Water Security Debates in ‘Safe’ Water Security Frameworks: Moving Beyond the Limits of Scarcity

ABSTRACT

What relevance is there to discuss water security issues in cases where water availability and accessibility do not seem to be a problem? This is the main question that guides this article which searches for answers from official core water debates in upstream or ‘safe’ water access (or ‘water-rich’) countries. If a norm such as water security or the human right to water and sanitation is to be universally accepted, then it needs to be adopted by wealthy and powerful countries/regions that are water-rich, and it should guide policies in both their domestic and foreign policies. If these polities do not support this norm, then operationalization becomes a serious challenge and water security debates will keep reflecting power imbalances in global affairs. Empirically, this article examines current water management strategies in the European Union with specific focus on the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.     

Excellent research,but insufficient valorization? The case of the European Transport Research in the 7th Framework Programme

This article reports on the findings of the Europe Union (EU) project “Enhancing the capacity of EU transport projects to transform research results into innovative products and services” (TIPS) funded in the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Development. The project was coordinated by Steinbeis Innovation gGmbH, the ICCR Foundation was in charge of the survey study. The purpose of this study was to survey project coordinators under the auspices of the European Commission. The study was not intended as an evaluation exercise, but the subjective view of the coordinators might produce a certain bias. Most coordinators are aware of the “hybrid” character of the European research programme. They usually address industrial stakeholders while claiming policy relevance for their projects. Of course, not all projects can meet both spheres: some projects have a merely technical character, and others address only politics and policies. But the overwhelming majority of the projects deal with both issues.     

错综复杂的世界经济未来会走向哪里？

当前世界经济形势依然错综复杂。希腊退出和西班牙银行违约的风险可能造成全球经济的二次探底;德、法债权国深知欧元区存在的重要性和失去的可怕性;美国经济复苏来自于自身利益至上的考量,并不见得会给中国带来机会。为此,各国政府一定要加强国际合作和国际协调的力度,同时,要根据各国经济内在的比较优势,努力创造外部良好的开放环境,打造市场活力,确保世界投资与贸易健康成长,从而让实体经济的繁荣去吸收各国政府救市以来所创造出的大量流动性。     

威斯特伐利亚体系和维也纳体系的形成和特征--兼谈欧洲统一性内涵的近代化

欧洲今天走向联合,有着古代中世纪文明统一性的"历史因缘".近代欧洲虽然一直处在民族国家的"分裂"之中,却没有中断和抹杀欧洲文明的统一性.欧洲一直存续着统一的伦理原则和法理原则的内涵,近代欧洲国际社会的形成是这种统一性的表现.威斯特伐利亚体系和维也纳体系的特征具体反映了欧洲统一性的近代内涵.     

创造社与十九世纪末欧洲文艺思潮

创造社作家留学日本期间,普遍对19世纪末欧洲文艺思潮产生了浓厚的兴趣。在文艺观的形成和文学创作上,他们都受到了19世纪末欧洲以唯美主义为核心的文艺思潮的诸多影响,并在此基础上建立了自己的新浪漫主义文学观。     

Statistical resource needs to be increased in the European regulatory agencies

The following viewpoint from PSI and EFSPI regarding the current level of statistical resource in the European regulatory agencies was first presented as a position paper to a meeting of the EU Heads of Agencies in July 2009, and was endorsed by EFPIA. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Examining macroeconomic determinants of trust in parliament: A dynamic multilevel framework

The extensive literature on political trust has long suggested a link between macroeconomic conditions and public trust in political institutions. However, empirical evidence regarding this relationship remains ambiguous. Conflicting results appear to be related to differences in research design: while cross-sectional studies tend not to find evidence of a link between macroeconomic variables and trust in political institutions, most longitudinal studies do. In this paper, using recent advances in multilevel methodology, we examine both cross-sectional and longitudinal effects of macroeconomic variables on trust in national parliament within a single dynamic multilevel framework. By analyzing all seven waves of the European Social Survey (2002–2014), we demonstrate that declining macroeconomic performance has a negative within-country effect on trust in national parliament. At the same time, we find limited evidence in support of this association at the between-country level. This discrepancy suggests the presence of confounding factors that are unaccounted for in cross-sectional designs. We therefore argue for the importance of examining within-country effects as they provide a more stringent test of causality.     

Public relations and the rise of hypermodern values: Exploring the profession in Europe

This article raises the question of whether European public relations (PR) and communications professionals perceive a cultural transformation in the direction of hypermodernity, and if so, attempts to assess how this influences their organizations and their work. Questions were asked in the European Communication Monitor 2017, an annual survey among communications professionals, and 3387 respondents from 50 European countries filled in the questionnaire. The results indicate that European professionals recognize a cultural transformation in the direction of hyper consumption, hyper modernization and hyper narcissism that influences the communication between their organizations and their stakeholders. A cluster analysis shows that less than half of the respondents perceive a transformation of their organization in the direction of hypermodern characteristics and values. Organizations with post/hypermodern characteristics have superior communications departments compared to modern organizations. Post/hypermodern organizations and excellent communications departments also engage more often in societal debates than other types of organizations and departments.     

The economic benefits of the EU Single Market in goods and services

This paper examines the macro-economic benefits of the Single Market in goods and services by simulating a counterfactual scenario in which tariffs and non-tariff barriers are reintroduced. In this counterfactual scenario, intra-EU trade flows are significantly reduced. Lower trade openness also means reduced market size and less competition. Using empirical evidence on the effect of the Single Market on firms’ mark-ups over marginal costs, we add these competition effects and arrive at a total estimate of around 9% higher GDP on average for the EU, but with a strong degree of heterogeneity across EU countries.     

EU countries’ progress towards ‘Europe 2020 strategy targets’

This paper describes and analyzes EU Member States’ progress towards the national EU2020 targets. To do so, this paper constructs a geometric composite index with Benefit-of-the-Doubt weights as a measure of a Member State’s overall performance on the EU2020 headline indicators. A tripartite decomposition of Member State performance change is presented to explain and analyze performance change of the EU-region and the individual EU Member States during the period 2008–2014. The results reveal that all Member States are in general making progress towards their national targets. Member States generally moved forward in the areas of R&D, environmental and educational policy and moved backwards in terms of employment and poverty and social inclusion. As to the realization of the national targets, the majority of the Member States are still mostly lagging on R&D and social inclusion and poverty reduction.