*** MARTIN SCHWARZ: Transnationale Kooperation: Der Ostseerat und die Subraumpolitik der Europäischen Union. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, Postfach 350, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlanf.com ). 'Aktuelle Probleme moderner Gesellschaften' series. 2011, 379 pp, €54. ISBN 978-3-631-60331-4.
The fall of the Soviet Union gave the European Union a greater role in the regions of the world formerly under Soviet control that border on EU Member States, and hence the EU was rapidly forced to develop cooperation tools to provide political and economic support to countries of the former Soviet Union. International cooperation between the former Soviet bloc and the EU has been expanding and deepening over the past two decades. The way the European Union pilots relations with its partner countries is therefore of crucial importance and is examined in this book. In parallel, Russia and the EU have signed partnership agreements in both the political and the economic domains, agreements which are constantly updated to reflect the new political and economic landscape of the two global powers. This fine tome focuses on former Soviet bloc countries around the Caspian Sea, where new countries arose virtually overnight and had to learn how to become independent. The author explains the nature of the various cooperation agreements between the EU and these Caspian nations and learns lessons for effective EU action.
The book is divided into six chapters, the first of which describes the theoretical background to the research. Several areas are explored, such as the role of international organisations and theories of functionalism and intergovernmentalism. The most interesting analysis in the chapter, however, is of how new constructed sovereignty is being used. The first section of the book ends with an explanation of transnational political practices. The second chapter is very brief, and examines the concept of a 'transitional area,' a concept that will be expanded upon in the third chapter, where the author describes the countries and regions bordering on the Caspian Sea and their relations with the EU. Much of the chapter is devoted to the stakeholders implementing partnership policies, Martin Schwarz giving the European Commission the role of a 'quasi-player.'
The rest of the book looks directly at partnerships between the EU, Russia and countries in the Caspian region. In the chapter on relations with Russia, the author takes a detailed look at the strategy adopted by EU countries and issues surrounding access to Kaliningrad, following this with a detailed analysis of partnerships between the EU and Caspian Sea countries. After introducing all the parties on the Council of the Caspian Sea, he examines the various domains of development, whether economic, political or security-related. The final chapter discusses an EU initiative to develop closer ties with countries of the former Soviet Union, namely the 'Nordic Dimension' of Baltic and Scandinavian EU Member States.
To sum up, Martin Schwarz has provided an extremely well-structured, accessible study, alternating theoretical aspects needed for academic research and their pragmatic dimension, putting the theories into action.
Julien Demoustier
*** BEN JONES: Franco-British military cooperation: a new engine for European Defence? Institut d'études de sécurité de l'Union européenne (43 av. du président Wilson, F-75775 Paris cedex 16. Tél.: (33-1) 56891930-237 -Fax: 56891931 - email: info@iss.europa.eu - Internet: http://www.iss.europa.eu ). Occasional Paper, Number 88. 2011, 56 pp. ISBN 978-92-9198-177-9.
In this Occasional Paper, Ben Jones points out that the new Franco-British defence cooperation move launched in November 2010 could be seen as a type of 'strengthened cooperation' in the EU jargon, but it could also be viewed by the other EU partners as over-exclusive and could prove to be divisive if care is not taken to avoid this. He therefore recommends that the two countries support the group of the 'wise' set up by EU defence ministers in December 2010 to work on developing military capabilities and take a greater role in the debate on the future of permanent, structured, cooperation. Both the UK and France should establish an interface with the European Defence Agency and the allied commanders to exchange information on projects carried out together and capability planning. The European Union's defence ministers should use the European Defence Agency as a forum to ensure coherence in the work carried out by the various groups of countries and exchange information about defence budgets, spending cuts and capabilities.
*** VINCENT MOYSE, ANDRE DUMOULIN: Le processus décisionnel belge en matière d'opérations civilo-militaires. Centre de recherche et d'information socio-politiques (1A place Quetelet, B-1210 Brussels. Fax: (32-2) 2197934 - Internet: http://www.crisp.be ). "Courrier hebdomadaire" series, No. 2086-2087. 2011, 64 pp, €12-40.
Belgium's involvement in the military intervention in Libya generated huge doubt and question marks about how the functioning of the country's caretaker government, and this weekly newsletter published by CRISP examines the various layers of decision-making for operations and crisis management. The authors give a very good explanation of how decisions are taken in the current unsettled political situation in Belgium.
*** LUC MAMPAYE: Dépenses militaires, production et transfert d'armes. Groupe de recherche et d'information sur la paix et la sécurité (33 rue Van Hoorde, B-1030 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 2418420- Fax: 2451933 - email: admi@grip.org - Internet: http://www.grip.org ). "Les Rapports du Grip" series, No 1/11. 2011, 44 pp, €8.
In this 2011 year book, Luc Mampaye describes global military spending, which reached USD 1,522 trillion in 2009, in other words 2.9% of the world's GDP. The United States alone accounted for 43.4% of the world total. The total arms manufacturing turnover of the top 100 arms manufacturers is estimated to be in the order of USD 400.7 bn in 2009. The top 100 arms companies comprise 44 US companies, 24 EU companies and 32 from elsewhere in the world. The United States alone accounts for 30% of arms sales, and the new EU arms exports to outside the EU account for around 25% of the world arms trade, ahead of Russia's 20%.
