The Europeanisation of Norway's Security Identity

In this working paper Pernille Rieker looks into the relationship between the European integration process and changes in Norway’s national security identity. Has the dominant national discourse on security changed since the early 1990s? If so, how are these changes related to the recent acceleration of the European integration process? And to what extent are such European influences on national security identities related to formal membership in the EU? While there is reason to believe that a Europeanisation of national security policies has taken place, the question is whether we may speak of a profound change in identity, or merely an instrumental adaptation to external changes. Several researchers have studied the influence of this participation on national institutions and policies; less attention, however, has been given to the Europeanisation of Norway’s security identity. This paper is an attempt to fill this gap.

Firms' export decisions - fixed trade costs and the size of the export market

This article presents two models of international trade under monopolistic competition. In increasing returns sectors firms face fixed, in addition to variable, trade costs, therefore both exporters and non-exporters may coexist. While nonexporters benefit from access to large domestic markets, exporters benefit from access to large foreign markets. Consequently, a small country has a higher share of exporting firms than a large one. In contrast to standard models, increasing returns sectors turn out more open in small countries than in large ones, and small countries may be net exporters of such commodities, despite the disadvantage of a smaller home market.

Linking Issues : Should one bargain over two issues simultaineously or separately?

International negotiations on trade (e.g. GATT and TRIPS) have typically been of the packageform, and different issues have therefore been linked to each other. Trade issues have not been linked to e.g. environmental agreements in negotiations, however. This paper studies the outcome of linked bargaining, where two issues are simultaneously negotiated over by two countries. We notice that there always exist gains from linkages in bargaining, and that such linking will always occur in equilibrium if there is a pre-stage where the countries are bargaining over the agenda. The outcome under linked bargaining is compared with the outcome under separate negotiations, and the circumstances where a country will gain or lose from linking are characterized. The results help us to understand different countries’ preferences for linkages in bargaining.

Recent Advances in Growth Theory. A Comparison of Neoclassical and Evolutionary Perspectives

Research on economic growth has experienced remarkable progress the last decade. The neoclassical perspective has benefited from development of new mathematical methods and new approaches to market structure, economics of scale and spillover effects. At the same time evolutionary theories on economic development have appeared, partly competing but also complementary to neoclassical theorising. In this paper, the development of the two perspectives on economic growth is reviewed and they are compared with each other. Despite evident differences there seems to be convergence between the two traditions. The two perspectives therefore do not belong to different paradigms in the Kuhnian sense and they can hardly be categorised as two isolated research programmes in the sense of Imre Lakatos. Evolutionary and neoclassical growth economics draw inspiration from similar sources, they are overlapping and to some extent complementary. The two traditions also interact with each other.

Local Elites meet Foreign Corporations : The Examples of Iran and Azerbaijan

Oil companies have jumped on the bandwagon of promotion of democracy and human rights, but without sufficient expertise in local conditions. What works in one country may backfire in another. Azeri democrats want the oil industry to stop propping up the Aliev regime and talk to them instead, but for an Iranian democratic politician, support from Western oil companies is the kiss of death. However, in both countries democrats call for more transparency.

Elite perceptions of ethical problems facing the Western oil industry in Iran

The hybrid of democratic and theocratic institutions of revolutionary Iran is now over twenty years old, and is undergoing challenge. An elected president with popular legitimacy but no control of the means of coercion is endeavouring to open up and liberalise, but is being opposed by the conservatives with theocratic vetoes, newspaper closures and street violence. Part One of this report looks at the diarchy of President Khatami and Supreme Leader Khamenei, their legitimacies, their ‘minimalist’ strategies, and their common interest in restraining their wilder supporters from provoking chaos or civil war. The report then considers the elements of ‘civil society’ resulting from deep structural change in Iran: demography and education, the role of women and the free press. Finally, this part considers the journalistic comparison of Khatami with Gorbachev, and finds that although both are/were attempting limited reform of a faltering system of which they were themselves a part, no Iranian Yeltsin has yet emerged. Part Two of the report is the results of in-depth interviews with 14 prominent reformers. They are optimistic about the prospects for long-term change; all the conservatives can do is postpone change or perpetrate a bloodbath, they cannot put the clock back. Our sample tended to consider the oil companies a bad influence. However, they made a sharp distinction between American companies, which they thought more ethical and transparent, and the secretive European, Arab and Japanese companies. Asked what the oil companies should do to promote democratic developement, the interviewees emphasised transparency above all.

