Neither security nor development? Czech and Hungarian identities and interests in the provincial reconstruction teams in Afghanistan

This article builds on the securitisation and post-development literature and it scrutinises the Czech and Hungarian legitimising discourses of the two countries’ respective Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) in the Logar and Baghlan provinces of Afghanistan from 2007 to 2013. In spite of the hybrid civil–military character of the PRTs, their security–development nexus was absent and they were respectively securitised and “developmentalised” only indirectly and to a varying extent. The PRTs were mostly justified by the Czech Republic's NATO membership as an identity issue and they were justified as a Hungarian national interest and as both an obligation and an opportunity. Rather than merely importing NATO's arguments as suggested by the previous literature, the depoliticisation and positive connotation of the intervention in Afghanistan was constructed by the domestic NATO-related identities and interests in the Czech Republic and Hungary.

The new institutionalism in the context of Kosovo's transition:regulatory institutions in contested states

This article explores the new institutionalist literature in political economy in the context of Kosovo's contested statehood, focusing on institutional arbitrage and legitimacy. This article considers both the consequences of institutions for actors' behaviour and the norms that shape this, as well as the factors determining the legitimacy of institutions. In doing so, it combines the new institutionalist theory with documentary and interview material collected during research on energy regulation in one contested state, Kosovo. Rather than singling out one particular variety of "new institutionalism", the article attempts to blend insights from historical (or "political"), rational choice, and sociological institutionalism. © 2014 © 2014 Taylor & Francis.

Kelet-közép-európai devizaárfolyamok előrejelzése határidős árfolyamok segítségével (Forecasting the exchange rates of three Central-Eastern European currencies with forward exchange rates)

Írásunkban azt vizsgáljuk, hogy a hosszú lejáratú határidős árfolyamok stacionaritását feltételező hibakorrekciós modellek, amelyeknek korábbi számítások szerint - a világ devizapiaci forgalmának mintegy 75 százalékát kitevő fejlett ipari országokra alkalmazva - kitűnő a mintán kívüli előrejelző erejük, hogyan képesek három keletközép- európai ország devizaárfolyamát előrejelezni. A három vizsgálat alá vont deviza (cseh, magyar, lengyel) esetében az eredmények relációnként nagyon eltérnek, és összességében kedvezőtlenebbek, mint a fejlett ipari országokra kapott eredmények, amit a nem teljesen rugalmas árfolyamrezsim, a rendelkezésre álló adatsor rövidsége, az eurózóna-csatlakozáshoz kapcsolódó bizonytalanságok, a devizakockázati és a határidős kamatprémium létezése, továbbá a Balassa-Samuelson-hatás együttes befolyásaként tudunk értelmezni. JEL kód: E43, F31, F47. /===/ This paper studies whether models that assume long-maturity forward exchange rates are stationary (which proved in earlier studies to provide superior forecasting ability when applied to exchange rates of major currencies) are capable of forecasting the Euro exchange rates of three Central-East European currencies (the Czech koruna, Hungarian forint and Polish zloty). The results for the three currencies differ from each other and are generally much worse than those obtained earlier for major currencies. These unfavourable results are attributed to the consequences of managed exchange-rate systems, to the short time series available, to uncertainties related to future Euro-zone entry, to the existence of a foreign exchange and term premium, and to the Balassa–Samuelson effect.

Ethnic groups and institutions: A study of institutional engineering in four Central and Eastern European countries

