Download or read book The EU and Azerbaijan written by Jana Kobzová and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 11 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Hosting this week's Eurovision Song Contest has put Azerbaijan's authoritarian government and its human rights record under international spotlight. But attention should also focus on Europe's relations with Azerbaijan, which remain guided by narrow energy interests. Although Azerbaijan holds more political prisoners than any other Eastern European country, the EU has remained timid about human rights violations. The EU's failure to pressure the Azerbaijani government to liberalise has brought few benefits and continues to discredit the EU in the eyes of Azerbaijan's society. In a new ECFR policy memo Jana Kobzova and Leila Alieva argue that Europe must now change its approach as the Baku government is more vulnerable than it appears: Azerbaijan's oil and gas reserves transformed the country and led to a decade of impressive economic growth. However, with oil running out, Azerbaijan's economic model is unsustainable. The government has made little effort to diversify the economy away from dependence on hydrocarbons -- Since 2003 Ilham Aliyev has consolidated power in the presidency and steered Azerbaijan towards a full-fledged autocracy. The overall human rights situation is worsening. The government's heavy-handed tactics may eventually backfire. By clamping down on independent media and repressing the secular opposition, the regime has closed most of the usual channels for expressing dissent. Jana Kobzova and Leila Alieva argue that this weakness means that Europe must change its approach, to avoid a repetition of the Arab Awakening when it was left looking like a supporter of autocrats. Instead, the EU's approach towards Azerbaijan needs to be more vocal and bolder: The EU needs to redirect more political and financial support to grassroots groups, SMEs and independent media who can put more pressure on the regime. The EU should be more vocal in demanding greater political pluralism -- The EU should continue to use its dialogue with the government to assist in areas that are important for Azerbaijan's modernisation and transformation, such as governance, rule of law or diversification of the country's economy -- The EU is Azerbaijan's most important trading partner and should use this as a leverage to push for change -- EU member states should follow the UK's example and introduce new rules banning those non-EU nationals accused of human rights abuses from entering the EU-this would change the calculations for those in Azerbaijan's elite taking part in human rights violations. "As Azerbaijan grows more authoritarian, Europe faces a choice. It can fully embrace this country and its society, which is proud of becoming the first-ever Muslim liberal democratic republic in 1918, or it can continue its condition-free dialogue with the regime."--Leila Alieva. "Unless the EU takes a bolder approach towards Azerbaijan, it risks finding itself in the same position it was in the southern neighbourhood before the Arab Awakening: that of a quiet supporter of autocrats"- Jana Kobzova. Key facts: There are more political prisoners in Azerbaijan than in Belarus, the political opposition has almost been eliminated, the main TV channels are controlled by the government and journalists are regularly threatened -- The volume of oil extracted in Azerbaijan peaked in 2010 and is set to continue to decline. Azerbaijan's budget increasingly relies on transfers from the state oil fund (SOFAZ) rather than taxes -- Between 2003 and 2010 the poverty rate dropped from 45% to 9%. But in 2011 the country recorded the lowest economic growth among all former Soviet republics -- Azerbaijan is as corrupt as Russia or Uganda and ranks worse than neighbouring Georgia and Armenia. (Transparency International) -- The EU's financial levers are limited: in 2012, the EU's offer of €31 million in exchange for social and economic reforms was dwarfed by the almost €43 million that Azerbaijan earns every day from oil -- EU democracy promotion in the Eastern Neighbourhood has failed: none of the six Eastern Partnership countries is fully democratic and democracy scores in the region have been worsening"--Publisher's description.

Download or read book Frustrated Democracy in Post Soviet Azerbaijan written by Audrey L. Altstadt and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2017-05-23 with total page 531 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Frustrated Democracy in Post-Soviet Azerbaijan follows a newly independent oil-rich former Soviet republic as it adopts a Western model of democratic government and then turns toward corrupt authoritarianism. Audrey L. Altstadt begins with the Nagorno-Karabagh War (1988–1994) which triggered Azerbaijani nationalism and set the stage for the development of a democratic movement. Initially successful, this government soon succumbed to a coup. Western oil companies arrived and money flowed in—a quantity Altstadt calls "almost unimaginable"—causing the regime to resort to repression to maintain its power. Despite Azerbaijan's long tradition of secularism, political Islam emerged as an attractive alternative for those frustrated with the stifled democratic opposition and the lack of critique of the West's continued political interference. Altstadt's work draws on instances of censorship in the Azerbaijani press, research by embedded experts and nongovernmental and international organizations, and interviews with diplomats and businesspeople. The book is an essential companion to her earlier works, The Azerbaijani Turks: Power and Identity Under Russian Rule and The Politics of Culture in Soviet Azerbaijan, 1920–1940.

