, institutions / Paul Magnette. - Bruxelles : Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles, c1999. - (Etudes européennes). - ISBN 2-8004-1222-4
The result of a PhD thesis, this work retraces the birth of the institution of ³European citizenship² from its origins in the Amsterdam Treaty, thereby implicitly describing the construction of the European Union itself. The latter is the focus of the first part of the volume, which covers the period from 1957 to 1990. The second part, which goes from the eve of the 1991 Intergovernmental Conference to the post-Amsterdam period, is dedicated above all to analysis of the contradictions, tensions and political debate which have hindered European citizens from enjoying full citizenship in the Union.
The contemporary law of armed conflict / L.C. Green. - 2nd ed. - Yonkers : Juris Publishing ; Manchester : Manchester University Press, c2000. - (Melland Schill studies in international law). - ISBN 0-7190-5601-2 (pbk) The second edition of a much appreciated handbook on the law of armed conflict which appeared for the first time in 1993. All aspects of armed conflict law are analysed: definition and source of the law of armed conflict; types of conflicts (international and non); the beginning, effects and cessation of hostilities; relations between belligerents; definition of combattants; the theatre of hostilies (ground, sea,air); prisoners of war; the wounded, the sick and ship-wrecked; civilians; protecting powers; civil defence; rights and duties of occupants and neutrals; treatment on non-international conflicts; United Nations operations; basic rules. The updated second edition obviously includes developments that have taken place since first publication: the opinions of the World Court, the agreement on laser weapons and mines, the jurisprudence of the two war crimes tribunals for Yugoslavia and Ruanda; the role of the International Criminal Court. All chapters make reference to the 1977 Protocol I as an updated expression of the law of armed conflict.
Enlarging the European Union : the way forward / edited by Jackie Gower, John Redmond. - Aldershot : Ashgate, c2000. - xii, 195 p. - ISBN 1-84014-488-2 Based on a conference held at the University of Birmingham, this book brings together the contributions of both prationers and academics. It is centred on five topics: the EU enlargement process seen from Brussels and Strasbourg (Commission and Parliament); the pre-access strategies from the point of view of two of the applicant states (Poland and Bulgaria); the costs of enlargement, with particular reference to the common agricultural policy and structural funds; the possible position of small states in an enlarged Europe; the problematic prospects of enlargement to Turkey, Ukraine and Russia. The conclusions suggest that the clarity of the ³way forward² be verified.
Feeling good or doing good with sanctions : unilateral economic sanctions and the U.S. national interest / Ernest H. Preeg. - Washington : THe CSIS Press, c1999. - xii, 264 p. - (Significant issues series ; v.21, n.3). - ISBN 0-89206-349-1
One of the most recent studies on the costs and benefits of unilateral US sanctions, this volume questions the United States¹ propensity to use unilateral sanctions and their efficacy and reflects upon their costs in terms of other American interests and, above all, their chances of success both as compared to multilateral sanctions and in general.
The study was conducted on five country/case studies: Cuba, Iran, Vietman, Myanmar and China. The author concludes that they usually do not have the expected economic impact, that their objectives are often not reached and that there is no way to assess beforehand what impact the sanctions will have. The study also offers an analysis as well as suggestions for improvement of the 1997 Sanctions Policy Reform Act, put forward by one of the co-presidents of the Steering Committee supervising the study, Lee H. Hamilton, former member of the US House of Representatives. Finally, the author proposes political alternatives to the use of unilateral sanctions.
Manuale di diritto e politica dell'Unione Europea / Vincenzo Guizzi. - 2.ed. - Napoli : Editoriale Scientifica, c2000. - XXXIV, 927 p. - ISBN 88-87293-49-X Targetted for a broader readership of not only specialists, this heavyweight handbook provides a thorough overview of the political and institutional arrangements and, above all, the substance of European community activity. As for the former, the main topics dealt with are the evolution of the Community from the European Coal and Steel Community to the present European Union; the institutions and their competences; relations between community and national legal orders, mechanisms for financing and for external affairs. As for substance, some of the most important Community sectoral policies are analysed. With respect to the first edition (1994), this, the second, contains an analysis of the Treaty of Amsterdam, a short section on the European system of central banks and the European Central Bank, one on simplification and transparency, and a chapter on policies connected wtih social policies (employment policy).