The issue of institutional engineering has gained a renewed interest with the democratic transitions of the Central and Eastern European countries, as for some states it has become a matter of state survival. The four countries examined in the study – Macedonia, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria – exemplify the difficulty in establishing a stable democratic society in the context of the resurgence of national identity. The success of ethnonational minorities in achieving the desired policies affirming or expanding their rights as a group was conditioned upon the cohesion of the minority as well as the permissiveness of state institutions in terms of participation and representation of minority members. The Hungarian minorities in Slovakia and Romania, the Turkish minority in Bulgaria, and the Albanian minority in Macedonia, formed their political organizations to represent their interests. However, in some cases the divergence of strategies or goals between factions of the minority group seriously impeded its ability to obtain the desired concessions from the majority. The difficulty in the pursuit of policies favoring the expansion of minority rights was further exacerbated in some of the cases by the impermissiveness of political institutions. The political parties representing the interest of ethnonational minorities were allowed to participate in elections, although not without suspicions about their intent and even strong opposition from majority groups, but participation in elections and subsequent representation in legislative bodies did not translate into adoption of the desired policies. The ethnonational minorities' inability to effectively influence the decision-making process was the result of the inadequacy of democratic institutions to process these demands and channel them through the normal political process in the absence of majority desire to accommodate them. Despite the promise of democratic institutions to bring about a major overhaul of the policies of forceful assimilation and disregard for minority rights, the four cases analyzed in the study demonstrate that in effect ethnonational minorities continued to be at the mercy of the majority, especially if the minority was unable to position itself as a balancing actor.

Rethinking regional green space networks in China

Ecological networks are often represented as utopian webs of green meandering through cities, across states, through regions and even across a country (Erickson, 2006, p.28; Fabos, 2004, p.326; Walmsley, 2006). While this may be an inspiring goal for some in developed countries, the reality may be somewhat different in developing countries. China, in its shift to urbanisation and suburbanisation, is also being persuaded to adjust its planning schemes according to these aspirational representations of green spaces (Yu et al, 2006, p.237; Zhang and Wang, 2006, p.455). The failure of other countries to achieve regional goals of natural and cultural heritage protection on the ground in this way (Peterson et al, 2007; Ryan et al, 2006; von Haaren and Reich, 2006) suggests that there may be flaws in the underpinning concepts that are widely circulated in North American and Western European literature (Jongman et al, 2004; Walmsley, 2006). In China, regional open space networks, regional green infrastructure or regional ecological corridors as we know them in the West, are also likely to be problematic, at least in the foreseeable future. Reasons supporting this view can be drawn from lessons learned from project experience in landscape planning and related fields of study in China and overseas. Implementation of valuable regional green space networks is problematic because: • the concept of region as a spatial unit for planning green space networks is ambiguous and undefinable for practical purposes; • regional green space networks traditionally require top down inter-governmental cooperation and coordination which are generally hampered by inequalities of influence between and within government agencies; • no coordinating body with funding powers exists for regional green space development and infrastructure authorities are still in transition from engineering authorities; • like other infrastructure projects, green space is likely to become a competitive rather than a complementary resource for city governments; • stable long-term management, maintenance and uses of green space networks must fit into a ‘family’ social structure rather than a ‘public good’ social structure, particularly as rural and urban property rights are being re-negotiated with city governments; and • green space provision is a performance indicator of urban improvement in cities within the city hierarchy and remains quantitatively-based (land area, tree number and per capita share) rather than qualitatively-based with local people as the focus.

Within and without family in the Icelandic sagas

The Icelandic sagas reflect a deep social interest in the nature of family obligations. Narrative tension and drama often result from carefully plotted increases in competition between families,while considerable space is given over to family biographies and genealogical information. As a result, the saga authors’ conception of the historical seems closely bound to a desire to represent family life. In Gísla saga Súrssonar and Íslendinga saga, the representation of family life extends to the situation of internal family conflicts, when the strict ethical codes underpinning the centrality of family obligations seem to be complicated and perhaps even threatened by characters’ formation of stronger bonds outside the family. The portrayal of internal family conflicts in these two sagas enabled the authors to express complex and often conflicting ethical issues.

[Memoiren] : [1887-1933].

