Publications
Creating Security through Immigration Control: An analysis of European immigration discourse and the development towards a common EU asylum and imm...
The purpose of this report is to discuss the extent to which immigration has come to be perceived as a security threat by European Union (EU) policy makers. The manner in which immigration issues are presented by policy makers at the European level is assumed to have substantive implications for the choice of instruments in the area. A second purpose is therefore to discuss the extent to which the development towards a common EU asylum and immigration policy can be interpreted as security policy strategy. Increased immigration during the last few decades has coincided with increasing unemployment and economic restructuring in Western Europe. The issue of immigration became increasingly sensitive in the late 1980s after the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe, when a tide of illegal immigrants was expected to inundate the West. Today, images of ships loaded with refugees off the shores of Italy, or of trucks filled with illegal immigrants crossing the English Channel, have become disturbing, but no longer rare features of European newspaper headlines. The impression is that of Europe being ‘swamped’, and unable to deal with the hordes of people standing outside its gates wanting in.Since the aim of this report is to examine the change that has taken place in European perspectives on immigration, a study of political discourse will enable us to deconstruct a number of justificatory domains, which are supported by the members of the European policy community. The main hypothesis is that security considerations are clearly reflected in the establishment and development of asylum and immigration instruments following the Amsterdam programme. Another hypothesis is that the framing of immigration as a security threat has legitimised the introduction of objectives and instruments that have their origin in security policy. This is notably to be seen in the accession agreements with the Central and Eastern European applicant countries, as well in the so-called ‘partnership-agreements’ with immigrant countries of origin and transit. Having established the broader aim of this report, I propose two main and inter linked questions as the framework for the analysis: First: To what extent has the issue of asylum and immigration come to be seen as a security threat, and thus as a security matter at the EU level? Second: To what extent is the above question reflected in the objectives and instruments of the common EU asylum and immigration policy? Can the development towards a common EU asylum and immigration policy be called a security policy strategy?
Partnership and Discord: Russia and the construction of a post Cold War security architecture in Europe 1991–2000
This study analyses Russia’s approach to the construction of a post-Cold War security architecture in Europe from 1991 to 2000. The author examines tensions, contradictions and ambiguities in Russia’s policy that contributed to making both partnership and discord ingredients to Russian–Western security relations. For instance, how can we understand Russia’s intense opposition to NATO enlargement and NATO’s out-of-area operations in light of Russia’s own formalised cooperation with the Western alliance? And how can we conceive of Moscow’s enduring position that the OSCE should be the ‘cornerstone’ of Europe’s security architecture, considering what many observers have interpreted as Russian obstruction of, and non-compliance with, OSCE decisions and norms? The author seeks to answer these questions by tracing the Russian debate on national identity and foreign policy that emerged in the wake of Soviet dissolution.
Damage Limitation and Decline in Institutional Powers: Russia’s Perception of the EU as a Security Actor 1999–2002
The report will discuss whether or not Russian interest and endorsement of the EU’s security and defense dimension repeated the overall strategic perspective of the Primakov doctrine, which aimed at counterbalancing US unipolarism by playing on the differences between the US and Europe in international affairs. I ask this question since analysts are not equivocal to this end. Some suggest that “Primakov’s fall from power has not undercut the importance of multipolarity in Russian foreign policy. By analyzing perceptions, I seek to highlight the dominating trends in the discourse on the EU in Russia. This involves a broad orientation with regard to sources. Russia has engaged in a comprehensive debate on relating to the EU and NATO within the field of security, and the report draws on vast material from the security debate within research circles and official speeches and newspaper reports. Perceptions will be linked to the interpretive approaches of damage limitation or declining institutional powers. A definition of these two approaches will be given below.
