This contribution argues that the three dominant approaches to European integration cannot fully explain why the two most recent crises of the European Union (EU) resulted in very different outcomes. ...Liberal intergovernmentalism and neofunctionalism can account for why the euro crisis resulted in more integration, but fail to explain why the EU has been stuck in a stalemate in the Schengen crisis. With regard to postfunctionalism, it is the other way around. To solve the puzzle, we have to consider that depoliticization through supranational delegation during the euro crisis has ultimately led to more, not less politicization. Moreover, both crises were about identity politics. Political controversies over the euro crisis have centred predominantly on questions of order, i.e., what constitutes Europe as a community and how much solidarity members of the community owe to each other under which conditions. The mass influx of migrants and refugees changed identity politics, since Eurosceptic populist parties framed the Schengen crisis in terms of borders, advocating for an exclusionary 'fortress Europe.' In contrary of a more inclusionary discourse, the dominance of exclusionary positions in the politicization of EU affairs has impaired an upgrading of the common European interest in the Schengen crisis.
As International Organization commemorates its seventy-fifth anniversary, the Liberal International Order (LIO) that authors in this journal have long analyzed is under challenge, perhaps as never ...before. The articles in this issue explore the nature of these challenges by examining how the Westphalian order and the LIO have co-constituted one another over time; how both political and economic dynamics internal to the LIO threaten its core aspects; and how external threats combine with these internal dynamics to render the LIO more fragile than ever before. This introduction begins by defining and clarifying what is “liberal,” “international,” and “orderly” about the LIO. It then discusses some central challenges to the LIO, illustrated by the contributors to this issue as well as other sources. Finally, we reflect on the analytical lessons we have learned—or should learn—as the study of the LIO, represented by scholarship in International Organization, has sometimes overlooked or marginalized dynamics that now appear central to the functioning, and dysfunction, of the order itself.
This special issue explores to what extent policies and institutions of the European Union spread across different contexts. Are the EU's attempts to transfer its policies and institutions to ...accession and neighbourhood countries sustainable and effective? To what degree do other regions of the world emulate the EU's institutional features; what are the mechanisms of, and scope conditions for, their diffusion? This introduction provides the conceptual framework of the special issue. First, it specifies EU-related institutional change as the 'dependent variable'. Second, it discusses how Europeanisation research and diffusion studies relate to each other and can be fruitfully combined to identify processes and mechanisms by which ideas and institutions of the EU spread. Third, we introduce scope conditions which are likely to affect domestic (or regional) change in response to the promotion or emulation of EU ideas and institutions.
The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Regionalism—the first of its kind—offers a systematic and wide-ranging survey of the scholarship on regionalism, regionalization, and regional governance. Unpacking ...the major debates, leading authors of the field synthesize the state of the art, provide a guide to the comparative study of regionalism, and identify future avenues of research. Twenty-seven chapters review the theoretical and empirical scholarship with regard to the emergence of regionalism, the institutional design of regional organizations and issue-specific governance, as well as the effects of regionalism and its relationship with processes of regionalization. The authors explore theories of cooperation, integration, and diffusion explaining the rise and the different forms of regionalism. The Handbook also discusses the state of the art on the world regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Eurasia, Asia, North Africa and the Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa. Various chapters survey the literature on regional governance in major issue areas such as security and peace, trade and finance, environment, migration, social and gender policies, as well as democracy and human rights. Finally, the Handbook engages in cross-regional comparisons with regard to institutional design, dispute settlement, identities and communities, legitimacy and democracy, as well as inter- and transregionalism.
This book collects Thomas Risse's most important articles together in a single volume. Covering a wide range of issues – the end of the Cold War, transatlantic relations, the "democratic peace," ...human rights, governance in areas of limited statehood, Europeanization, European identity and public spheres, most recently comparative regionalism – it is testament to the breadth and excellence of this highly respected International Relations scholar's work. The collection is organized thematically – domestic politics and international relations, international sources of domestic change, and the diffusion of ideas and institutions – and a brand new introductory essay provides additional coherence. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of International Relations, European Politics, and Comparative Politics.
The 1985 IEEE 754 standard for the representation of and the arithmetic with floating point numbers has been reconsidered. On the one hand today, its technological assumptions are by no means longer ...valid. On the other hand, the irritating numerical phenomena which have been collected cast a doubt as to whether this much uncertainty in numerical results is fate. Fortunately, around 2015, Gustafson proposed UNUMs, a modification of the IEEE 754 standard with the potential to heal the said shortcomings. Till now, there are some attempts to implement his ideas, both in software and in hardware. With these activities well under way, the other necessity is development of a mathematical library for UNUMs when one wants UNUMs to become the new floating point standard. This paper presented the ideas leading to UNUMs, gave some hints on floating point units for UNUMs and illustrated the difficulties in developing the said mathematical library by the example of approximating zeroes of analytic functions.
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•Chemical looping performance of OCM strongly depends on the catalyst composition.•The thickness of the active layer controls the O2 storage capacity of the catalysts.•Reversible ...change in the redox state of the catalyst is proven by ESR; XRD; and XPS.