Childhood and education in Munich; assimilated bourgeois Jewish family; father was a lawyer and titular professor; writer Ludwig Thoma assistant of his father; vacations in Marienbad; military service; university studies in Munich with Lujo Brentano; apprenticeship as lawyer; political interest and joining of SPD; contacts with later Bavarian president Kurt Eisner; as soldier in World War I; diplomatic mission in Tirol during last days of World War I; refused to take part in Bavarian revolution of November 1918, but close contacts with Eisner government; exact account of two Bavarian soviet republics in 1919 and their protagonists (Gustav Landauer, Erich Muehsam, Eugen Levine); Bavarian politics and justice 1919-1933; description of Paul Nikolaus Cossmann and his reactionary journal "Sueddeutsche Monatshefte"; advocate of Eisner's secretary Felix Fechenbach in political trial against accusations by Cossmann; expulsion of East European Jews by Bavarian government 1923; Hitler coup attempt 1923; election campaign March 1933; Nazi takeover of power in Bavaria; dismissal as lawyer; decision to emigrate.

[Memoirs].

Philipp Loewenfeld (Munich 1887 - New York 1963) was a lawyer and Social Democrat in Munich. He joined the SPD in 1912 and was a delegate to the Bavarian congress of soviets in February 1919. Loewenfeld was a prominent lawyer in political trials in Weimar Germany. In 1933 he emigrated to Switzerland, in 1938 to the USA.

"From Ghetto to Ghetto" : [1900-1933].

Childhood and education in Grodno and Lemberg; poor family background; active as soccer player; acting school of Max Reinhardt in Berlin; engagements in Munich, Zurich and Frankfurt; visit to Poland and short engagement with Yiddish theater troupe; description of theater in Weimar Germany; activities in "Juedischer Kulturbund" after 1933; main role in Kulturbund performance of "Nathan the Wise".

The right path : The autobiography of a survivor /

Account of the German occupation of Kecskemet; fate of Jews of Kecskemet; liberation; immediate postwar experiences in Kecskemet; memories of childhood in Kotaj and Kecskemet; move to Budapest; training as soccer player in Budapest; return to Kecskemet and work in printing shop; fate of family members during the holocaust; early years of World War II in Kecskemet; entry into forced labor; life in labor camp; escape and hiding; liberation by Red Army; return to Kecskemet under Soviet Ukrainian occupation; return to printing business in Kecskemet; courtship and marriage in April 1945; reuinion with two sisters; birth of daugher; move to Budapest in 1949; work as printer in Budapest; life in Budapest under Communist domination; anti-Semitism; uprising of 1956 in Budapest; flight to Vienna; life in Vienna; emigration to USA; life in New York; move to Los Angeles; started business in food preparation; coached soccer team.

Eurasian large mammal dynamics in response to changing environments during the Late Neogene

Nisäkkäiden levinneisyyteen, niiden morfologisiin ja ekologisiin piirteisiin vaikuttavat ympäristön sekä lyhyet että pitkäkestoiset muutokset, etenkin ilmaston ja kasvillisuuden vaihtelut. Työssä tutkittiin nisäkkäiden sopeutumista ilmastonmuutoksiin Euraasiassa viimeisen 24 miljoonan vuoden aikana. Tutkimuksessa keskityttiin varsinkin viimeiseen kahteen miljoonaan vuoteen, jonka aikana ilmasto muuttui voimakkaasti ja ihmisen toiminta alkoi tulla merkittäväksi. Tämän takia on usein vaikea erottaa, kummasta em. seikasta jonkin nisäkäslajin sukupuutto tai häviäminen alueelta johtui. Aineistona käytettiin laajaa venäjänkielistä kirjallisuutta, josta löytyvät tiedot ovat kääntämättöminä jääneet aiemmin länsimaisen tutkimuksen ulkopuolelle. Työssä käytettiin myös NOW-tietokantaa, jossa on fossiilisten nisäkkäiden löytöpaikat sekä niiden iät.

Exploring Iceland through its Viking past

A co-authored article about the Icelandic sagas, and a journey undertaken to tell the saga stories in the places of their setting. "Kári Gislason and Richard Fidler travelled to Iceland with a two-part mission: to tell stories from the Viking sagas written early in the country's history in the places where they actually unfolded a thousand years ago, and to settle a longstanding family mystery."--Publisher website

Saga land: Richard Fidler and Kári Gíslason in Iceland

This is a four-part radio documentary produced for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio National. Richard Fidler and Kári Gíslason travel to Iceland to tell the stories of the ancient Vikings, and to settle a longstanding family mystery.