Tackling Welfare Gaps: The East European Transition and New Patterns of Migration to Norway
The main purpose of the study is to analyse how the growing welfare gaps between Eastern and Western Europe have become a securitised issue that needs to be addressed by national, international and supranational bodies. The very existence of welfare gaps is an important migratory push-factor. This study will examine how the economic and social transition in Eastern Europe – first of all in Russia and Poland, but also in the rest of what used to be defined as Eastern Bloc1 – has contributed to the emergence of a new set of push and pull factors in the region, and as a direct result, to new patterns of emigration. The next step will be to see how these emerging migratory patterns have influenced migration trends in Norway. As Norway is often represented as the wealthiest country in Europe and a country that has successfully pursued what is often in the Central and Eastern European discourse described as ‘the third way’ of development: a country that, thanks to its revenues from oil, has managed to build a capitalism with a human face, Norway has become both a potential and actual country of migration to many of the citizens from the former Communist Bloc. Thus, this study maps both the ‘push factors’ in the area of actual and potential emigration in Eastern and Central Europe, as well as the most important ‘pull factors’ in the areas of actual and potential migration, with a focus on Central/Eastern Europe on the one hand, and Norway on the other. In this context we will look at various institutional and non-institutional strategies of eliminating the welfare gaps perceived as a major cause of migration. As migration is increasingly becoming a securitised issue, I will treat the ‘welfare gap/migration issue’ as a part of a new post-Cold War European security equation.
Corruption in former USSR countries and international oil business in Azerbaijan
This research report presents an analysis of corruption in Azerbaijan. We have mainly relied on secondary sources. Since data on observed corruption are scarce and unsystematic, we had to give much emphasis on background data that have important impact on corruption levels in general and for which quantitative observations exist: The relative size of the underground economy, the rate of tax collection and the degree of poverty. We draw background data from a sample of countries that belonged to the former Soviet Union, the FSU countries. The countries chosen we consider to be the most relevant for a study of corruption in Azerbaijan, either because they are the largest among the FSU countries or because they are at similar economic level as Azerbaijan, share borders or language. Practical considerations, such as available statistics also play a role.
Foreign Direct Investment in Norway’s Manufacturing Sector
This report investigates the location advantages of the Norwegian manufacturing industry while focusing on economic as well as institutional factors. The economy relies highly on the exploitation of natural resources and only minor parts of its exports are technology based. Norway as a market for consumer goods is not only small in size but is also located at the periphery of Europe. Since the beginning of industrialisation, policies towards foreign direct investment (FDI) have had two targets: The first has been to keep as much of the resource rent as possible within the country and the second, to develop a domestic manufacturing industry. A variety of political tools has been used to achieve these objectives. Although various international agreements aim to reduce preferences for domestic production, several sectors in the Norwegian manufacturing industry remain protected by governmental policy. Norwegian MNEs have internalised former and present L-advantages into firm-specific assets. Domestic interest groups or the state partly control several of these enterprises. Compared to other small European countries, Norway has a relatively low share of FDI in the manufacturing industry. Nonetheless, over the last decades the country has experienced a substantial increase in FDI. This is partly due to investments of foreign affiliates of Norwegian multinational companies, reinvesting in Norway. In 1996, on an average, 18% of the employment in firms with at least 50 employees was located to foreign controlled firms while the corresponding figures in 1980 and 1991 were 8% and 13%. FDI mainly takes the form of mergers and acquisitions and is particularly significant in sectors with an above average R&D intensity and in other market segments with a relatively high producer concentration. The main industrial clusters as well as the production of consumer goods have experienced the major growth of FDI employment in the period 1991–1996. Often, these are also sectors with a high degree of governmental protection.
Corruption. A review of contemporary research
This report is an overview of contemporary research on corruption. The main objectives of the study have been to organise existing knowledge on corruption, discuss the major controversies within and across disciplines and to identify some areas in most need for further research with an emphasis on questions relevant for development policy. The review has been carried out as a joint study by researchers at the Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI), Bergen, and the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), Oslo. Special thanks to the CMI and NUPI librarians for their assistance. Financial support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Co-operation, (NORAD) and extra time from our institutes are gratefully acknowledged. The survey may be somewhat biased towards economic approaches, reflecting the fact that the writing and editing have primarily been done by the economists Odd-Helge Fjeldstad (CMI) and Jens Chr. Andvig (NUPI). In addition, Tina Søreide (CMI), also an economist, has contributed to chapter 3. Inge Amundsen(CMI), a political scientist, has written chapter 4 and made several contributions to chapters 2 and 10. Tone Sissener (CMI), a social anthropologist, has written chapter 5. The study focuses on academic research. While a survey of the output from public commissions would be useful, they are not systematically covered here. Moreover, to make the survey accessible to a multidisciplinary readership, efforts have been made to present the more abstract and technical research in a non-technical way. In spite of its limitations we hope this survey will be considered useful – and be used – by researchers, students, development practitioners and aid officials.
