*** ANTHONY PAGDEN: Worlds at War. The 2,500-Year Struggle between East & West. Oxford University Press (Great Clarendon Street, Oxford PX2 6DP - Tél.: (44-1865) 556767 - Fax: 556646 - Internet: http://www.oup.com ). 2008, 548 pp, £20. ISBN 978-0-19-923743-2.
Professor of political science and history at the University of California in Los Angeles, Anthony Pagden explains the long struggle between West and East in this impressive book, written after a breakfast in Cyprus where his wife commented on seeing a photo in the New York Times of a group of Iranians prostrate for prayer: "How ironic! It was just this habit of prostration which most horrified the Greeks about the ancient Persians." The comment intrigued the author, who entered a long geographical and historical quest, taking as his starting point the divided island of Cyprus, split between Greeks and Turks, leading on to the history of the Ottoman Empire and then to Islam via sites sacred to Kurds and Armenians. His wanderings convinced Anthony Pagden that what divides the East from the West goes 'deeper than politics, deeper than religion,' and the fight between East and West does not go back to the time of the Crusades or to the emergence of Islam but dates back instead to a full five centuries before the birth of Christ, when the Persian Emperor, Xerxes, tried to conquer Ancient Greece. With scientific rigour, the author considers key events and players in this divorce of civilisations that still shapes the world in the twenty-first century, from the streets of Baghdad to the ravines of Afghanistan, not to mention the Twin Towers in Manhattan (New York) or the hotels and other places in India just a few days ago…
It is clearly impossible to summarise a book of such scope, scale and intellectual power. One of the lessons that can be drawn from it is that the West has sought in this millennia-old struggle between East and West to seek its own vision of itself, in other words 'the West's vision of itself as independent, free, secular, and now democratic'. These are exactly the values that Muslim fundamentalists cannot stand because they see sovereignty as not coming from the people but emanating solely from Allah. And the separation of religion from society is equally unacceptable in their eyes because they see progress as bringing together the whole of the Muslim world under the same conditions as in the same of the Prophet. As far as one of the fundamentalist jihadist thinkers, Sayyid Gutb, is concerned, it is now the task of a 'new 'Qur'anic generation' to somehow replicate that of the Companions of the Prophet, and rebuild Islam out of the ruins of Western nationalism, just as Muhammad had created the first Umma out of the ruins of Arab paganism.' The author explains that the way the Islamists see it, even though Muslims were killed in the September 11 attacks, they deserved to die because the very fact that they were in the Twin Towers demonstrated that they were apostates, and the same applies to the Muslim victims of terror attacks in Muslim countries (like Saudi Arabia) that collude with the West. Why, when 'millions of Muslims who, like their Christian counterparts, have quietly abandoned the militant and millenarian aspects of their religion," is the Muslim world, with one or two exceptions, so unable to reconcile religious beliefs with modern, liberal forms of government? The author provides several answers to this question, also playing devil's advocate, for example: "Just about all the peoples of the Middle East have seen that the benefits to be had from modern liberal democracy are the traditional products of American consumerism". He points out that the first GIs to arrive in Baghdad in 2004 were greeted by young boys calling not for "freedom, freedom," but for "whisky, whisky," explains Anthony Pagden. The anecdote shows that in this millennial struggle, Manichaeism should be banned: "Perhaps if the US had listened and given them not whisky certainly, but schools, hospitals, some basic security and the rudiments of a welfare system, then democracy might have seemed a more attractive option (…) against the century-old struggle between Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds"…
Michel Theys
*** ASHRAF GHANI, CLARE LOCKHART: Fixing Failed States. A framework for rebuilding a fractured world. Oxford University Press (see above). 2008, 254 pp. ISBN 978-0-19-534269-7.
"Today, between forty and sixty nations, home to close to a billion people, have either collapsed or are the teetering on the brink of failure" … International aid and the military response have been totally ineffective thus far in what the authors call the systemic global crisis that is the main challenge to the new world order. Written by people involved in the reconstruction process in Afghanistan, the book shows how failed states can be fixed and is a brilliant contribution to understanding how states are built. The authors describe the criteria that determine whether the reconstruction process will be a success, based on both their own experience in the field and tangible examples of success (Singapore, Ireland and Latin American countries) and failure (Afghanistan, Sudan and Nepal). They also set out new solutions to the state-building question, which require an integrated approach in which connections between the international community, national leaders and ordinary people are primordial. Account must therefore be taken of the "gap of sovereignty" between the sovereignty provided by the international system and countries' ability to serve their population and be responsible members of the international community. The authors painstakingly define what they see as the ten main functions of a state, going on to describe the necessary organisational structures for carrying out these functions and determining the alignment criteria for the stakeholders involved. This deeply optimistic book does not indulge, as one might have feared, in excess. The optimism is always justified and readers cannot fail to be enchanted by the authors' methodology. They are convinced "that the world has the resources and the imagination to arrive at solutions to this problem if a different approach is adopted". The book will clearly prove invaluable to anyone interested in matters connected with good governance.
(TBa)
*** MARISE CREMONA, BRUNO DE WITTE (Eds.): EU Foreign Relations Law. Constitutional Fundamentals. Hart Publishing (16c Worcester Place, OX1 2JW, UK. Tel: (44-1865) 517530 - Fax: 510710 - email: mail@hartpub.co.uk - Internet: http://www.hartpub.co.uk ). "Essays in European Law" series, No. 13. 2008, 324 pp. ISBN 978-1-84113-757-5.