Download or read book The Caucasus written by Thomas De Waal and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new edition of The Caucasus is a thorough update of an essential guide that has introduced thousands of readers to a complex region. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and the break-away territories that have tried to split away from them constitute one of the most diverse and challenging regions on earth, impressing the visitor with their multi-layered history and ethnic complexity. Over the last few years, the South Caucasus region has captured international attention again because of disputes between the West and Russia, its unresolved conflicts, and its role as an energy transport corridor to Europe. The Caucasus gives the reader a historical overview and an authoritative guide to the three conflicts that have blighted the region. Thomas de Waal tells the story of the "Five-Day War" between Georgia and Russia and recent political upheavals in all three countries. He also finds time to tell the reader about Georgian wine, Baku jazz and how the coast of Abkhazia was known as "Soviet Florida." Short, stimulating and rich in detail, The Caucasus is the perfect guide to this fascinating and little-understood region.

Download or read book The European Union and Its Eastern Neighbourhood written by Andriy Tyushka and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-11-29 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited volume brings together some of the most important scholarly perspectives – in the form of both journal article reprints and original contributions – on the structure and dynamics of the EU’s multi-layered relations with its Eastern neighbours within the Eastern Partnership (EaP) framework and beyond. In May 2019, the EU’s EaP – an ambitious and sophisticated policy framework, conjoining elements of cooperation and integration, with the EU’s six eastern neighbours, i.e. Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan – turned ten years. This anniversary, in conjunction with repeatedly voiced critique by scholars and policy-makers alike regarding the framework’s effectiveness and utility, led the EU to submit the EaP to a fundamental auditing and revision. Structured around both enduring and emerging issues in the broader EU-Eastern neighbourhood framework, this book provides a retrospective analysis of key structural and relational challenges, unfolding regional dynamics, distinctive forms of bilateral/multilateral engagement, whilst also offering a critical perspective on the contested future relations between the EU and its Eastern neighbours. Looking backwards and providing a critical and thorough assessment of the first ten years of the EaP in practice, this book thinks forward and gauges its many potential future avenues. This comes at a crucial moment, as the EU and its six Eastern neighbours are in search of new and mutually acceptable forms of association.

Download or read book Moral Power of the European Union in the South Caucasus written by Syuzanna Vasilyan and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-06-21 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book devises a new conceptual framework of ‘moral power’ and applies it to the policy of the European Union (EU) towards the South Caucasian states of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. It covers the period starting from the 1990s to the present and analyses policy domains (democracy promotion, conflict resolution, security, energy, trade) juxtaposing the policy of EU/member states with those of the United States (US), Russia, Turkey, Iran, as well as inter-governmental and regional organizations. ‘Morality’ is unpacked as composed of seven parameters: consequentialism; coherence; consistency; normative steadiness; balance between values and interests; inclusiveness; and external legitimacy. ‘Power’ is branched into ‘potential’, ‘actual’ and ‘actualized’ types. ‘Moral power’ is consequently developed as an objective and neutral framework to capture the foreign policy of an international actor in any geographic area and policy sphere. The book will be useful for students and scholars of International Relations and EU Studies, policy-makers and practitioners.

Download or read book Azerbaijan s Geopolitical Landscape written by Farid Shafiyev and published by Charles University in Prague, Karolinum Press. This book was released on 2020-12-01 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Being located between the Black and Caspian seas, Azerbaijan has always been the juncture of Eurasia—with a traditional reputation as a crossroads between the north-south and east-west transport corridors—and the traditional ground for competition between numerous regional and global players, using both soft and hard power. With its vast hydrocarbon energy reserves, Azerbaijan is a country of particular importance in the South Caucasus. The region’s complex geopolitics have immensely influenced Azerbaijan’s foreign policy strategy. With the dissolution of the USSR, Azerbaijan, as a new state with fragile security, found itself in a complicated situation surrounded by regional powers like Iran, Russia, and Turkey. The book is built around several major foreign policy issues faced by the Republic of Azerbaijan since it regained its independence in 1991. These major issues include the conflict with Armenia and related matters, the relationship with the West, as well as the complexities arising from its relationship with Russia and its ties to Muslim countries, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Download or read book The International Politics of the Armenian Azerbaijani Conflict written by Svante E. Cornell and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-01-20 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book frames the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh in the context of European and international security. It is the first book to focus on the politics of the conflict rather than the dispute itself. Since their emergence twenty years ago, this and other “frozen conflicts” of Eurasia have been affected by transformations in European security, and many ways absorbed into an ever fiercer geopolitical struggle for influence. The wars in Georgia and Ukraine brought greater attention to some unresolved conflicts, but not to the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. As the contributors to this volume argue, the conflict merits much greater European attention, for several reasons: it is on a path of escalation, existing mediation regimes are dysfunctional, and as both Georgia and Ukraine have showed, any outbreak of serious fighting will force the EU to respond. This book thus explains the interlocking interests of Russia, Turkey, Iran, the EU and United States in the conflict, and analyzes the negotiation process and the conflict’s international legal aspects.

