The World Trade Organisation (WTO) and public contracts
Essay - 9 pages - International relations
The World Trade Organization aims at ensuring “harmony, freedom, equity and security” in trading activities. The organization has the institutional means to control the compatibility of national policies to its requirements. From financial to commercial items, all fields of legislation...
Explain and discuss the effectiveness of the EC Treaty provisions concerning state aids in preventing distortions to the operation of the single market
Essay - 12 pages - International relations
As recognised by the EC Treaty, state aids are important and necessary policy instruments to achieve social and economic goals. However, depending on the way in which they are given, State aids can have a material impact on competition, leading to significant distortions to the common market. An...
The general oil market and the American oil policy
Thesis - 14 pages - International relations
Since the Industrial Revolution, energy is an international concern: one fifth of international trade of goods is the supply in energy of the companies. At the beginning of the century, oil became the most important energy source. Today, oil represents the most important share of the energy...
What are human rights and what place have discussions on human rights found in international relations?
Thesis - 8 pages - International relations
Though they may disagree on the importance of this phenomenon, most international experts now admit that there is a growing concern, both from states and from people, for Human Rights in international relations. Human Rights are often used to legitimate an action (diplomatic pressures, economic...
The relations between Macedonia and Albania
Essay - 5 pages - International relations
Macedonia has particular features in the Balkanic entanglement. On the one hand, we could say it is a “classical” Balkanic country, with all the negative connotations this adjective unfortunately implies: a post-Yugoslavian country, which encounters difficulties to ensure its authority,...
Milestones in the emergence of the Palestinian problem and the Arab-Israeli conflict
Thesis - 8 pages - International relations
In January 2006, the Islamic militant group Hamas won the Palestinian Parliamentary elections, with 42.2% of the votes. The election in Palestine of a group that remains committed to an armed struggle, the destruction of Israel and retaliatory attacks on Israeli civilians shows that nearly sixty...
International Organisation: The UN system
Thesis - 8 pages - International relations
Is global governance a chimera in a world of states, or is there as Keohane suggests, limited global governance in a partially globalized world, or is global governance an effective form of western hegemony? Is global governance a chimera in a world of states, or is there as Keohane suggests,...
The European North: Historical Geopolitics and International Institutional Dynamics
Thesis - 8 pages - International relations
A “brave political experiment” calling for “unconventional decisions” promoting sub-regional cooperation that ultimately might develop into “a common European social and economic space” : this is how the Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Viktor Khristenko, identified in...
US policy towards the Taliban since the end of the cold war
Thesis - 2 pages - International relations
The withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989 did not provoke the fall of Najibullah's communist regime, but rather the beginning of Civil war between the different factions and ethnics. The US was officially not interested anymore in that part of the world and focused primarily in Europe. However, the...
The structure of the Terror locally and nationally
Thesis - 3 pages - International relations
The terror is often depicted as the most violent period of the French Revolution, and maybe of the French history. The terror is a regime set up by Robespierre and the Committee of public safety in the aftermath of the fall of the Girondins on the 2nd of June 1793. The committee of public safety...
Japan since 1945-left Asia to join the West?
Tutorials/exercises - 7 pages - International relations
In 1639, the rule of Tokugawa Iemitsu officially stated the edict of separation of Japan, establishing a long period of isolationism for the Nippon archipelago. During this period, every contact between Japan and the outside world was forbidden, and “every Japanese who would leave the...
To what extent can we say Great Britain and the USA have a special relationship? What have the advantages and the disadvantages of the relationship been?
Essay - 4 pages - International relations
Many signs in history show that the UK and the USA detain a privileged relation. As one of the first British colony to be liberated, the USA has always been related to Great Britain. These two countries share the same language, the same political tradition, the same religion. From the point of...
What are the main milestones in the emergence of the Palestinian problem and the Arab-Israeli conflict? - published: 12/01/2009
Thesis - 5 pages - International relations
“In a higher phase of communist society ... after labour has become not only a means of life but life's prime want ... only then can ... society inscribe on its banners: from each according to his ability to each according to his needs!” (‘Critique of the Gotha Programme', p. 569)....
NGOs: Representing civil society at the WTO?
Thesis - 7 pages - International relations
In 1994, the Marrakech Agreement established the World Trade Organization (WTO), one of many suprastate institutions that were created all along the 20th century. The purpose of this organization is to regulate all trade activities between its Member states, by providing “the common...
How to reform the UN security council and why?
Thesis - 3 pages - International relations
The Security Council is usually considered as the most important organ of the UNO. Primarily “responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security” , the Security Council has huge responsibilities and thus needs legitimacy to fulfill its mission. There has been a great...