The volume is completed by useful annexes, mostly new: a chronology from 1950 to 1999; an index of the judgements of the Court of Justice and the Tribunal of First Instance quoted in the text; a list of the internet sites of European institutions; diagrams of decision-making procedures and correspondence tables between the old and thenew numbering of the founding treaties.
Mexico and the sexenio curse : presidential successions and economic crises in modern Mexico / Jonathan Heath. - Washington : The CSIS Press, c1999. - xviii, 124 p. - (Significant issues series ; v.21, n.5). - ISBN 0-89206-357-2 Timely, as the name of the series assumes, is the right word for this study conducted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington on Mexico¹s cyclical financial crises.
The first part of the book is dedicated to the definition of crisis and provides an index for assessment and comparison of crises. A look is then taken at Mexico¹s recent history and the crises that shook it in the seventies and in 1988, in an attempt to identify common factors and causes. The third and fourth chapters focus, respectively, on the worst crisis Mexico has had to face to date, the one in 1994, and Ernesto Zedillo¹s six-year term and his attempts to avoid another crisis. The Mexican president¹s programme is analysed in detail in the following chapter. Finally, the last chapter examines the prospects for the Mexican economy and, in particular, the probability of another new crisis at the end of Zedillo¹s term.
The Northern Ireland question : nationalism, unionism and partition / edited by Patrick J. Roche, Brian Barton. - Aldershot : Ashgate, c1999. - ix, 196 p. - ISBN 1-84014-490-4
This book attempts to explain the origins, evolution and ideologies of the Irish unionist and nationalist movements since the end of the 19th century and their impact today.
In fact, while the first three chapters set the partition into historical context, the following ones recount subsequent developments up to the Good Friday agreement and beyond. In particular, the first two chapters go over the roots, respectively, of unionism and nationalism in Ireland; the third describes the institution of the 1920 Government of Ireland Act and the events immediately following it; the fourth chapter illustrates the problems linked with adminstrative partition and the relations between the two adminstrations; the fifth analyses religious sectarianism, with particular reference to housing and employment policy; the sixth considers the economic situation in the nineties, comparing the north and south of the island and setting it in relation to European standards; finally the eighth chapters puts forward the proposals and strategies of the two movements in the nineties.
Spanish politics today / John Gibbons. - Manchester : Manchester University Press, c1999. - xviii, 174 p. - (Politics today). - ISBN 0-7190-4946-6 (pbk) This book aims to analyse the ways in which Spanish political elites have brought about political change at the regional, national and European level in democratic Spain. Following an introduction which briefly retraces the transition from dictatorship to democracry, the book centres on the questions that have dominated Spanish politics in the eighties and nineties: nationalism and regionalism vs. federalism; parties and elections; the balance of powers; the political agenda; the various styles of policy-making; integration into Europe.
The final chapters, in particular, reveal the strategies, constraints and pressure that these elites had to face during this process.
Two tiers of two speeds? : the European security order and the enlargement of the European Union and NATO / James Sperling editor. - Manchester : Manchester University Press, c1999. - xiv, 219 p. - (Europe in change). - ISBN 0-7190-5402-8
Starting from the assumption that EU and NATO enlargement is critical for European security and that the two processes are interdependent, this book focusses on the dual process of internal and external adaptation of the two institutions. It covers four fundamental topics: the first is the NATO and EU decision-making processes; the second the evolution of the European Security and Defence Identitiy (ESDI) and its role in European security and defence policy; the third the strategic consequences of enlargement and, in particular, the institutional evolution of the EU and NATO; the fourth the financial implications of the enlargement process. The conclusions examine the prerequisites for a stable security order.
The book is divided into two parts: the first deals with the EU, the second with NATO, providing the reader with a neat comparison. The impression is that NATO enlargement is a relatively easy process while that of the EU is tortuous and uncertain.