Think tanks outside liberal democracies have distinctive features that go beyond the features of the original concept that emerged within the US context. Departing from this empirical observation, we ...investigate the sources of the organizational power of think tanks in Ukraine as a case of a limited access order (LAO), a social order where privileged individuals maintain discretionary access to societal resources, functions, and institutions. To accomplish this goal, we apply Thomas Medvetz’s analytical concept of a “boundary organization,” which allows us to highlight the hybridity and flexibility of think tanks and thus understand their methods of gaining political access in an LAO. The analysis of interviews with senior representatives of nongovernmental think tanks in Ukraine in 2016–2017 demonstrates that Ukrainian think tanks are resourceful and find indirect ways of influencing politics. These organizations publish their reports in the media and deliver assessments of Ukraine’s international commitments to the country’s donors, thereby indirectly influencing the policy process in the country. Ukrainian think tanks also comply with the expectations of a boundary organization, accumulating and converting economic, academic, and media capital into political capital, using advocacy and networking as conversion tools. One important difference between the expectations of Medvetz’s framework and our findings is that political capital seems to be the goal of think tank activity, while the three other types are used merely instrumentally.
REVIEW OF: Karl Schlögel. Ukraine: A Nation on the Borderland. Translated by Gerrit Jackson, Reaktion Books, 2018. 288 pp. Illustrations. Further Reading.
Transnistrian is a frozen geopolitical conflict extends back to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the formation of an independent Moldovan state. However, there has been little real movement ...toward a long-term conflict resolution until recently. The purpose of this research is to determine why, despite the efforts of the European Union, the Transnistrian conflict remains inactive and there is no clear prospect for resolving it. To answer this question, the integrated theory of regional security by Buzan and Weaver has been used. The results of this study show that Transnistria is part of a regional security complex under Russian influence, and its intersection with the security complex designed in the Eastern Partnership plan does not allow the EU to resolve the conflict. The difference in the power structures in the two complexes has an effect on the failure of this process. The matrix of regional security complexes in this area is centralized with sub-branches of superior power and superior institutions, and this has added to the complexity of conflict resolution.
Why did Turkey shift its Middle East policy from soft power oriented approach to the security oriented one in the early 2010s? While Turkey prioritized diplomatic, commercial and economic relations ...during the first decade of the 2000s, it has increasingly used military means to influence the Middle East since 2011. The primary objective of this study is to ascertain the reasons behind this widely debated question in Turkish foreign policy literature. Unlike existing explanations, the main argument of the study is that the U.S. grand strategy towards Middle East appears as the most important causal factor shaping the nature of Turkey’s engagement in its region.
Bhubaneswar with a warm and humid climate and with humidity much higher than the comfort level requires an enhanced natural ventilation to achieve long term quality of life. The building code which ...regulates the fabric of the city at present follows a standardized set of regulations governed by National Building Code of India and is developed without giving much consideration to climate. Ground coverage is an important parameter which regulates the footprint of the blocks and allows natural ventilation to buildings as well to outdoor. At present, Bhubaneswar does not prescribe a ground coverage for its apartments and completely dependent on FAR control. As a result, the developments consider quite high ground coverage in certain areas. This particular research focusses on analyzing the current situation of multi storied apartments and proposes a few climate centric recommendations for the byelaw. To examine the situation and arrive at a strategy, a simulation study has been carried out by altering the ground coverage and building orientation of a multistoried apartment consisting of five residential blocks to analyze the effect of natural ventilation. The study inferred that, building layout and orientation in relation to wind direction plays an important role for natural ventilation in the outdoors. A climate centric byelaw ideally should consider both while formulating its building code.
This paper departs from the regional resilience concept - as part of a broad strand of literature on non-linear dynamic systems in a space-economy - and introduces the notion of prosilience to ...highlight the policy challenge of developing radically new and innovative strategies for regions in decline. The mining industry will be used as an illustrative case. The notion of phoenix regions is put forward to argue that an external disruption or shock in an established industrial sector in a region necessitates unconventional survival strategies oriented towards entirely new market demands and based on totally different product packages. Ansoff's model on product diversification in competitive markets forms an inspiration source for the Schumpeterian 'creative destruction' proposition advocated in this study. An illustrative case study is concisely described in the present paper, viz. the South-Limburg coal mining region in the Southern part of the Netherlands. Smart prosilience trajectories supported in particular by evidence-based decision support tools are sketched for such depressed regions, based on the so-called Pentagon intervention model. The paper is concluded with some general policy lessons for an intelligent transformation of regions in decline.
In the Shadow of Genocide Wolfe, Stephanie; Kane, Matthew; Ansah, Tawia
2023, 20221230, 2022-12-30, Letnik:
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This book brings together scholars and practitioners for a unique inter-disciplinary exploration of justice and memory within Rwanda. It explores the various strategies the state, civil society, and ...individuals have employed to come to terms with their past and shape their future. The main objective and focus is to explore broad and varied approaches to post-atrocity memory and justice through the work of those with direct experience with the genocide and its aftermath. This includes many Rwandan authors as well as scholars who have conducted fieldwork in Rwanda. By exploring the concepts of how justice and memory are understood the editors have compiled a book that combines disciplines, voices, and unique insights that are not generally found elsewhere.
Including academics and practitioners of law, photographers, poets, members of Rwandan civil society, and Rwandan youth this book will appeal to scholars and students of political science, legal studies, French and francophone studies, African studies, genocide and post-conflict studies, development and healthcare, social work, education and library services.
This book provides a practice-based analysis of European Union (EU) diplomacy and community-building.
Unlike studies focusing on how EU community-building proceeds centrally in Brussels, this book ...turns to EU diplomacy in its bordering state of Ukraine. At a time when the EU's internal cohesion is being put to the test, this book provides novel insights into how feelings of belonging are produced amongst its members in the absence of a homogenous 'we'. Transcending the traditional dichotomy between macro-structures and micro-processes of interaction, the book demonstrates that the EU's large-scale community depends for its existence on practical instantiations of community-building in distinct 'communities of practice'. Using the case of an EU diplomatic 'community of practice' in Kyiv, Ukraine takes these questions to the EU's margins, highlighting that the boundaries of community are key sites in which community materialises. The in-depth case study identifies diplomats' 'boundary work' as the constitutive rule that makes the local 'community of practice' cohere and create feelings of belonging to the large-scale polity of the EU.
This book will be of interest to researchers of European studies, as well as to those working on global cooperation and international relations more broadly.
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