*** FINN LAURSEN (Ed.): The EU and the Political Economy of Transatlantic Relations. Editions Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes / Peter Lang (1 av. Maurice, B-1050 Brussels. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). European Policy series, No. 51. 2012, 319 pp, €44.40. ISBN 978-90-5201-900-0.
On 8 July 2013, the European Commission will begin negotiations in Washington for a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, so this book comes at exactly the right time. Arising from a conference just over two years ago at the EU Centre of Excellence at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada as part of a research programme supported financially by the European Union, this entire book focuses on the economic policy links between the United States and the European Union, and the rather mysterious arena 'where states and markets interact.'
In the introduction, Prof. Finn Laursen usefully explains where we stand in this domain, pointing out that there isn't a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation for the economy (security issues were also discussed at the conference in Canada, but come under a separate book). The complex interdependence that characterises the economic policy relations between either side of the Pond has therefore changed under the influence of often divergent interests, given the lack of any common institutions to channel them. This scientist then reviews all the elements that have influenced the course of these relations, be they multilateral systems like GATT or the World Trade Organisation, which have managed trade wars but not prevented them, or policies developed over time at European level. Some of these have given rise to the criticism that a “Fortress Europe” was being built, but the EU defended itself, ensuring that cultural and audiovisual services, education, social services and healthcare are only covered by trade policy if the EU member states unanimously decide that they should be. In this context, challenging France's attitude would therefore amount to bad faith. Finn Laursen also points out that unlike the ACP countries, for example, the United States, along with Canada and Mexico (which are both covered in the book), was one of the last partners with which the EU has considered entering a free-trade deal. Another dimension of EU-US economic relations is monetary issues and how the EU27 has reacted to the sovereign debt crisis, which is a key matter of concern to the White House due to the interdependence of the two economies.
Against this backdrop, along with environmental aspects of transatlantic relations, the authors consider future prospects. Former member of the US Congress Joseph J. DioGuardi, opens by warning about the imminent crisis of the accumulated debts of the United States getting out of control. In the same spirit, economist Ferran Brunet of the Autonomous University of Barcelona points out that the United States and the European Union both need to introduce financial stability and structural reforms as a matter of urgency, with Europe also needing to deal with the deficits its shares with the United States, namely the budget deficit and current account deficit, and also the deficits in the field of employment and economic governance. The essays in the second half of the book look more specifically at trade and free-trade deals, referring also to Canada and the EU's relations with Latin America. In the final part of the book, competition policy comes under the spotlight in the light of the fight very properly being carried out on either side of the Atlantic against price-fixing, along with relations in terms of mergers and acquisitions. Two other essays discuss environmental matters, and Prof. Laursen draws conclusions on how the sometimes difficult, but nevertheless unavoidable, relations between the two giants can be improved.
Michel Theys
*** HANS-GEORG HEINRICH (Ed.): Post-Soviet Conflicts Revisited. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, Postfach 350, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). Iceur Insight Studies, No. 2. 2012, 253 pp, €41.95. ISBN 978-3-631-62638-2.
Emeritus professor at the political science faculty of Vienna University, Hans-Georg Heinrich examines a number of conflicts that arose after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The authors look at the civil war in Transnistria region of Moldova, resolution of the conflict in Upper Karabach, the clashes experienced by Georgia, the origin of the spat between Georgia and Abkhazia (with a more detailed analysis of the latter), the situation in Russia and bordering regions like Ossetia, the ethnic-political crisis in the northern Caucasus, the Community of Independent States, conflict-resolution in the southern Caucasus and the independent investigation into the conflict in Georgia.
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*** LARS LESCHEWITZ: Entstehung und Ergebnisse der Demokratieförderungsprogramme der Europäischen Union in Nordafrika. Peter Lang (see above). Publications Universitaires Européennes/ European University Studies, No. 621. 2012, 286 pp, €14.95. ISBN 978-3-631-63760-9.
Politics graduate Lars Leschewitz looks in this book at the European programme to encourage democracy in North Africa. He starts by giving a historical breakdown of the relations between the European Union and its partner countries in the southern Mediterranean, describing the situation of the democracy programmes developed by the European Union. He looks at the content and impact of these European partnership programmes, along with the financial aid provided, the broad approach, the agenda for liberalisation and the security agenda. He then gets to the heart of the matter, examining the introduction of European partnership programmes, where he describes the internal EU negotiating process and looks at why the EU is stepping up its relations with Northern African countries.
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*** HENNING MÖLDNER: Entwicklung durch Handel? Auswirkungen eines Paradigmenwechsels in der handelspolitischen Entwicklungszusammenarbeit der EU am Beispiel Ghanas. Peter Lang (see above). Publications Universitaires Européennes / European University Studies, No. 620. 2012, 170 pp, €29.95. ISBN 978-3-631-62533-0.
The author, who has a Masters in political science, looks in this book at the development opportunities provided by trade. After making a methodological explanation in which he discusses the change of political paradigm model imagined by Peter Hall, he examines development cooperation developed at European Union level and the meaning of the term 'development,' also discussing the Cotonou Agreement signed in the year 2000. The author goes on to analyse the potential use of commerce to encourage development, describing a number of theories on this subject. Henning Möldner ends with the example of Ghana, examining its trade with the European Union and discussing how trade liberalisation impacts on the country.
(SH)
*** SIMONE PETER: Public Interest and Common Good in International Law. Helbing Lichtenhahn Verlag (8 Elisabethenstrasse, CH-4051 Basel. Tel: (41-61) 2289070 - Fax: 2289071 - email: info@helbing.ch - Internet: http://www.helbing.ch ). Schriftenreihe für Internationales Recht series, No. 118. 2012, 248 pp, CHF 64. ISBN 978-3-7190-3142-8.
In this in-depth legal study, doctor-of-law Simone Peter looks at the public interest and the common good under international law. He starts by describing the sovereignist approach to public interest before examining the idea of the common good, that he connects with the related concept of national interest. Simone Peter also discusses the national public interest under international law, before examining the constitutionalist approach to the concept of public interest and exemption clause in jurisdictional affairs that apply in commercial law and the domain of human rights. He also describes another approach, the Community approach. In this section of the book, he examines one by one the drawing up and application of, and rulings on, the law of public interest. Simone Peter's work includes a chapter on the return of sovereignist public interest to international law.
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