Motivated by the awaited ratification of the Lisbon Treaty and the growing complexity surrounding it, this book explains the special character of EU foreign relations law. The authors examine the way EU foreign relations rules have developed over the past forty years, choosing this period because of the emergence of constitutional interest in foreign relations in 1971 in relation to European Court of Justice case law. The authors study matters like the way the European Community was absorbed into the European Union and how this has impacted on foreign relations, the role of each of the big three EU institutions, the difference between constitutions of a domestic and a foreign policy nature, the questions covered by Member States' power and those controlled by the European Union, the more frequent crossing of pillars, and international legal issues and other international obligations incumbent on the EU. The editors explain in the introduction that "this book aims to identify the main norms and principles of the written and unwritten primary law of the EU, with particular attention to the way in which these norms and principles are being reshaped by current changes in the Union's internal regime and in its external environment". The book takes the form of ten essays - on issues connected with specific areas of foreign relations law and the question of pillars, mattes with issues that also have an important domestic dimension and, finally, questions felt to be of a constitutional nature, in other words related to the constitutional order of the Member States. A comprehensive book that makes a valuable contribution to existing literature.
(TBa)
*** FRANZ KERNIC: Die Außenbeziehungen der Europäischen Union. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 376171 - Fax: 3761727 - email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). 2007, 308 pp, €48.10. ISBN 978-3-631-54952-0.
A lecturer at universities in Austria, Germany and Ottawa in Canada, the author wrote this book in response to a special request from his students, who complained about the sheer complexity of and often over-specialist nature of literature on the European Union's foreign policy. He has therefore written a user-friendly overview of this complicated issue in a simple manner, making the book a wonderfully clear introduction to the topic for students and any other readers wishing to understand what the foreign policy of a developing political entity like the EU27 involves. The essentially theoretical and methodological approach to the questions is highly original. The introduction is extremely interesting, covering the very nature of what a 'stakeholder' is in the political or state field when it comes to foreign relations and the way the European Union is gradually becoming an actor on a world stage now characterised by seesawing in the balance of power. The chapters study the way the EU is acting out its new role in the different corners of the world, being a kind of manual or text book on a highly complex reality. It is wisely designed and clearly laid out. The sheer scale of bibliographical resources in several languages is remarkable. A must-read for people aiming to gain solid understanding of the subject.
(GFr)
*** CHIA-PING CHANG: Kernanligen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland? Die deutschen Präferenzen, Positionen und Politiken unter der rot-grünen Bundesregierung in der GASP/ESVP der Europäischen Union. Peter Lang (see above). "Europäische Hochschulschriften" series, No. 554. 2007, 353 pp, €55-80. ISBN 978-3-631-56954-2.
The analysis in this book focusses on the EU's common security and defence policy (CSDP) and Germany's commitment to it. What are Germany's views, preferences and policy in this connection? Describing the history of CSDP and major advances since 2003, the author describes the capabilities available on the both the civilian and the military fronts, joint work carried out with other international organisations, the CSDP's institutional set-up, and the type of decisions that can be taken under it. The book then draws up a balance sheet of Germany's policy vis-à-vis CSDP to see whether the direction taken by the European Union in extending its common foreign and security policy (CFSP) matches German interests. As part of a constructivist approach, the research enables readers to gain insight into Germany's attitude to various aspects of the EU's policy.
(EPi)
*** SIBYLLE LANG: Bestimmungsfaktoren und Handlungsfähigkeit der Europäischen Sicherheits- und Verteidigungspolitik. Peter Lang (see above). "Europäische Hochschulschriften" series, No. 547. 2007, 312 pp, €51-10. ISBN 978-3-631-56663-3.
Since the addition of the Western European Union's Petersberg missions to the Amsterdam Treaty, the European Union has been developing a common security and defence policy (CSDP) extending the common foreign and security policy (CFSP) established under the Maastricht Treaty. The analysis in this book focuses on decisive factors in the CSDP and the room for manœuvre in which it operates. From the start, the policy has made major advances, argues the author, in terms of institutional procedures, defining strategic objectives and civilian and military crisis reaction capabilities. Various domestic and external factors, however, like the structure of the world system, individual countries and the role of institutions and their decision-making mechanisms both fashion and hold back actual implementation of the CSDP. The author examines the foreign policy of a nation in her Foreign Policy Analysis. Analysis of the considerable successes of the CSDP leads on to reflection on the role of the specific interests of EU Member States and the close connections between some of them and the United States and NATO. The author argues that the CSDP's expanding room for manoeuvre is an important issue and will remain just as important in the future.
(EPi)
*** GERALD HEINRICH MANN: Transatlantische Freihandelszone. Politische und ökonomische Perspektiven einer transatlantischen Freihandelszone aus EU, Mercosur und NAFTA. Peter Lang (see above). "Studien zur Internationalen Politik" series, No. 8. 2007, 384 pp, €55-80. ISBN 978-3-631-55780-8.
This book looks at the prospects for a new trade deal between the European Union, MERCOSUR and NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Association). For decades, various regional integration strategies have been pursued in the world. In the 1990s, customs unions and political and economic agreements strengthened purely commercial integration in compliance with the WTO system. This book looks at the political and economic aspects of the possible setting up of a vast transatlantic free trade zone. Looking back at the history of world trade since the nineteenth century and the history of the EU, MERCOSUR and NAFTA, the author argues that the idea of a vast free trade zone could lead on to a deal being signed in the next few decades.
(EPi)