*** DIETER FRISCH: La politique de développement de l'Union européenne. Un regard personnel sur 50 ans de coopération internationale. European Centre for the Development of Policy Management (21 Onze Lieve Vrouweplein, NL-6211 HE Maastricht, The Netherlands. Tel: (31-43) 3502900 - Fax: 3502902 / 5 rue Archimède, V-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 2374310 - Fax: 2374319 - email: info@ecdpm.org - Internet: http://www.ecdpm.org ). "Rapport ECDPM" series, No. 15. 2008, 74 pp. ISBN 978-90-72908-36-0.
Published free of charge in English as "The European Union's Development Policy - A Personal View of 50 Years of International Cooperation," this short book has been written by a real expert in the subject. Although he retired from the European Commission back in 1993, Dieter Frisch is a name still remembered by many in Brussels and elsewhere in the world. This great European civil servant joined the European Commission in 1958, spending two-thirds of his 36 year career at DG Development, only leaving that DG for a while to be Director at DG Budget from 1977 to 1982. He then returned to DG Development with the title and responsibilities of Director General for Development, where he headed the Lomé III and IV negotiations. Who better then to retrace the development of development cooperation within the European Economic Community and then the European Union, guiding readers through the meanderings of the genesis of the EU's relations with countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, from the Yaoundé and Lomé Agreements until the icing on the cake, the formal incorporation of EU development cooperation in the Maastricht Treaty?
This is essentially a book of history, in which Dieter Frisch explained that he was not trying to satisfy any academic ambitions. His only aim was to provide readers with the benefit of his personal experience of cooperation and, as Paul Engel, director of the European Centre for the Development of Policy Management, writes in the preface "to explain the past" and "ensure that one does not lose sight of the roots of this determinedly international aspect" of the European project. The author starts by explaining the path from Rome in 1958 to Lomé in 1975, the time of the association of overseas countries and territories, the Yaoundé Agreement, the Lagos and Arusha Agreements, food aid as the first type of aid without any geographical links, trade policy as an instrument for development cooperation, development policy at the crossroads when, in the early 1970s, the European Commission paved the way for moving beyond the association policy of the time, which was restricted regionally to former colonies. The book goes on to look at the period from 1975 to the Maastricht Treaty of 1993, and then from 1993 until the Lisbon Treaty.
Several general lessons emerge from the book. The first is that political will is far more important than legal documents. Dieter Frisch explains very clearly that the EU's development cooperation (aid) policy had been developing for thirty-five years without any legal basis of its own, a vacuum filled by the Maastricht Treaty. Hence his comment that it is figureheads who get the European project moving as least as much as the various treaties. The author explains that one should remember that any procedures and structures, even the most complex and tortuous, can work if the people in charge of them are animated by a desire to get them to work. Some people will read this as an anguished appeal. Reading Dieter Frisch, one understands that the European Commission must, today as in the past, be careful not to generate expectations, through dramatic announcements, that it has neither the human resources nor the finances to actually put into practice down the track. The author says it is important to never give up what one already has for some uncertain, fanciful future. Instead, one should build on what has already been achieved, however fragmentary it might be, in order to gradually develop a coherent policy. Dieter Frisch makes a clear hint here that if the "Yaoundé" Convention had been abandoned and a global-scale policy directly introduced, the European Union would probably not be anywhere today when it comes to development policy. The author notes a truth which should be constantly repeated, that the Commission's position is strongest when there is a relationship of trust between itself and the EU Council of Ministers, based on the Commission's professionalism and independence. Some readers may interpret this too as an anguished appeal…
Michel Theys
*** BARBARA DELCOURT, MARTA MARTINELLI, EMMANUEL KLIMIS (Eds.): L'Union européenne et la gestion de crises. Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles (26 av. Paul Héger, CP 163, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 6503799 - Fax: 6503794 - email: editions@admin.ulb.ac.be - Internet: http://www.editions-universite-bruxelles.be ). "Etudes européennes" series. 2008, 270 pp. ISBN 978-2-8004-1412-6.
Aware that they are embarking on a well-trodden research path, the authors of this collection of essays aim to provide food for thought that both questions recent changes and develops new research agendas in terms of the European Union's management of international crises. The book therefore paves the way for a genuine assessment of the policies implemented. The authors argue that this type of assessment is not yet possible due to a lack of hindsight and the diversity of different types of missions carried out. After studying existing theories on the interaction between states and conflict resolution, the book's authors (representatives of EU Member States, NGOs and academia) divided their task into three stages. Firstly, they study the intervention resources and coordination between each of the three big EU institutions (the Council of Ministers, the European Commission and the European Parliament). The authors explain the lack of coherence perceived at the EU by the fact that its structures and decision-making processes are over-complex, in addition to which the national policies of the Member States are not always compatible with one another. The second part of the book contains case studies and analysis of the relationship between the EU, NGOs, the United Nations and the OECD. It sheds light on the huge competition between stakeholders on the ground, the lack of coherence among stakeholders, the need to take local specificities into account and, more astonishingly, the existence of recurring problems in regions as diverse as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Macedonia. This is enriched with the experience of the Mayor of Fabribeckers in DRC, confirming the arguments put forward by the academic analysts. The final, wider, section contains interesting reflection on integrating the civilian and military dimensions (militarising the humanitarian aspect and privatising the military), resources to be introduced to improve crisis management, and coordinating national and EU action (a case study of Belgium and the Great Lakes Region of Africa). Convincing work which, despite certain nuances, sees coordination as both the problem and the solution when it comes to effective crisis management by the EU.
