The Crisis Goes On: How to Respond?
Eugen Dijmarescu
Abstract:
The world seems to suffer the first crisis of the globalization. Prior to this, individual country or regional experience has been accumulated on financial crisis, which taught policymakers how to design remedial policies, but there has not been a World financial crisis in most people living memory. The most developed economies have witnessed less ambitious economic cycles while financial cycles have not calmed down, but had even grew. The impact of this financial instability with the economic growth is a potential risk which will never be underestimated in the future. Current national or G-20 responses to the crisis have started to reshape the global economy and to shift the balance between the political and economic forces at play in the process of globalization. We should look equally to the imbalance of the dynamism of financial leverage versus poor regulation, as to the disequilibria issued from financial globalized markets politically addressed with a constellation of conflicting national regulations. The major quest now is the need for a reconciliation of the democracy with the market. People has been largely disappointed by the freedom that some financial instruments played only to the aim of raising profits, while elected politicians were lately asking for more taxes to protect deposits. Hence, no further political debate will leave aside those matters. Both at home and international.
Keywords: credibility, credit, ECB, financial crisis, National Bank, risk
Afghanistan: Post-Modernizing a Pre-modern Society?
Liviu Bogdan Vlad, Adina Negrea
Abstract:
The defined purpose of this paper is to analyse the phenomenon of post-modernizing pre-modern societies, having as example the case of Afghanistan. Assuming that political modernity implies the existence of a centralized state, we will show that there never was a modern period in the history of Afghanistan. The last part of this paper focuses on presenting the impact that the phenomenon of post-modernization has had on Afghanistan, by analysing four characteristics of the contemporary world – the world after the collapse of the Soviet Union: the critique of the fungible character of power; the privatisation of security; the new types of wars; the regionalization and fragmentation of the world. The dilemma that needs to be solved is that of surpassing the risks brought about by the co-existence of three levels of evolution: the pre-modern level (the segmented Afghan society), the modern level (the attempt to found a centralized state), the post-modern level (the attempt to anchor the new-founded state in the global system, from a political, economic and cultural point of view).
Keywords: geopolitics, International Relations, modernism, Politics, postmodernism
Turkey and the European Union: Divergent Discourses?
Edward Moxon-Browne, Cigdem Ustun
Abstract:
It has become almost axiomatic to argue that the prospect of Turkish accession to the European Union (EU) poses unprecedented challenges to its cohesion, its institutional structure, and to its identity. No country has waited longer to open negotiations with the EU, and no country has embarked on negotiations with such a distant prospect for those negotiations being concluded. Our purpose here is not to consider the wide range of problems faced by Turkey in these negotiations, or even to make a judgement on whether these negotiations will, or ought to be, successful. Our objective is to consider public opinion in the EU, and in Turkey with a view to isolating perceptions on both sides that may be complicating factors in an already intricate relationship.
Keywords: accession, Cyprus, Kurdish minority, public opinion, Turkey
The European Union Brings a Balance of Power in the Black Sea Region
Cristian Niţoiu
Abstract:
The Black Sea Region is clearly in a transition period, and Romanian policy markers will have to be very careful assessing this situation and stating their position. US ambitions for NATO clearly conflict with French ambitions for the EU. Furthermore, even though most EU NATO members find themselves caught in the middle, the current zero-sum nature of NATO-EU relations seems to portend continuing turmoil on the road ahead, to the detriment of both organizations and of transatlantic relations more generally. The paper analyzes the way in which the European Union changed the national interests of the states of Back Sea Region. The key point of these transformations is set to be the “five-day war” of August 2008.
Keywords: Black Sea Region, EU foreign relations, national interest
Public Opinion and the Attitudes of Ethnic Groups on European Integration in Moldova (2000 – 2008)
Sergiu Buşcaneanu
Abstract:
This article explores the dynamics of public opinion and the attitudes of ethnic groups on European integration in Moldova for the 2000-2008 period. Drawing on data provided by sixteen surveys, it reveals the sociological profile of “Europtimists” in Moldova and the hierarchy of demographic parameters based on the extent to which they divide public opinion concerning European integration. The paper finds out that men, persons from rural areas, youth, Moldovans/Romanians, the more educated people and with better life standards are more fervent supporters of European integration of Moldova. It argues also that differences in the education of respondents divide the public opinion in the most abrupt way with regard to the opportunity of European integration of Moldova, while the different genders induce the smallest difference between options of respondents for the “European idea”. The paper suggests that, in practical terms, its findings might be of help to relevant governmental bodies that should consider well-defined targeted information campaigns while promoting the “European idea” in Moldova.
Keywords: ethnic groups, European integration, Moldova, public opinion