A series of Na2WO4/Mn/SiO2 catalysts supported on mesoporous silica were prepared and tested for the oxidative coupling of methane in chemical looping experiments. The parameter variations were done for specific surface area, Mn-loading and support material. Chemical looping experiments reveal that highest catalytic activity is observed at 2 wt% Mn and 5 wt% Na2WO4 on mesoporous silica. Repetitive methane pulse experiments allowed us to determine the oxygen uptake of the Na2WO4/Mn/SiO2 catalyst in chemical looping experiments. We found a correlation between oxygen storage capacity and manganese loading, which is in line with the reversible change of Mn(III) concentration observed in oxidation and reduction cycles of the material. Furthermore, we observed that ethylene formation is independent of the catalyst material in chemical looping conditions. No indication for the presence of W(V) was found.
Historically, people have prized gold for its beauty and the durability that resulted from its chemical inertness. However, even the ancient Romans had noted that finely dispersed gold can give rise ...to particular optical phenomena. A decade ago, researchers found that highly dispersed gold supported on oxides exhibits high chemical activity in a number of reactions. These chemical and optical properties have recently prompted considerable interest in applications of nanodispersed gold. Despite their broad use, a microscopic understanding of these gold−metal oxide systems lags behind their application. Numerous studies are currently underway to understand why supported nanometer-sized gold particles show catalytic activity and to explore possible applications of their optical properties in photonics and biology. This Account focuses on a microscopic understanding of the gold−substrate interaction and its impact on the properties of the adsorbed gold. Our strategy uses model systems in which gold atoms and clusters are supported on well-ordered thin oxide films grown on metal single crystals. As a result, we can investigate the systems with the rigor of modern surface science techniques while incorporating some of the complexity found in technological applications. We use a variety of different experimental methods, namely, scanning probe techniques (scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, STM and STS), as well as infrared (IR), temperature-programmed desorption (TPD), and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, to evaluate these interactions and combine these results with theoretical calculations. We examined the properties of supported gold with increasing complexity starting from single gold atoms to one- and two-dimensional clusters and three-dimensional particles. These investigations show that the binding of gold on oxide surfaces depends on the properties of the oxide, which leads to different electronic properties of the Au deposits. Changes in the electronic structure, namely, the charge state of Au atoms and clusters, can be induced by surface defects such as color centers. Interestingly, the film thickness can also serve as a parameter to alter the properties of Au. Thin MgO films (two to three monolayer thickness) stabilize negatively charged Au atoms and two-dimensional Au particles. In three dimensions, the properties of Au particles bigger than 2−3 nm in diameter are largely independent of the support. Smaller three-dimensional particles, however, showed differences based on the supporting oxide. Presumably, the oxide support stabilizes particular atomic configurations, charge states, or electronic properties of the ultrasmall Au aggregates, which are in turn responsible for this distinct chemical behavior.
This article takes issue with the ‘no demos’ thesis about the European Union. Empirically speaking, a ‘demos’ requires a sense of community among the citizens, on the one hand, and a lively public ...spheres in which political issues are debated, on the other. It is argued in this article, first, that a majority of European citizens has developed dual identities – to their nation‐state and to Europe – and this Europeanization of national identities is sufficient to sustain carefully crafted (re‐)distributive policies on the European level. Second, the euro crisis has strongly increased the politicization of national public spheres and has also led to their growing Europeanization with regard to issue salience and to the actors represented.
This symposium item belongs to a section headed: SYMPOSIUM: CONVENTIONAL WISDOMS UNDER CHALLENGE – REVIEWING THE EU’S DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT IN TIMES OF CRISIS, which also includes Introduction: Rationale of the Symposium by Michael Blauberger, Sonja Puntscher Riekmann and Doris Wydra (DOI: 10.1111/jcms.12184), Integration without Representation? The European Parliament and the Reform of Economic Governance in the EU by Berthold Rittberger (DOI: 10.1111/jcms.12185), Parliaments in the Euro Crisis: Can the Losers of Integration Still Fight Back? by Katrin Auel and Oliver Höing (DOI: 10.1111/jcms.12186), ‘European Elections are Second‐Order Elections’: Is Received Wisdom Changing? by Richard Corbett (DOI: 10.1111/jcms.12187), From ‘Sleeping Giant’ to Left–Right Politicization? National Party Competition on the EU and the Euro Crisis by Eric Miklin (DOI: 10.1111/jcms.12188), From Regulatory State to a Democratic Default by Giandomenico Majone (DOI: 10.1111/jcms.12190)
We report on a combined quantitative charge carrier and catalytic activity analysis of Cu/ZnO(:Al) model catalysts. The promoting effect of Al3+ on the ZnO support for CO2 activation via the reverse ...water–gas-shift reaction has been investigated. The contact-free and operando microwave Hall Effect technique is applied to measure charge carriers in Cu/ZnO(:Al) based model catalysts under reverse water–gas shift reaction conditions. This method allows us to monitor the electrical conductivity, charge carrier mobility, and absolute number of charge carriers. An increase in charge carrier concentration with increasing Al3+ content and its direct correlation with the catalytic activity for CO formation is found. We conclude that the increased availability of charge carriers plays a key role in CO2 activation and CO formation, which finds additional support in a concurrent decrease of the apparent activation energy and increase in the reaction order of CO2. In combination with comprehensive DFT calculations, the impact of the interfacial charge transfer, coupled to oxygen defect sites in ZnO and CO2 adsorption properties, is elucidated and highlighted. In conclusion, the results from this operando investigation combined with DFT calculations demonstrate the importance of charge transfer processes as decisive descriptors for understanding and explaining catalytic properties.
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