Human Rights in Action

In the post-World War II era human rights have emerged as an enormous global phenomenon. In Finland human rights have particularly in the 1990s moved from the periphery to the center of public policy making and political rhetoric. Human rights education is commonly viewed as the decisive vehicle for emancipating individuals of oppressive societal structures and rendering them conscious of the equal value of others; both core ideals of the abstract discourse. Yet little empirical research has been conducted on how these goals are realized in practice. These factors provide the background for the present study which, by combining anthropological insights with critical legal theory, has analyzed the educational activities of a Scandinavian and Nordic network of human rights experts and PhD students in 2002-2005. This material has been complemented by data from the proceedings of UN human rights treaty bodies, hearings organized by the Finnish Foreign Ministry, the analysis of different human rights documents as well as the manner human rights are talked of in the Finnish media. As the human rights phenomenon has expanded, human rights experts have acquired widespread societal influence. The content of human rights remains, nevertheless, ambiguous: on the one hand they are law, on the other, part of a moral discourse. By educating laymen on what human rights are, experts act both as intermediaries and activists who expand the scope of rights and simultaneously exert increasing political influence. In the educational activities of the analyzed network these roles were visible in the rhetorics of legality and legitimacy . Among experts both of these rhetorics are subject to ongoing professional controversy, yet in the network they are presented as undisputable facts. This contributes to the impression that human rights knowledge is uncontested. This study demonstrates how the network s activities embody and strengthen a conception of expertise as located in specific, structurally determined individuals. Simultaneously its conception of learning emphasizes the adoption of knowledge by students, emphasizing the power of experts over them. The majority of the network s experts are Nordic males, whereas its students are predominantly Nordic females and males from East-European and developing countries. Contrary to the ideals of the discourse the network s activities do not create dialogue, but instead repeat power structures which are themselves problematic.

EU Accession and FDI inflows : The cases of the Czech Republic and Slovakia

Central and East European countries have faced a difficult process of transition since the dissolution of the Soviet bloc. Ten transition countries (Hungary, Poland, teh Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Bulgaria and Romania have chosen to join the EU and have moulded their transition reforms to ensure the compliance of their legal and institutional framework with EU requirements. The high levels of FDI attracted by the candidate countries for EU membership had been attributed to rapid transition of the countries aiming to join the European Union and the fact that favourable evaluations by EU authorities of the progress made by the candidates had a large impact on improving investor confidence. The aim of this paper is to investigate the reform strategies of the Czech Republic and Slovakia undertaken when the countries were preparing for EU membership and the dynamics of FDI inflows into these economies. Subsequently a comparative analysis of FDI stocks in these countries is conducted. We find that both countries faced similar economic challenges in implementing structural and institutional reforms. In accordance with EU requirements the Czech Republic and Slovakia have perfected their legal and institutional framework, increased the authority of regulatory and supervisory bodies and focused on implementation of new or amended legislation. During the period of the analysis (1998 - 2007) the Czech Republic and Slovakia have attracted increasing amounts of FDI. Comparative analysis in terms of important determinants of FDI reveals further similar features: macroeconomic stability; an open and liberalised market; low labour costs compared to EU-15 and a similar breakdown of FDI inflows by investor country. Consequently, the fact that the Czech Republic received much larger volumes of net FDI inflows could be attributed to the difference in market size between the two states. This conclusion is consistent with previous empirical studies that list market size among the main determinants of FDI. However, when we look at FDI as a percentage of GDP the evidence is more mixed. In 2004 - 2007, Slovakia has surpassed the Czech Republic twice. Whether this tendency will persist remains to be seen. The analysis in this paper based on empirical data. However, the choice of the method, namely case studies and comparative analysis, means that the conclusions of this study are theoretical and remain to be further tested in quantitative models.