The evolution of the closer relationship between the United States and India
Thesis - 14 pages - International relations
Since its independence and the end of the cold war, India has evolved considerably. Nowadays, India's power is rising like its influence on the international scene and the emergence of India as a major Asian power is a matter of fact. Indeed, thanks to diverse advantageous characteristics, India...
The role of the European Union in the democratisation of Central and Eastern Europe
Essay - 8 pages - International relations
In the concept of « consolidation of democracy », two aspects can lead to misunderstanding. Firstly, one can interrogate on the direction towards which such a consolidation is supposed to tend, as the word « consolidation » implies that democracy already exists, as something is bound to exist if...
International organisations and sovereignty
Thesis - 3 pages - International relations
The French campaign for the referendum on the European Constitution has perfectly shown the fear of a loss of state sovereignty due to the European Union within the political elite as well as within the society. With the increase of international organisations, that can be defined as “a...
International relations, theory and practice: the Second Kashmir war
Thesis - 5 pages - International relations
I will deal in this essay with the Second Kashmir War, which was a war between India and Pakistan in 1965. We will see how we can interpret the causes and the origins of the war, and the way it was ended and solved. I chose to use two different theories to interpret the Indo-Pakistani war of...
How do the Federal Republic of Germany, Fifth Republic France and post-war Italy fulfil the criteria of Lijphart's 'majoritarian' and 'consensus' models of democracies?
Essay - 4 pages - International relations
This essay will attempt to analyse the Federal Republic of Germany, Fifth Republic France and post-war Italy thanks to Lijphart's work Democracy (1984). Lijphart classifies the ‘majoritarian' model (or ‘Westminster model') and the ‘consensual model', in function of specific...
The EU Foreign Policy - Myth or Reality?
Essay - 21 pages - International relations
European Union (EU) critics are a very heterogenic group. Amongst them, there are people who think that this organization has too many responsibilities. Sometimes this disapproval is summarized in only one word: ‘Brussels', the city where several institutions of the EU and especially the...
In spite of its record of failure the EU continues to try to develop a common foreign policy. Why?
Essay - 4 pages - International relations
The European Union is often described as an “economical giant but political pigmy” . The Union is indeed the first commercial power in the world, but its political representation on the global stage is weak. From many points of view, the former attempts to develop a common foreign...
The Trans-Afghan pipeline project: History, stakes and perspectives
Thesis - 8 pages - International relations
World competition around the natural resources of Central Asia and the Caspian is not new, but the collapse of the Soviet empire has revived it. This region, believed to possess huge oil and gas reserves, is also a point of contact of different civilizations and an arena for several competing...
Are there 'just wars'?
Thesis - 5 pages - International relations
The notion of 'just war' can be considered as a moral philosophy of the War debating the legitimacy of wars and the way wars are made. The existence of just wars thus supposes that violence can be ethical. However, it has to be underlined that even for the just wars theoreticians, war is...
Why has there been no reform of the UN?
Thesis - 4 pages - International relations
“Reform is the purposeful act of modifying the structure, composition, decision-making procedures, working methods, funding or staffing of an institution in order to enhance its efficiency and/or effectiveness in advancing its core goals and principles.” Considering this definition, and...
Decision Making: Will the US Attack Iran?
Essay - 3 pages - International relations
Iran has always been a major concern in United States foreign policy. With almost seventy million inhabitants, three times the population of Iraq, the former Persia is a key actor in the Middle East. The diplomatic relations between America and Iran have fluctuated according to regime changes....
Morality study: Iraqi refugees under American policies
Essay - 9 pages - International relations
Political theorists have debated for centuries the responsibility of countries to protect the victims of humanitarian crises. Sine the earliest days of international law, Grotius, Kant and Vattel have attempted to strike a balance between realist interests and the duty to help those most in...
Russia in the 20th century: The Geneva Conference and peaceful coexistence
Essay - 5 pages - International relations
A study of the Soviet press' portrayal of the Geneva conference and the Western powers provides an insight into the role of the press in shaping public opinion for the state and against the West. Furthermore, the image of Soviet-American relations in the press undercuts the tense reality of...
The United States and Latin America in the 21st century: Recommendations for a sound and sustainable foreign policy
Essay - 7 pages - International relations
Traditionally, the relationship between the United States and Latin America has been marked by periods of ups and downs, and often indifference. Over the past decade, the latter has largely settled in. However, in view of the region's increased global profile and reach, devising a healthy...
Delusions of Soviet power and the American military-industrial complex
Essay - 4 pages - International relations
The Cold War period for the United States and indeed, the world was one of turbulence and uncertainty. The conclusion of World War II saw the clash of two major world powers, each replete with the awesome capability of nuclear weapons. For the first time in history the human race intentionally...