Keeping the peace together? Joint Russian-Western peace operations in the Commonwealth of Independent States

The purpose of this report is to discuss the conditions for future multinational peace operations in the Commonwealth of Independent States, including both Russian and Western forces. The aim and scope of this study are based on a positive attitude to challenges in general, in other words, a will to see opportunities and solutions instead of obstacles and insolvable problems. Problem: What are the possible options for multinational peace operations including Russian and Western forces in the Commonwealth of Independent States? I will focus on investigating possibilities for CPOs in the CIS area. Content: The report will consist of an initial discussion focusing on various Russian approaches that influence thinking on combined peace operations. The focus on Russia is an inevitable consequence of my West/NATO origin, but in order to give a more balanced view of the problem it will also be necessary to look at some other factors influencing this potential co-operation. Further, I will discuss three generic options for combined peace operations in the Commonwealth of Independent States. The main goal of this study is a detailed discussion of various possible scenarios for future Russian-Western co-operation in the field of peace-keeping on the territory of the former Soviet Union. In order to place the topic in a proper context the author takes a closer look at various political, mental, historical and not least purely technical determinants limiting the potential scope of the joint peace-keeping. The study contains a detailed analysis of international (UN), Western (NATO, Canada) and Russian peace-keeping terminology. It also discusses the importance and relevance of various international frameworks determining the field, the scope and the geographical dimension of the potential Russian-Western co-operation, as well as the practical experience from the joint peace-keeping missions in the former Yugoslavia. The study gives a good insight in the history and practice of joint Russian-Western peacekeeping efforts. It also outlines and analyses various practical and political challenges linked with development of this relatively new and still challenging field of co-operation between Russia and the West. As such, it is relevant for both theoreticians of peace-keeping and for those who work with peace-keeping in the field.

Selvforståelse og rolleforventning under ulike regimer : en studie av den russiske intelligentsiaens før og etter kommunismens fall sett i lys av...

Denne studien undersøker rollemønstre og selvforståelse som intellektuelle utvikler under henholdsvis et totalitært og et demokratisk regime. Mer bestemt rettes søkelyset mot den intellektuelle forstått som en samfunnskritiker, en som bidrar til dannelsen av en kritisk og våken offentlig sfære. Sentralt for studien er videre hvordan en gradvis overgang fra et totalitært til et demokratisk regime stiller de intellektuelle overfor nye og ukjente problemer med hensyn til å bli hørt og kunne delta i den offentlige debatt. Dette forholdet har berørt mange av de intellektuelle som var underlagt et kommunistisk system i Sovjetunionen og Øst-Europa. Her drøftes og analyseres hvordan den russiske intelligentsiaen har blitt konfrontert med demokratiets inntreden etter over 70 år med en sterk undertrykking av det frie ord og det sivile samfunn. Studien av intelligentsiaens skjebne gjøres med utgangspunkt i Zygmunt Baumans og Pierre Bourdieus kultursosiologi. Baumans bidrag er konsentrert om hans forståelse av det han definerer som en moderne (Sovjetunionen) og postmoderne (Russland etter 1991) samfunnstilstand og på hvilken måte disse tilstandene definerer intellektuelles roller og selvforståelse. Fra Bourdieu anvendes hans innsikter om intellektuelle som besittere av kulturell kapital og deres posisjon innenfor det han definerer som det sosiale rom. En av studiens hovedkonklusjoner er at sovjetregimet formet en selvforståelse og rolleforventning hos intelligentsiaen som la grunnlag for dens identitetskrise etter 1991.

Supermaktens akilleshæl? Politisk polarisering og beslutningsproblemer ved amerikanske internasjonale militære engasjement

Bulwark, Bridge, or Periphery? Polish discourse on Poland and Europe

After the Communist regime started crumbling in 1989, the official foreign policy of Poland has been redefined. A central characteristic in this process has been Polish involvement in the process of European integration and an application for membership in the European Union. These policies have not been undisputed in Polish political debates. Analyses of Polish European policy tend to concentrate on the official foreign policy of Poland and the strategies of cooperation and integration proposed by EU member states. What they seem to forget is that debates on Europe and what shape the relations between Poland and Europe should take exist within Poland as well. This thesis is an attempt to fill in this gap. What kind of Europe do Poles promote? This thesis argues that foreign policies are conditioned by the ways in which certain concepts are represented in discourse. Its purpose is to present you with an overview of the existing Polish European policy positions, analyze the representations on which they rest and, on the basis of the analysis, draw some conclusions about the preconditions of Polish European policies and make some tentative predictions for they may develop in the future. The purpose of the analysis is thus both explanatory and predicative. Discourses are closely related to the discourses that precede them. I believe that a background study of Polish discourse during Communism is an important background study in order to explicate the foundations of today’s discourse. I will therefore devote a considerable part of the thesis to the discourse of this period.