(TBa)
*** INES TREPANT: Pays émergents et nouvel équilibre des forces. Centre de recherche et d'information socio-politiques (1A place Quetelet, B-1210 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 2110180 - Fax: 2197934 - email: crisp@cfwb.be - Internet: http://www.crisp.be ). "Courrier hebdomadaire", No. 1991-1992. 2008, 55 pp, 12-40 euros.
This newsletter sheds light on the context in which emerging economies have developped and considers key issues in the rise of China, India and Brazil in relation to the European Union. Inès Trépant sketches the main characteristics of these emerging economies and describes the background to their emergence, going on to assess the main challenges posed by these countries in terms of the economy, society, the environment, human rights and relations with the EU. The author briefly studies the way the emerging economies are altering the balance of power within international institutions. This short study clearly illustrates that tomorrow's multipolar world will no longer be fashioned on the whims of the Western world…
(MT)
*** CHRISTOPH BERTRAM: Rethinking Iran: From confrontation to sooperation. Institut d'études de sécurité (43 av. du Président Wilson, F-75775 Paris cedex 16. Tel: (33-1) 56891930 - Fax: 56891931 - email: info@iss.europa.eu - Internet: http://www.iss.europa.eu ). "Chaillot Papers" No. 110. 2008, 58 pp, €10. ISBN 978-92-9198-126-7.
The Institute for Security Studies is an EU agency that has the job of providing the EU with research and recommendations relating to the EU's security and defence policy. It does this perfectly with this brief publication inviting the West to stop addressing Iran in a bellicose manner, posturing like a bull before the red rag of the nuclear threat, and rather to remember that in the case of the erstwhile problematic Soviet Union, a less hysterical approach based on a mixture of dissuasion, containment and détente can pay off most successfully.
(PBo)
*** TIMOTHY J. LYNCH, ROBERT S. SINGH: After Bush. The Case for Continuity in American Foreign Policy. Cambridge University Press (The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK. Tel: (44-1223) 326050 - Fax: 326111 - email: directcustserve@cambridge.org - Internet: http://www.cambridge.org ). 2008, 381 pp, £20. ISBN 978-0-521-88004-6.
The end of the Bush era is nigh and many analysts are betting that his successor will have to tackle the United States' foreign policy from a totally different angle. Timothy Lynch and Robert Singh do not agree. They believe that the next US President will have to continue what has already become a virtually ancestral policy tradition. The main line taken by this book is to compare the epoch of George W. Bush with the Truman administration during the Cold War. The authors take this comparison to the limits. The war against terrorism, the leitmotiv of US foreign policy over the past seven years, is described here as the second Cold War. The war in Iraq is directly compared with the Vietnam War, and the authors firmly believe that George W. Bush was the Truman of the start of the 21st century and the United States is awaiting the Reagan who will follow him.
In order to back up their surprising, original, arguments, the authors compare Bush's foreign policy with the tradition instituted by his predecessors. There is absolutely no doubt in their eyes that the Bush era "fitted within and extended this tradition," and his foreign policy is the only one that can win the war on terror. "Because the frustration and ambitions of the enemy are not likely to change much over time, we should not expect the American response to those ambitions to alter very much either," explain the authors. The book reflects on the pros and cons of the Bush administration, the role of international organisations like NATO and the UN in the war on terror, the war in Iraq and the United States' relations with big global powers like the European Union, Russia, China and India. Far from apologising for the Iraq War, the authors do point out that "neither weakness nor stasis will suffice," noting that the necessary fight against terrorism "does not mean that the struggle necessarily has to assume a military form, since economic development, education, diplomacy and other instruments can be of substantial utility ". All the same, the authors' strong viewpoints sometimes have to be taken with a pinch of salt. They write that we are living in a "deeply dangerous world" characterised by the "indispensability of American power in the face of anew global enemy"… This is enough to raise plenty of eyebrows. George W. Bush's foreign policy is described as a success in terms of its ability to prevent Islamists getting their hand on weapons of mass destruction, while the Iraq War, despite a few nuances, seems to be seen by the authors as an inevitable decision. To sum up, an intriguing yet disturbing book!
(TBa)
*** BERNARD REMICHE, JORGE KORS (Eds.): L'Accord ADPIC: dix ans après. Regards croisés Europe-Amérique latine. Editions De Boeck / Larcier (39 rue des Minimes, B-1000 Brusseks. Tel: (32-2) 5480711 - Fax: (32-10) 482750 - Internet: http://www.larcier.com ). "Droit Economie International" series. 2007, 560 pp. ISBN 978-2-8044-2708-5.
The proceedings of a seminar organised by the 'Association Internationale du Droit Economique in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2005, this book is wholly devoted to the TRIPS agreement on intellectual property rights and trade that was signed in 1994 when the World Trade Organisation (WTO) was established. What is unusual about the book is the fact it has been jointly written by leading intellectuals from Europe and Latin America, thus allowing the impact of TRIPS on each of the two regions to be put into perspective. Groups comprising an economist and a lawyer from each region debated four different issues at the seminar. First, they analysed the interaction between bilateralism and multilateralism on the basis of a case study of patents. There is also a comparison of bilateral agreements signed by the United States and Europe, the impact of the Uruguay Round in Latin America and the classic question of the impact of the snowballing of bilateral deals on the effectiveness of the WTO. The second question discussed is patents in the public health sector, questioning the advantage of such patents in terms of improving healthcare. The authors then tackle innovation and technology transfer and end with copyright and access to information against the increasing speed of change in information technology and communications - the system's effectiveness and legitimacy and measures to improve the system. The book is clearly a must-read for anyone interested in intellectual property rights.
(TBa)