The Expert-Executive Nexus in the European Administrative System: Expert Groups and the European Commission
Drawing on research from the administrative sciences and using organizational, institutional and decision-making theories, this volume examines the emerging bureaucratic framework of the EU and highlights that analyzing the patterns and dynamics of the EU's administrative capacities is essential to understand how it shapes European public policy.
The limits of global authority: World Bank benchmarks in Ethiopia and Malawi
Global benchmarks (re)shape political conversations and institutionalise authoritative languages. It does not necessarily follow, however, that benchmarks can exert a lasting or significant influence over policies and behaviour of benchmarked actors. We analyse how the World Bank uses benchmarks to manage its relations with both donors and recipient governments. We analyse the role of the World Bank’s Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA), both at headquarters and in relation to the recent history of two countries in Africa: Ethiopia and Malawi. We find that the CPIA is not – and contrary to what one would expect from the CPIA’s nominal function and the literature on benchmarks – a very important tool for signalling incentives and allocating funds, or shaping the policy dialogue or the World Bank’s strategy in these two countries. Rather, the CPIA is used highly selectively as one factor among many in the negotiations between World Bank staff and governments. We conclude that the CPIA helps establish the World Bank as an actor that embodies global authority on development issues, including with donors, but that there is a tension between such global authority on the one hand, and concrete authority to shape policy in domestic contexts, on the other.
UN at 70: Peace and Security
This seminar focuses on peace and security, and explores the three recent review processes conducted in this field: the peace operations review, the review of the peacebuilding architecture and the review of the implementation of security council resolution 1325.
Cancelled: The Stakes and Stakeholders in the 2015 Myanmar Elections
This event is cancelled.
Heads of States Can Change the Course of International Drugs Policy in 2016: Where does the EU stand?
A quick overview of the past ten to fifteen years developments in drugs policies in Europe reveals two diverging trends: a public health and social policy track on the one hand, and a security policy track on the other. While as the future of drugs policy as a political field in its own right is being questioned in the European context, the EU has explicitly stated its objective of a greater involvement and role in international drugs policy. Apart from continuity in harm reduction and research promotion – i.e., EU’s key contributions to global drugs policy – EU support to larger and deeper reconfigurations of the global drug prohibition regime remains highly unlikely.
The next big European project? The migration and asylum crisis: a vital challenge for the EU
The summer of 2015 may well be remembered as a turning point in the history of both migration to Europe and European integration. There was a further rise in mixed inflows of migrants and refugees, with a diversification of the routes employed – in particular, a surge in transits across the Eastern Mediterranean and the Western Balkans. Secondly,the already dynamic map of political reactions and policy responses entered a phase of hectic and deep change, due primarily to a major shift in the position of Germany.
Reforms, Customs and Resilience: Justice for Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in Liberia
This book explores the burgeoning interest in alternative and innovative justice responses to sexual violence both within and outside the legal system. It explores the limits of criminal law for achieving 'rape justice' and highlights possibilities for expanding how we think about justice in the aftermath of sexual violence.