*** PIERRE-OLIVIER RICHARD: Aldo Ajello, cavalier de la paix. Quelle politique européenne commune pour l'Afrique ? Editions Complexe (24 rue de Bosnie, B-1060 Brussels) and Editions GRIP (33 rue Van Hoorde, B-1030 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 2418420 - Fax: 2451933 - E-mail: admi@grip.org - Internet: http://www.grip.org ). 2000, 134 pages. ISBN 2-87027-833-0.
I do not have the adrenaline levels that I had in Mozambique, which I greatly miss, but it is a very interesting work. I am constantly on mission and I contribute to the formulation of a common European policy in the region… Thus expresses himself, on the occasion, Aldo Ajello. Who? Aldo Ajello. The Agence EUROPE reader knows him well: he is the European Union Special Representative to the Great Lakes region. Though even this informed reader does he truly know Aldo Ajello? Does he know precisely from where this person comes, why he was chosen to assume this function, what his pompous title hides? Rare are those who answer these questions with an affirmative. From where the interest of this book which sees the journalist Pierre-Olivier Richard give an account of the meetings during which, between two missions, Aldo Ajello unveiled with verve and passion his visions of the relations uniting Europe and Africa and the tragedy experienced by a region in disorder.
This book remains very topical, even if it also describes the travels of a man and thus, at times, his previous actions. It begins in 1992, when the civil servant of the United Nations Development Programme with "rank of Deputy Secretary General" is named to lead the peace mission in Mozambique. I had the impression that I was chosen in alphabetical order (…) I always had the feeling that if I had been called Zajello, I would not have had this wonderful opportunity… Though this chance, I took it, so well that today he remains "Mister Mozambique". A country where he will remain, as writes the Executive Secretary of the World Coalition for Africa Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, he who managed to "sell the product", that is to say peace, to the belligerent by adopting a strictly neutral position. Since the, Ajello has continued his works for the Union and preaches reconciliation at the heart of Africa. Which brings Michel Rocard to write in his postface that this Italian has decidedly dedicated himself to impossible missions and that this confines him to unfeasibility. It will take more, however, for the very special Representative to resign. While on the contrary, he continues to fight, not hesitating to clear paths to bring back peace to this tormented zone (he notably advocates a demobilisation on the Mozambican model) and to ingratiate all those which, in his eyes deserve it. The international community, for example, which has for too long given into the temptation to want to "sell, keys in hand", its models for democracy to the Africans ("often, with our little prefabricated recipe, we have contributed to worsening the problems rather than resolving them", he notably states) there where it should have rather required defining the basic principals that differentiate between democracy and dictatorship and leave to the Africans the care of providing themselves with a system best adapted to their history and cultures, to their socio-economic and even ethnic characteristics. The Union itself does not escape criticism. However they are more subtle than those from the pen of Michel Rocard for whom the reasons of the relative impotence of the international community stems from the national sovereignties and the bureaucratic and procedural burden.
Michel Theys
*** SERGEI MEDVEDEV: Russia's Futures. Implications for the EU, the North and the Baltic Region. The Finnish Institute of International Affairs (15A Mannerheimintie, 00260 Helsinki, Finland) and Institut für Europäische Politik (Jean-Monnet Haus, 22 Bundesallee, 10717 Berlin). "Programme on the Nothern Dimension of the CFSP" series. 2000, 109 pages. ISBN 951-769-106-8.
What kind of partner will the Russia of President Putin be in the future? This is the question to which Sergei Medvedev, from the George C. Marshall European Centre for Security Studies, tries to answer by analysing the developments that mark the home policy of this country and there potential influence on its foreign policy, in particular with regards to the Baltic region and Northern Europe. According to the author, continuity should prevail over the next years, Moscow having to favour a conservative approach which will make it a more responsible and predictable international actor (he notes that the Russian policy has already shown during the 1990s, the exception being Chechnya, a certain peaceful continuity). Even the entry of the Baltic States into the European Union should not provoke a return to turbulence or a neo-imperialism. On the contrary, Sergei Medvedev sees networks - political, administrative and economic… - linking with a more regional Russia and the countries pf the Northern region, the initiative relating to the Nordic dimension being able to contribute to this development.
