De toetredingsonderhandelingen tussen de EU en staten uit de Westelijke Balkan duren nog altijd voort. Vrij recent speelde Nederland nog een rol in deze ontwikkelingen door een veto uit te spreken... Show moreDe toetredingsonderhandelingen tussen de EU en staten uit de Westelijke Balkan duren nog altijd voort. Vrij recent speelde Nederland nog een rol in deze ontwikkelingen door een veto uit te spreken in de Europese Raad tegen het beginnen van onderhandelingen met Albanië en Noord-Macedonië. Een land dat ook een belangrijke rol speelt in de toetredingskwestie is Kosovo. Sinds de ambassadeur van de Republiek Kosovo in 2018 aantrad in Den Haag, heeft hij deze ontwikkelingen uiteraard ook op de voet gevolgd. In dit essay zet de ambassadeur zijn visie op deze Europese kwestie uiteen. Show less
This article is a short discussion about advances in technology in Air Traffic Control (ÁTC). From a personal ATC perspective there are two particular improvements that have made a significant... Show moreThis article is a short discussion about advances in technology in Air Traffic Control (ÁTC). From a personal ATC perspective there are two particular improvements that have made a significant impact on overall safety. Show less
The aviation sector in Europe is not functioning as efficiently and safety as it potentia/ly could. Vicepresident of the European Commission, 5. Kal/as, explains the efforts that the Commission is... Show moreThe aviation sector in Europe is not functioning as efficiently and safety as it potentia/ly could. Vicepresident of the European Commission, 5. Kal/as, explains the efforts that the Commission is currently undertaking in order to improve the European aviation industry through an initiative called Single European Sky. Show less
On Tuesday 28th September 2010 the first Master excursion of the current academie year took place. With a group of roughly 25 people the B.I.L. visited the International Court of Justice (ICJ)... Show moreOn Tuesday 28th September 2010 the first Master excursion of the current academie year took place. With a group of roughly 25 people the B.I.L. visited the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which is situated in the Peace Palace in The Hague. During our visit we got the chance to sit down and talk with a representative of the Peace Palace. Afterwards a tour of the Peace Palace was offered to us. Show less
Communication is crucial with regard to managing crises. This article is a short version of a paper that analysed the development of crisis communication within the aviation industry in the... Show moreCommunication is crucial with regard to managing crises. This article is a short version of a paper that analysed the development of crisis communication within the aviation industry in the Netherlands by investigating four different cases, i.e. the KLM crash at Tenerife in 1977, the El Al crash at the Bijlmermeer in Amsterdam in 1992, the Martinair crash at Faro in 1992, and the Turkish Airlines crash at Schiphol in 2009. Show less
Eelco Dykstra is currently working in The Hague to start the European roll-out of the International Katrina Project. He is well-known for his work at the George Washington University as professor... Show moreEelco Dykstra is currently working in The Hague to start the European roll-out of the International Katrina Project. He is well-known for his work at the George Washington University as professor of International Emergency Management. Eelco Dykstra is highly experienced in both the acad�mic and the practical field of crisis management. In this article he discusses eight important elements ('lessons learned') of managing crises. Show less
Professors Arjen Boin (Louisiana State University) and Paul 't Hart (Australian National University and Utrecht University) are co-authors of the prize winning study The Polities ofÇrisis... Show moreProfessors Arjen Boin (Louisiana State University) and Paul 't Hart (Australian National University and Utrecht University) are co-authors of the prize winning study The Polities ofÇrisis Management: Public Leadership under Pressure (Cambridge University Press 2005). In this article they discuss the risks of using crisis for politica! purposes. Show less
McDonald 's. The word alone, not to mention the actual restaurant itself, elicits a wide range of responses from those who hear it. Some think of yummy hamburgers and delicious french fries,... Show moreMcDonald 's. The word alone, not to mention the actual restaurant itself, elicits a wide range of responses from those who hear it. Some think of yummy hamburgers and delicious french fries, others think of the recent blockbuster hit Super Size Me and the health risks associated with greasy fast food, others think of the terrors of the corpora te world, Americanization, and an unstoppable force of cultural homogenization. George Ritzer, however, thinks of Max Weber and sees the modern day paradigm of a force he described nearly a century ago - rationalization. Show less