Download or read book Handbook of Research on Social and Economic Development in the European Union written by Bayar, Yilmaz and published by IGI Global. This book was released on 2019-11-29 with total page 614 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The EU has experienced serious economic and political crises such as the sovereign debt crisis and Brexit in the past few years. However, despite these issues, the EU has implemented considerable institutional, fiscal, and collective improvements during the unification process to continue as a significant actor in the global economy. The Handbook of Research on Social and Economic Development in the European Union provides a multidisciplinary evaluation of the institutional, economic, and social development of the European Union and makes inferences for the future dynamics and collaborations of the EU, the global economy, and other countries. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as energy security, gender discrimination, and global economics, this book is ideally designed for government officials, policymakers, world leaders, politicians, diplomats, international relations officers, economists, business professionals, historians, market analysts, academicians, researchers, and students concerned about the multifaceted integration processes surrounding the EU.

Download or read book European Strategy in the 21st Century written by Sven Biscop and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-12-07 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book argues that Europe, through the European Union (EU), should act as a great power in the 21st century. The course of world politics is determined by the interaction between great powers. Those powers are the US, the established power; Russia, the declining power; China, the rising power; and the EU, the power that doesn’t know whether it wants to be a power. If the EU does not just want to undergo the policies of the other powers it will have to become one itself, but it should differ in its strategy. In this book, Sven Biscop seeks to demonstrate that the EU has the means to pursue a distinctive great power strategy, a middle way between dreamy idealism and unprincipled pragmatism, and can play a crucial stabilizing role in this increasingly unstable world. Written by a leading scholar, this book will be of much interest to students of European security, EU policy, strategic studies and international relations.

Download or read book Armenia and Azerbaijan written by Broers Laurence Broers and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2019-08-21 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict for control of the mountainous territory of Nagorny Karabakh is the longest-running dispute in post-Soviet Eurasia. Laurence Broers shows how more than 20 years of dynamic territorial politics, shifting power relations, international diffusion and unsuccessful mediation efforts have contributed to the resilience of this stubbornly unresolved dispute. Looking beyond tabloid tropes of 'frozen conflict' or 'Russian land-grab', Broers unpacks the unresolved territorial issues of the 1990s and the strategic rivalry that has built up around them since.

Download or read book Azerbaijan and the European Union written by Eske van Gils and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-11-07 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of EU-Azerbaijan relations. It examines the current state of Azerbaijan and its regime, charts the development of EU-Azerbaijan relations over time and discusses the dynamics at work in the relationship. It details the nature of the Azerbaijani regime, including its authoritarian character and allegations of corruption, explores the differences between European values and the values of the Azerbaijani government, and explains the difficulties that have arisen in the relationship, including the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution process, media suppression and human rights violations. The book includes a comparison with EU relations with other states in the region.

Download or read book Engaging Central Asia written by Bhavna Dave and published by CEPS. This book was released on 2008 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In July 2007, the European Union initiated a fundamentally new approach to the countries of Central Asia. The launch of the EU Strategy for Central Asia signals a qualitative shift in the Union's relations with a region of the world that is of growing importance as a supplier of energy, is geographically situated in a politically sensitive area - between China, Russia, Iran, Afghanistan and the south Caucasus - and contains some of the most authoritarian political regimes in the world. In this volume, leading specialists from Europe, the United States and Central Asia explore the key challenges facing the European Union as it seeks to balance its policies between enhancing the Union's energy, business and security interests in the region while strengthening social justice, democratisation efforts and the protection of human rights. With chapters devoted to the Union's bilateral relations with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan and to the vital issues of security and democratisation, 'Engaging Central Asia' provides the first comprehensive analysis of the EU's strategic initiative in a part of the world that is fast emerging as one of the key regions of the 21st century."--BOOK JACKET.