(LD)
*** WAFIK RAOUF: L'Europe vue par l'Islam. Une perception ambivalente. L'Harmattan (5-7 rue de l'Ecole Polytechnique, F-75005 Paris). "Histoire et Perspectives Méditerranéennes" series. 2000, 239 pages. ISBN 2-7384-9366-1.
The author, professor in literature (Sorbonne) and head of the intercultural review EurOrient, bases this essay on a realisation: it is rare that a world, such as the western world, occupies such a great importance in the collective minds of another world, such as the Arab-Islamic world, both with the masses as with the elites. It is all the more surprising that this concern with the other is bearer of both a certain fear, a distrust or a challenge, while being paradoxically characterised by a spirit of revenged mixed with a true fascination. It is the reasons for the love-hate relationship that Wafik Raouf tries to decipher by going far back into the history of the Mediterranean basin, even before the arrival of the Prophet. In a second part, he invites the readers to go, with regards to the Islamic activism and its integrationist or fundamentalist manifestations "beyond prejudices". Sometimes confused, his reflection does not fatally doom accession. Though it allows to better understanding certain mechanisms of thought that prevail with our Arab neighbours, among others through four contemporary thinkers - the Indian Mawdoudi, the Iranian Shari'ati, the Egyptian Kotob and the Algerian Bennabi.
(MT)
*** CLAUDE ARPI: Tibet, le pays sacrifié. Calmann-Lévy (3 rue Auber, Paris 9ème). 2000, 326 pages, FF 140. ISBN 2-7021-3132-8.
Translated from the English, this book is the work if the Frenchman from Angoulème who, as a dental surgeon developed a passion for Tibet. Firstly, he shows in a magnificent manner how Tibet has managed to preserve, from the 5th to 20th Century, a balance between its powerful neighbours, China and India. In an enlightening manner, he especially shows, by delving into the Indian, Russia and American archives, how this independent country in full rule of law between 1913 and 1950 was sacrificed to the realpolitik. The chapters on the role of the Indian Prime Minister Nerhu and the landing by the western countries, Great Britain in particular, are especially enlightening. It is on 7 October 1950 that the Chinese army, said "people's liberation", crossed the Yangtze and annihilate the Tibetan defences. The call made by the Lhassa government so that the "Tibetan issue" is tackled by the UN Security Council remains to day adjourned (this request was only supported by… El Salvador). Even if the Dalai Lama made no allusion in his preface, it is also and especially, from a European point of view, an additional proof of the crass ineffectiveness of the intergovernmental approach and to… right to veto.
(LD)
*** Relazioni internazionali. Scritti in onore di Giuseppe Vedovato. Vol. 4: Liber Amicorum Munuscula Discipulorum. Biblioteca della "Rivista di Studi Politici Internazionali" (40 Lungarno del Tempio, I-50121 Firenze - Tel: (39-55) 666384). "Hors série", N° 4. 2000, 361 pages.
Honorary resident of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly and founder-Director of the prestigious "Rivista di Studi Politici Internazionali" for more than fifty years, Prof. Giuseppe Vedovato (University "La Sapienza", Rome) today seems like a wise man, which many Italian and foreign diplomats and political leaders do not hesitate to consult. Published for his twenty-fifth anniversary this volume of tributes follows on from three mixed works already published in 1997 in the honour of his exemplary career. It gathers together, in Italian and French, the texts of the commemorative events organised three years ago by the Council of Europe and the reactions caused in the press, testimonies of friendship sent on the jubilee and the bibliographic notes of numerous historic works and international political treaties that Vadovato signed since 1938.
(ED)
*** DAVID KENNEDY, PHILIPPE SANDS: Droit international 4. Editions A. Pedone (13 rue Soufflot, F-75005 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 43540597 - Fax: 46340760). 2000, 273 pages, FF 220. ISBN 2-233-00371-3.