Optimists have called the Kyoto Protocol a historica! document while skeptics have called it inevitability. But in the end any way you look at this document it means an added dimension to politica!... Show moreOptimists have called the Kyoto Protocol a historica! document while skeptics have called it inevitability. But in the end any way you look at this document it means an added dimension to politica! and commercial dynamics. One however which has important implications if wrongly understood or interpreted. This is truly one of the difficult si des to K yoto and policies on sustainability, the questions are diverse and its reality all hut simp Ie, hut wrong policy could maybe 'not' be overturned. Show less
When picturing policy-making in the European Union (EU), we usually think of national mini _ sters and commis� ioners bargaining over a proposal in the Council building in Brussels or Members of... Show moreWhen picturing policy-making in the European Union (EU), we usually think of national mini _ sters and commis� ioners bargaining over a proposal in the Council building in Brussels or Members of the Europ� an Parhament (EP) d� batmg � nd voting in the plenary of the EP in Strasbourg. And indeed, these phenomena are � ssenhal parts of the _ E? pohcy-�akmg process. However, a reduction of the process to these features risks missing other important char� ct�nshcs. In par _ h� ular, a focus on the voting and bargaining _be�avior of high-level p _ lay� rs like Members � f the EP, C�mm_ 1ss1� ners, and _ Mm1sters in the Council overlooks the potenhal mfluence of the bod1es m charge of most day-to-day leg1slahve work m the EU, namely committees. EU committees come in all sorts and shapes and play vi� al roles in all stages of t�e ��licy cycle. �ocalled 'comitology' committees assist the Commission in implementi _ ng EU pohcy and expert groups � dv1se 1t _ m formul� ting legislative proposals. These legislative proposals are subsequently d1scussed and _ amended b! the EP s stand1� g comm1ttees and by the working parties in the Council. The influential roles of these comm1ttees pose important queshons about the legitimacy and efficiency of EU policy-making Show less
Change can only come about when people start to have thought experiments about how one could modify the status quo. All the great thinkers we know have become so by revolutionizing against some... Show moreChange can only come about when people start to have thought experiments about how one could modify the status quo. All the great thinkers we know have become so by revolutionizing against some presuppositions lo� g _ accepted. Only think of men as Socrates, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Rousseau or Einstein. Each one of them was, to put 1t hghtly, not well understood and much disliked in their time, because they thought outside of the regular patterns of thought. Show less
The fall of the Berlin wall marked the beginning of massive multiple transitions in the countries from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia,... Show moreThe fall of the Berlin wall marked the beginning of massive multiple transitions in the countries from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia were all caught in a process of turbulent changes that would leave no aspect of their societies undisturbed. The omnipresent totalitarian state was to be replaced by a liberal democratie government and uncoupled from the structures of the Party. The free market was to re-emerge from the ashes of the centrally-planned economies. The very identity of these nations was called into question and re-defined. New borders were drawn between nations; between state and society; between public and private. Show less
Over the last 40 years, the number and influence of environmental interest organizations has grown around the world. Almost nonexistent in the mid-1960s, they now have an enduring presence within... Show moreOver the last 40 years, the number and influence of environmental interest organizations has grown around the world. Almost nonexistent in the mid-1960s, they now have an enduring presence within the politica! systems of all advanced industrial democracies. In popular images, the upstart environmental Davids courageously hold back the polluting Goliaths of big business. Under-funded, under-manned, and all too of ten ignored, they struggle to at best contain powerful economie interests who care little about the environment. Surprisingly, much of this popular image is wrong. Many of the things that we think we know about the mobilization, lobbying, and influence of environmental organizations are myths that are not supported by research on interest representation. Show less
Why is the EU not a federal state, and why has movement in the direction of federalism been arrested? The most powerful reason lies in the mobilization of national identity against further European... Show moreWhy is the EU not a federal state, and why has movement in the direction of federalism been arrested? The most powerful reason lies in the mobilization of national identity against further European integration. Group attachments can be extraordinarily powerful, and few more so than attachments to territorially-defined communities. A student of modern Europe might heed a simple dictum: "Don't underestimate nationalism." Show less