Road to Proscription: The EU and Hezbollah since the Arab Spring. EU Diplomacy Paper 07/2013

The European Union (EU) has traditionally taken a rather nuanced view of the activities of Hezbollah. Despite historic links to violent activity, Europe always remained reluctant to place the Lebanese militant group on its list of terrorist organisations. Internal divergences among member states, as well as the strategic-realist goals of the EU in both Lebanon and the Middle East more generally meant that such a listing never materialised. This remained the case even in the initial turmoil following the Arab uprisings, when Hezbollah’s relatively moderating objectives were viewed as a force for stability. However, the EU shifted policy in July 2013 by listing the military wing of Hezbollah as a terrorist entity. This paper will investigate the reasons behind this decision, as well as the likely implications and effectiveness of the new policy. Two principal catalysts were behind the decision. The first was a Hezbollah-linked bombing in Bulgaria which provided the focal point around which a consensus of the EU member states could emerge in the Council. Secondly, the escalation both of the Syrian conflict and Hezbollah’s role in it provided a more political and strategic impetus for the decision. This paper maintains that although a change in policy was somewhat necessary, it is questionable whether the artificial separation of Hezbollah’s political and military wings and the symbolic proscription of the latter is the most propitious choice to achieve European objectives.

Growing global brands in foreign markets: A brand equity perspective. Impact of national culture on trademark registrations in emerging economy: Evidence from Russia. ACES Working Papers, August 2010

In this study we explore how firms deploy intellectual property assets (trademarks) in international context and the impact of cultural characteristics on such activities. Trademarks capture important elements of firm's brand-building efforts. Using growth model, a special case of hierarchical linear model, we demonstrate that that stock of trademarks in foreign market increase future trademark activity. Also, we explore the moderating roles of two cultural dimensions, individualism and masculinity, on such relationships. The findings indicated that firms from countries closer to host market (Russia) on individualism dimension tend to register more trademarks in host market. The opposite result is observed for masculinity dimension.

Practical Modified Gini Index. ACES Working Papers, 2012

The Gini index is the most common method for estimating the level of income inequality in countries. In this paper we suggest a simple modification that takes into account the moderating effect of in-kind government benefits. Unlike other studies that use micro level data that is rarely available for many countries or over a period of time, the proposed modified Gini index could be calculated using just the regularly available data for each country. Such data includes the original Gini coefficient, government consumption expenditures, GDP and total tax revenue as a percentage of GDP. This modified version of the Gini index allows us to calculate the level of inequality more precisely, and make better comparisons between countries and over time.

Green and fair economy – a holistic concept for a sustainable economy. Policy Brief #2013/02

Solution approaches based purely on economics do not lead to optimal success – at least, not in the medium to long term. Rather, a sustainable economy requires an equal consideration of the ecological and social dimensions. The green economy concept, or, better said, the green and fair economy concept, is in principle suitable for, if not avoiding an economic and financial crisis as experienced in the last five years, at least moderating its negative effects. The important thing here is to integrate the design of the concept as much as possible at the political, economic and individual level.