This work reproduces the lectures given, during the 1997-1998 academic year, at the Paris Institut des Hautes Etudes Internationales by two professors from Anglo-Saxon Universities who, on this occasion, outlined their views of international law. The first, Prof. David Kennedy, who teaches at Harvard University and named his course "Clichés revisited, international law and politics". A course qualified as surprising in form and substance by Pierre-Marie Dupuy and Charles Leben who, professors and the Panthéon-Assas University, lead the IHEI. It is that David Kennedy does not only compare American and European traditions in international law, the first being according to him, less formal in its method, more interdisciplinary, less centred on the courts and the States, also less philosophical and more pragmatic that its European equivalent. Reviewing a few classical subjects in this field (the report enters into public and private law, the nature of economic regulation, the role of the State in the international authority, the issues of cultural relativism and the universality of international legal forms, the lessons from international legal history, the face of enlightened and cosmopolitan atheism in a religious world, the rule governing work in a global economy, the regulating of pornography…), he also presents in particular the ideas of the Critical Legal Studies movement of which he is the head in the United States as well as the way in which he positions himself with regard to the dominant flow of American doctrine.
The second course was given by Philippe Sands, Professor at London University who proposes, when answering the question of knowing whether we move towards a transformation of international law, to institutionalise doubt. He discusses globalisation, privatisation, technological innovation and democratisation, participation in decision-making process, hierarchical relations between various branches of international law… Many fascinating subject… for informed persons.
(LD)
*** PIERRE-MARIE DUPUY: Droit international public. Dalloz (31-35 rue Froidevaux, F-75685 Paris Cedex 14. Internet: http: //http://www.dalloz.fr - Distribution Benelux: Patrimoine, 168 rue du Noyer, B-1030 Brussels. Tel/Fax: (32-2) 7366847). 2000, 731 pages, FF 198, BEF 1,346. ISBN 2-247-04120-5.
Professor at the University of Panthéon-Assas (Paris II) and the Florence European Institute, Pierre-Marie Dupuy is in the fifth edition of this handbook which presents in detail, international public law in the light of its subjects (that is to say essentially the States), the methods for forming its standards and the conditions for their enforcement. The author then reviews the fields for intervention by these standards and their finalities, this examination informs over the scope and the diversity of the human activities won today from the clutches of international law. Moreover compared to the previous edition which attempts to be up to date in 15 May 1998, this one - which is so on 15 May 2000 - bear witness to the scope of the changes that have arisen in the matter, in the last two years, be they legal, such as the multiplication of international jurisdictions, or more general, for example those linked to the phenomenon called "globalisation". Pierre-Marie Dupuy, thus reaches the conclusion that international law is experiencing not only constant development in standards, but possible also certain modification called on to affect these structures in the future.
(MT)
*** VINCENT BERGER: Jurisprudence de la Cour Européenne des Droits de l'Homme. Editions Sirey/Dalloz (see details above). 2000, 727 pages, FF 280, BEF 1,904. ISBN 2-247-04187-6.
This comprehensive survey by Vincent Berger, section registrar at the European Court of Human Rights and Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges, is in its seventh edition. Also available in German, English, Hungarian, Lithuanian and Romanian, this work of reference - entirely updated and reworked - offers a clear and faithful panorama of the Court's activities which saw the light of day in Strasbourg in the shadow of the Council of Europe, in 1959. Supreme interpreter and final guardian of the Convention defending human rights and fundamental freedoms, this Court can now be directly referred to by each of the eight hundred million Europeans, not forgetting NGOs and specific groups. Its activity covers very diverse fields, from defence rights to immigration controls, the duration of provisional detentions to the servitude of urbanism, from the internment of the alienated to cross border television, from the protection of the environment or national minorities to the fight against terrorism… All things that this book covers through the Court's case law.