Internasjonal valgobservasjon i Afrika sør for Sahara : fødselshjelp for folkestyret eller hyllest til papirdemokratiet?
Internasjonal valgobservasjon har siden inngangen til 90-tallet vært å regne for en industri i voldsom vekst. Denne utviklingen har hatt sammenheng med demokratikravene som vestlige givere innførte overfor utviklingslandene i kjølvannet av kommunismens fall i 1989. Til tross for det store antallet internasjonale observasjonsoppdrag det siste tiåret har dette feltet hittil vært lite kartlagt rent forskningsmessig, selv om en rekke empiriske kritikker har beskyldt de internasjonale organisasjonenes observasjonspraksis for å mangle nødvendig kvalitetssikring. Denne rapporten søker å bidra til en bredere og mer systematisk kartlegging av den internasjonale observasjonspraksisen i Afrika sør for Sahara på 90-tallet. Spørsmålet som danner utgangspunktet for rapporten er følgende: I hvilken grad kan man si at internasjonale observasjonsoppdrag i Afrika sør for Sahara, har vært gjennomført i tråd med internasjonale organisasjoners uttalte målsetninger på feltet? Spørsmålet knytter seg altså til internasjonale organisasjoners måloppnåelse i forbindelse med internasjonale observasjonsoppdrag. Gitt mangelen på en teoretisk utforskning av valgobservasjonsfeltet har dette forskningsarbeidet hatt et todelt mål. Det første målet har vært å forsøke å bidra til å etablere ny teori på et uutforsket felt. Det andre målet har vært å gjennomføre en empirisk analyse av fire konkrete observasjonsoppdrag, og gjennom denne avdekke om kritikken som har kommet mot enkeltstående oppdrag også vil være representativ for et bredere empirisk materiale. Mye av kritikken mot observasjonspraksisen det siste tiåret har dreid seg om mangelen på en felles standard for bedømmelsen av flerpartivalg. Det teoretiske rammeverket som utvikles i rapporten er et forsøk på å bøte på denne situasjonen. I tillegg inkluderer rammeverket et sett av egenskaper ved internasjonal valgobservasjon som anses som særlig sentralt for å sikre at observatørene faktisk får innhentet informasjon om forholdene i valgstandarden. Til sammen utgjør komponentene i rammeverket det man kan kalle en idealmodell for internasjonale observasjonsoppdrag. Selv om konklusjonen på den empiriske analysen er at måloppnåelsen til aktørene som granskes (FN, EU, Samveldet og Carter-senteret) generelt sett har vært svak, avdekker den også at det finnes visse unntak. Særlig har Carter-senteret vist at de er i stand til å kvalitetssikre et observasjonsoppdrag i relativt høy grad. Hva er så mulige årsaker til at de mer politiske aktørene har lavere grad av måloppnåelse? Kapittelet etter hovedanalysen trekker frem et mulig forklaringsperspektiv. Her pekes det på betydningen av det man kan kalle ‘konkurrerende agendaer’ i internasjonal politikk. Denne forklaringsmodellen legger til grunn at en kvalitetssikring av observasjonspraksisen ikke nødvendigvis er en førsteprioritet for de internasjonale organisasjonene i tilfeller der de har andre politiske og økonomiske agendaer, som går på tvers av den internasjonale demokratiseringsagendaen.
Military non-alignment, political solidarity, and a retreat to territorial defence: how to understand the Swedish NATO-debate