Zu diesem Heft / About this edition

English Summaries

Autoren / Autorinnen / Authors

ARTIKEL/ARTICLES

GRZEGORZ GROMADZKI
An Urgent Challenge for Today's Europe: The Eastern Partnership

The Eastern Partnership (EaP), a Polish–Swedish initiative, was officially launched in May 2009. It is the EU’s newest program for building relations with six countries from Eastern Europe and the Southern Caucasus: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. The EaP
is facing fundamental challenges. What is needed is success with regard to at least one EaP country that would serve as a good example for the others.

ROSA BALFOUR
Debating the Eastern Partnership: Perspectives from the European Union

Taking a 20-year historical perspective, the EU has gradually increased its level of engage-ment in Eastern Europe and the Southern Caucasus. However, the EaP falls short in addressing the key political and security dilemmas by using soft policy and external governance tools. This can allow the EaP countries to take an »à la carte« approach to enga-gement with the EU. The recently established democracies remain fragile, political reform is stalled in most cases, and opening avenues for greater contacts with the EU so far has not produced sufficient results with the more authoritarian regimes.

ANDREI ZAGORSKI
Eastern Partnership from the Russian Perspective

The EaP has raised a number of critical questions in Moscow. Its objectives, if successfully attained, are expected to cause significant disadvantages for Russia, pre-eminent among which are the difficulties it is likely to cause for integration between the Russian Federation and the EaP countries. This is because the EaP is perceived as a hindrance to the closer cooperation of those countries with the Russian Federation: indeed, some in Moscow see the EaP as deliberately designed to undermine such cooperation.

BORIS NAVASARDIAN
Armenia: Imagining the Integration of the Southern Caucasus with the EU

The 2009 launch of the EaP not only contributed to the overall strengthening of EU–Armenian relations but also envisaged correction of the shortcomings of the ENP. Parliamentary and civil society forums were included with a view to raising public awareness of the details of the program, as a result of which it may be hoped that there will be more regard for the public interest. Nonetheless, there is still uncertainty about the priorities of the EaP, as well as controversy around the perceptions of the initiative, in both the partner countries and the EU itself.

RASHAD SHIRINOV
A Pragmatic Area for Cooperation: Azerbaijan and the EU

Relations between Azerbaijan and Euro-Atlantic structures have deteriorated once more and the Azerbaijani ruling elite have seemingly spurned European values. This seems partly connected to the relative decline of European and us power vis-à-vis Russia in the former Soviet sphere. However, this decline is observed mostly in the realm of human rights and democratization, whereas in the areas of economic development, social policy, the environ-ment, and other »soft« issues the Azerbaijani government is largely open to cooperation.

VLADIMIR ULAKHOVICH
Belarus and the Eastern Partnership: Still a Long Way to Go

Perceptions of the EaP remain quite different in Belarus and in Europe, and this creates barriers to cooperation. The EU should extend the EaP, as it has shown its value as an innovative forum for deepening relations. In particular, the EaP should focus on reinforcing the role of civil society actors and support the broadest possible channels for discussion. EU policy towards Eastern Europe should advocate a change in Europe’s energy supply paradigm.

TAMAR KHIDASHELI
Georgia's European Way

The five-day war of August 2008 altered Georgian reality. In the postconflict era, the Georgian authorities have perceived the EU as the only alternative for ensuring the security and territorial integrity of the country. There is a general consensus that Georgia has to strengthen its democracy. In 2008, President Saakashvili promised a »new wave of democracy«; however, the reality has been disappointing. Indeed, according to assessments by Reporters Without Borders and Freedom House, Georgia’s media is less free and pluralistic today than it was before the Rose Revolution.

VICTOR CHIRILA
New Opportunities for Moldova

Since the elections of 2009, Moldova has been governed by a coalition that supports Moldova’s gradual integration with the EU. As a result, the EU has started negotiations on the future Association Agreement which will offer political association and economic integration. Nevertheless, the EaP has not overcome the main structural deficiency of the ENP, which is its weak motivation and conditionality package. This structural deficiency is somewhat concealed, inasmuch as Moldova is determined to implement all necessary reforms without waiting to be given a clear-cut prospect of European integration.

IRYNA SOLONENKO
Added Value? Eastern Partnership and EU-Ukraine Bilateral Relations

The offer expressed in the European Commission’s Communication on the EaP contains interesting ideas, including regional development programs similar to the EU’s convergence policy, direct cooperation between regions of the EU and partner countries, cross-border cooperation among the EaP partner countries and, in the longer term, the possibility of a targeted opening of the EU labor market and the prospect of full access to the single market.

ALEXANDRA DOBRA
Microfinance: Champion in Poverty Alleviation and Failure in Female Empowerment

In the past few years the provision of financial services to low-income clients via microfinance programs has dramatically increased due to its positive effects on development. Microfinance programs provide an effective and operational policy tool which has been successful in reducing poverty »holistically,« in the sense that women tend to share their income with others more than men. However, the rigidity of microfinance programs does little to enhance female political empowerment.

 

REZENSIONEN/BOOK REVIEWS

Alle Rezensionen als PDF / All reviews as PDF

HELMUT STRIZEK:
Clinton am Kivu-See. Die Geschichte einer afrikanischen Katastrophe

(Rezensent: Franz Ansprenger)
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JOHN J. MEARSHEIMER:
Why Leaders Lie. The Truth about Lying in International Politics

(Rezensentin: Anja Wehler-Schöck)
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ROBERT SKIDELSKY:
Die Rückkehr des Meisters. Keynes für das 21. Jahrhundert

(Rezensent: Nebi Kesen)
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THOMAS GEOGHEGAN:
Were You Born on the Wrong Continent? How the European Model Can Help You Get a Life

(Rezensent: Thomas Greven)
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TIM JACKSON:
Prosperity without Growth

(Rezensent: Helmut Zell)
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HEINRICH BERGSTRESSER:
Nigeria: Macht und Ohnmacht am Golf von Guinea

JOHN CAMPBELL:
Nigeria: Dancing on the Brink

(Rezensent: Thomas Mättig)
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ULRICH BRAND:
Post-Neoliberalismus? Aktuelle Konflikte. Gegen-hegemoniale Strategien.

(Rezensent: Stefan Brocza)
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