(LD)
*** ALAIN BARRAU: Présidence française: échec ou réussite ? National Assembly Delegation to the European Union (Kiosque de l'Assemblée nationale, 4 rue Aristide Briand, F-75007 Paris - Internet: http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr ). "Les documents d'information de l'Assemblée nationale" collection, N° 2905. 2001, 117 pages, FF 30. ISBN 2-11-109400-5.
This report edited by the President of the National Assembly Delegation to the European Union draws-up a global assessment of the last French Presidency of the Union Council, and, in particular, the Nice European Council. An assessment that Alain Barrau wanted to be lenient, he who begins his introduction with these words: Once the spirits appeased and it becomes possible to calmly examine the progress of the European building process achieved during the second quarter 2000, the French Presidency will appear as what it is: a very dense Presidency that achieved positive results, often remarkable, in the crucial fields for the economic and social cohesion of the Union and its ability to answer the citizens' concerns. Among the advances detailed, the MEP cites, among others, the adopting of the Social Agenda, the strengthening of the Eurogroup, the agreement reached over the fiscal package, the decisions taken to enhance maritime safety, the progress achieved in terms of defence (a considerable development if one remembers that, for forty years, Europe was treading water in this field) and the agreement of the draft statute for the European company, after thirty years of negotiations… Why? According to Alain Barrau, three crucial reasons explain it. Firstly because the debate launched by Joshka Fischer on the need to create an vanguard of countries prepared to move ahead down the path of integration resulted in blurring the understanding of the stakes of this IGC, while the decisions taken in Nice were mainly in the shadow of enlargement. Then by the turn in the debates, the observers having had the impression that the meaning of the European interest had deserted the meeting rooms of the European Council and the battling personalities hell bent over the defence of their national interests. An assessment that Alain Barrau considers biased to the extent that these issues being discussed in Nice directly concern the sharing of power in the Union, the role of the States in the decision-making process and their respective influence in the institutions, are also subjects that cause strong opposition. Finally, the journalists have focused on the most difficult issue to be resolved - but not necessarily the most important - which was that of the weighting of votes.
*** Futuribiles. Analyse et prospective. Futuribiles Sarl (55 rue de Varenne, F-75341 Paris cedex 07. Tel: (33-1) 53633770 - Fax: 42226554 - E-mail: revue@futuribiles.com - Internet: http://www.futuribiles.com ). January 2001, N° 261, 96 pages, FF 83, EUR 12.65. Annual subscription: FF 740, EUR 112.81.
At this start of year, France finds itself confronted to two stakes treated in distinct manners: the employment prospects and future pensions. The line connecting these two resides, according to Hugues de Jouvenel (who dedicates his editorial to the "myth of full employment"), in the ratio between the number of occupied assets and those of the inactive beneficiaries. Under the heading "France: return to full employment?", Edmond Malinvaux, gives a three part economics lesson. Honorary professor at the College of France, he first notes that the rise in unemployment recorded up to 1996 is due to a loss of control over wages. Then, noting that France has created 1.6 million job in four years, he works towards defining the unemployment rate that would allow to talk of full employment, which acts as an ideal ramp to launch the reflection over the future of economic sciences that Alain Michel entitles "Ecce homo… oeconomicus ou sapiens ?". Other themes broached: the validity of the American electoral system, the effects of generations: concerning the book by Bernard Préel, the generation shock, pirates in Asia, "cyberman and cyberhumanity".
*** Economic and social reviews in short
*** Eurinfo. January 2001, Brussels. This issue of the publication by the Belgian Commission Representation contains a dossier dedicated to pensions in the light of the necessary pension reforms. First stage, according to the European Commission. Other issues tackled: Europeanisation of insurance representation, the future arrival of a European prosecutor, an assessment of the state of forests, how to travel more easily with pets, towards an aid to the victims of organised crime and pollution in Belgium. *** Newsletter. December 2000. This review by DG Agriculture presents the global proposal made by the Commission for the WTO agricultural negotiations . *** Le Monde syndical. February 2001, Brussels. This issue of the CISL review contains a dossier dedicated to international migrations.