*** IRNERIO SEMINATORE: Six études sur les équilibres internationaux. Editions L'Harmattan (5-7 rue de l'Ecole Polytechnique, F-75005 Paris. Tel.: (33-1) 40467920 - Fax: 43258203 - email: diffusion.harmattan@wanadoo.fr - Internet: http://www.librairieharmattan.com ). 'Questions contemporaines'' series. 2011, 144 pp, €14.50. ISBN 978-2-296-54629-5.
Founder of the European International Relations Institute in Brussels, Prof. Seminatore has chosen for this book six domains of research connected with key periods in the European and global economies of the Renaissance and the growth of nation states to the international globalisation system of the nuclear age. Providing a synthesis of doctrines, principles and action ethics, he gathers together the essential references of political science, namely of balance, legitimacy and rational calculation, sovereignty and national interest, armed utopia and the theory of will. Running through the writing of this political realist is a doctrine of hope. In the preface, Guy Verhofstadt, chair of the Liberal and Democrats group at the European Parliament, points out that Europe remains, in its new political and strategic configuration at global level, the only unknown entity, whose sovereignty is still anchored in its twenty-seven Member States. Verhofstadt, formerly prime minister of Belgium, writes that the devastating fact of the weakness and political fragility of the European Union, is elucidated in the clearest and highly moving comments made by the author throughout his research.
(MT)
*** DAMIEN HELLY: L'UE et l'Afrique: les défis de la cohérence. Institut d'Etudes de Sécurité de l'Union européenne (see above). "Cahiers de Chaillot" series, No. 123. 2010, 93 pp. ISBN 978-92-9198-173-1.
'By 2050, in order to feed its inhabitants, Africa will have to produce five times more food than today, a goal virtually impossible to achieve despite the vast surface areas of potential farmland available in the Congo, Angola and Sudan. In 2050, 22 African countries will have below the critical drinking water level of 1,700 m³ per person per year. If these forecasts are correct, then a large part of sub-Saharan Africa will suffer from famine (and water stress) in coming decades, which will lead to mass exoduses…' This is Damien Helly's prophecy in this newsletter focussing on the highly rhetorical European Union attempts to introduce greater coherence into its partnership with Africa. The EU is increasingly perceived as a difficult and complicated interlocutor, some people even describing it as schizophrenic because the power relations on the ground, combined with special trade, business and geopolitical interests, frankly contradict the values trotted out at one summit after another. Nevertheless, "the transformation of African countries requires an approach that is both standardised (which sounds the death knell for 'privileged, neo-imperial' approaches or 'favouritism' towards former colonies) and differentiated (fully incorporating the heterogeneity of sub-Saharan Africa)," explains the author, calling for true ownership of the development process by Africans, the development of network working involving institutions, national and local political authorities and civil society, giving greater weight to the role of special representatives and delegation heads and organising a fundamental debate about the European Union's interests and strategy with regard to Africa.
*** PASCAL LAMY: Intégrations régionales en Afrique: ambitions et vicissitudes / Regional Integrations in Africa: ambitions and vicissitudes. Notre Europe (19 rue de Milan, F-75009 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 44589797 - Fax: 45589799 - email: info@notre-europe.eu - Internet: http://www.notre-europe.eu ). Policy Papers, No. 43. 2010, 43 pp.
A free publication available in English and French, in this Policy Paper, Pascal Lamy examines regional integration issues in Africa: the puny state structures, a huge number of landlocked countries, lack of infrastructure, the burden of the colonial economic and trade model, the great distance from big consumer markets and the huge weakness of private sector organisations. Lamy, who is director general of the World Trade Organisation, former European Commissioner and honorary president of Notre Europe, formulates a raft of recommendations, ranging from expanding civil society to ensuring better recognition by partners of the regional level through rationalisation of regional and continent-wide structures and agreeing to specialise in segments of the market to encourager trade among the different regions of Africa.
*** L'Europe en formation. Revue d'études sur la construction européenne et le fédéralisme - Journal of Studies on European Integration and Federalism. Centre International de Formation Européenne (10 av. des Fleurs, F-06000 Nice. Tel: (33-4) 93979397 - Fax: 93979398 - email: europe.formation@cife.eu - Internet: http://www.europeenformation.eu ). 2011, No. 360, 127 pp, €20. Annual subscription: €50.
This issue of the review created by the high priest of advanced federalism, Alexandre Marc, focusses on relations between Europe and the United States and makes an initial assessment of President Obama's foreign policy. Matthias Waechter seeks above all to determine whether there is in fact an Obama doctrine when it comes to foreign policy, while MEP Elmar Brok analyses the influence the meeting between the German Chancellor and the US President might have had on EU-US relations, which are also examined in the light of issues common to both sides, like the Middle East, the international financial crisis and climate change.
(MT)
*** GUIDO MONTANI: Le tiers-monde et l'unité européenne. Fédérop (Le Pont du Rôle, F-24680 Gardonne. Tel: (33-5) 53278095 - Fax: 53278072 - email: editions.federop@wanadoo.fr - Internet: http://www.federop.com ). "Textes fédéralistes" series. 1982, 192 pp. ISBN 978-2-85792-013-X.
This book by an Italian federalist economist was published back in 1982 and the world has been turned upside-down since then, but it is still useful to dip into the thoughts of a federalist philosopher because, although the world have have changed, many of its problems have not. When Montani writes that in order to help the third world, only European unity, outstripping in reality all the fetishes of the nation state as a vehicle for development, which only imprisons third-world countries in a ghetto of misery, the books reviewed above show that much work remains to be done… (MT)