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Map of Europe |
CIAO DATE: 10/03
Vol. 6, No 2 (June 2003)
Articles
The United States and the United Nations: Some Revolting European Thoughts
(PDF format, 19 pgs, 202 kb)
by A.J.R. Groom
The United States (US) has always had a difficult relationship with international organisations in seeking to resolve its claims for sovereignty and its self-conception of being an exception to the need for multilateralism in our world of complex interdependence. For at least two decades, the US has had an ever more difficult relationship with the majority in the United Nations (UN). This essay analyses the US-UN relationship from a European perspective and argues that the time has come for the European Union in particular to take the lead in protecting the values incarnated in the UN Charter.
Vulnerability as a Concept of International Human-Rights Law
(PDF format, 17 pgs, 190 kb)
by Alexander H.E. Morawa
In the context of human rights the terms 'vulnerable' or 'vulnerability' are often used to describe segments of the population which are or should be the recipients of extra care and attention. This article looks at vulnerability from a different angle: its focus is on the 'core' of traditional first-generation human rights — civil and political rights — and the various treaties safeguarding them. It investigates whether there is a recognisable attitude of human rights bodies and tribunals to qualify particular individuals as vulnerable, which criteria are applied, and what the consequences of such a qualification are. The article assesses whether and in what context a body of law favouring the vulnerable is developing, either explicitly or implicitly, in human rights law. As examples, it looks, in particular, at children, persons deprived of their liberty, and members of ethnic minorities.
Polish Macroeconomic and S&T Policies: Interlinkages for Growth and Decline
by Stanislaw Kubielas
The article points to some non-linear relationships between stabilisation policy and the conditions for long-term growth in terms of building up technology potential. The Polish economy, widely regarded as an example of a successful transition to a market economy, suddenly lost its growth momentum. It is argued that some short-sighted stabilisation policies oriented towards a kind of Ricardian adjustment have become inadequate for the development of indigenous technology capabilities and for the transition to a Schumpeterian type of growth. Several structural causes of the slowdown are identified which pertain to the evolution of the research, technology, and development (RTD) sector under the shock-therapy transition, in the last period oriented exclusively towards an inflationary target. With the downsizing of research and development (R&D) budgets, the innovation activity of enterprises was primarily demand-driven, a Kaldorian rather than Schumpeterian effect, but even this was stifled by restrictive demand management policies. The gross inconsistency of macroeconomic and science and technology (S&T) policies is deemed responsible for the current economic slowdown.
Globalisation — Critic—l Reconstructions (Review Essay)
by Petr Lebeda
The current process of globalisation has been subject to increasing resistance. This essay reviews three books that attempt to substantiate the critique and explores perspectives of political alternatives. First, the nature of globalisation is deconstructed as a global, but exlusivist, political project, which is run through the nation-states, weakened as they are. Political responses to such instability vary — from modernisation approaches, regional co-operation and transnational solidarity, to right-wing backlash politics. On top of their particular idiosyncracies, such mainstream responses are based on the dominance of the nation-state, the global North, and give up on a systemic change. The reconstructive postmodernism suggested by the books instead syntheses the structuralist and postmodern approaches. Concepts such as politics of place, normative democracy or various post-development experiments are already practised by the emerging global civil society. Finally, the theoretical contributions are contrasted with the promises and limitations of the current politics of resistance, namely the Porto Alegre movement.
Book Reviews
The Heart of War: On Power, Conflict and Obligation in the Twenty-first Century by Jiøí Sedivý
by Gwyn Prins
Globalization and Development: Essays in honour of J. George Waardenburg by Grant G. Goodrich
by Servaas Storm and C. M. W. Naastepad (eds)
Foreign Direct Investment in the Estonian Economy by Kálmán Kalotay
by Urmas Varblane (ed.)
Journalism after September 11 by Jan Stuchlik
by Barbie Zelizer and Stuart Allan
Globalization of Unequal National Economies: Players and Controversies by Bruno S. Sergi
by Adam Zwass