Download or read book Research Anthology on Clean Energy Management and Solutions written by Information Resources Management Association and published by Engineering Science Reference. This book was released on 2021-06-25 with total page 2250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Energy usage and consumption continue to rise globally each year, with the most efficient and cost-effective energy sources causing huge impacts to the environment. In an effort to mitigate harmful effects to the environment, implementing clean energy resources and utilizing green energy management strategies have become worldwide initiatives, with many countries from all regions quickly becoming leaders in renewable energy usage. Still, not every energy resource is without flaws. Researchers must develop effective and low-cost strategies for clean energy in order to find the balance between production and consumption. The Research Anthology on Clean Energy Management and Solutions provides in-depth research that explores strategies and techniques used in the energy production field to optimize energy efficiency in order to maintain clean and safe use while delivering ample energy coverage. The anthology also seeks solutions to energy that have not yet been optimized or are still produced in a way that is harmful to the environment. Covering topics such as hydrogen fuel cells, renewable energy, solar power, solar systems, cost savings, and climate protection, this text is essential for electrical engineers, nuclear engineers, environmentalists, managers, policymakers, government officials, professionals in the energy industry, researchers, academicians, and students looking for the latest research on clean energy management.

Download or read book The Frontiers of Europe written by Federiga Bindi and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2011-08-18 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Brookings Institution Press and Scuola Superiore della Pubblica Amministrazione (SSPA) publication As the European Union tries to increase both its visibility and its impact on the world stage, it cannot overlook the fact that until now enlargement has formed its most successful foreign policy. But is the EU's enlargement strategy still relevant today? Have the economic crisis and the speculative attack on the euro made the enlargement policy more uncertain? In The Frontiers of Europe, an international cast of leading experts and policymakers examine the EU's prospective borders from new perspectives. Indeed, the frontiers of Europe are as much a matter of values and the EU's international credibility as they are a matter of geographic definition. The contributors highlight the considerable yet different interests of the United States and Russia in the EU's enlargement strategy, paying special attention to the likely effects on the future of U.S.-EU relations. This comprehensive volume focuses not only on the European Union's outward expansion, but also on the internal dynamics within EU states and those states' abilities to deal with pressing issues such as terrorism, immigration, internal crime, and energy security. The EU must prioritize stability in both its enlargement strategy and its relations with the broader international neighborhood. The book raises a note of caution, however: as governance challenges increase, the EU's attention increasingly draws inward, thus diminishing its soft power. The Frontiers of Europe is important reading for anyone trying to understand the current geopolitical landscape of Europe and what it means for the rest of the world.

Download or read book World Report 2017 written by Human Rights Watch and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2017-01-13 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The human rights records of more than ninety countries and territories are put into perspective in Human Rights Watch's signature yearly report. Reflecting extensive investigative work undertaken in 2016 by Human Rights Watch staff, in close partnership with domestic human rights activists, the annual World Report is an invaluable resource for journalists, diplomats, and citizens, and is a must-read for anyone interested in the fight to protect human rights in every corner of the globe.

Download or read book The European Union s Democracy Promotion in Central Asia written by Aijan Sharshenova and published by Ibidem Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brussels made democracy, human rights, the rule of law, and good governance its top co-operation priorities in the EU Strategy Framework towards Central Asia for 2007?2013. This book examines two interrelated questions: To what extent has EU democracy promotion in Central Asia been successful? And, to the extent that it was successful, why was it so? The book presents a comprehensive analytical framework for the evaluation of democracy promotion, including factors which may facilitate or hinder democratic development in Central Asia.

Download or read book Eu Eastern Partnership Common Framework or Wider Opportunity The written by Carlo Frappi and published by EGEA spa. This book was released on 2013-07-24T00:00:00+02:00 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Eastern Partnership (EaP) represents the most ambitious project launched by the European Union in order to support political and socio-economic reform in its neighbourhood, with a view to stepping up political association and economic integration. Notwithstanding the achievements of the framework, the EaP requires re-conceptualization focusing on those issues where cooperation and convergence are not only feasible but also more suitable in view of pan-European economic growth and security. Moving from the relations between the EU and Azerbaijan, which is gradually but steadily emerging as a key interlocutor for EU Eastward projection, the aim of the volume is to assess the functioning of the EaP bilateral and multilateral track along selected policies, in order to identify means to improve the overall efficacy of the framework, taking into consideration both EU and Eastern partnersŐ expectations and needs. Providing fresh analysis on the EaP development, the volume Đ the result of an ISPI-SAM joint research project Đ brings together and compares perspectives and expertise from the EU and the neighbourhood, fostering dialogue and mutual comprehension on issues of common concern.