The COVID‐19 pandemic and government responses: A gender perspective on differences in public opinion

Abstract Objective The 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis has led to shutdowns of the cultural, associational, and economic life in many parts of the world and had a severe impact on gender relations in many societies. This study engages with gender differences in public support of severe infringements of personal and economic freedoms. Methods We use data from an original survey conducted by CINT in the United States and Germany in June 2020. Descriptive statistics both aggregated for the two countries and then split by country as well as multinomial logistic regression analyses gauge gender differences in support of COVID-19 related confinement measures. Results Men and wome…

Outside‐in Politicization of EU–Western Africa Relations: What Role for Civil Society Organizations?

This article explores the empirical relevance of researching outside-in politicization processes in European studies. To this end, it examines to what extent and how civil society organizations (CSOs) have contributed to the politicization of EU policies towards Western Africa in two cases: the negotiation of Economic Partnership Agreements and the EU's engagement with the G5 Sahel. CSOs were strongly engaged in the trade negotiations, while they were largely excluded from the G5 Sahel process. In both cases this was due to CSOs' own initiatives, or the absence thereof, with these strongly linked to being either invited or discouraged by official actors. The article argues that authority tr…

Impact of the Agent’s Environment on Discretion in the Field of EU Conflict Resolution

Employing an agent–principal perspective on EU conflict resolution and focusing on the politics of discretion, we argue that the context in which the agent acts affects the principal–agent relation. Our conceptualization draws on the agent’s actions as a source of discretion, which can be either an unintentional product of the characteristics of the external environment in which the agent performs (structure-induced discretion) or a product of intentionally pursued agent action (interest-induced discretion). Focusing particularly on the European External Action Service, we find that the agent can exploit urgency and third party interplay as characteristics of EU conflict resolution in order…

Overlapping Regionalism and Security Cooperation: Power-Based Explanations of Nigeria's Forum-Shopping in the Fight against Boko Haram

AbstractRegional conflicts increasingly require multilevel efforts by regional, subregional, and international actors. When states are confronted with a cooperation problem, often there are several institutions available to address this issue. Drawing on the literature of overlapping regionalism and forum-shopping, we argue that existing explanatory models benefit from adding power-based explanations. By conceptualizing an issue-specific dimension and factors specific to the national environment as additional power-based criteria for forum-shopping, we expand the existing literature. Applying our framework to the response to the Boko Haram uprising, our study examines why Nigeria preferred …

Equally at risk? Perceived financial differences, risk assessment and containment measures in the COVID-19 pandemic

“If you compress the spring, it will snap back hard”: The Ukrainian crisis and the balance of threat theory

The narrative of an aggressive and neo-imperialist Russia that has dominated analyses of the 2014 Ukrainian crisis lacks theoretical rigour. We argue that a sustainable transformation of the Ukrainian crisis requires an accurate analysis of the context of the conflict, which should include an understanding of Moscow’s perception of the threats to its interests. This policy brief develops a theoretical understanding of the Ukrainian crisis through the lens of Stephen M. Walt’s balance of threat theory. We conclude that a realist analysis will help to explain Russian actions.

When Peace Leads to Divorce: The Splintering of Rebel Groups in Powersharing Agreements

While research has already focused on power-sharing agreements by assessing specific effects of political, economic, territorial and military provisions, some provisions might be more important tha...

Das Prinzipal-Agenten-Modell und EU-Konfliktbearbeitung – Strukturelle Erklärungen für Agenten-Autonomie

Ein wichtiger Ansatz, um die Beziehungen zwischen verschiedenen Akteuren innerhalb einer Organisation zu untersuchen, ist der Prinzipal-Agenten-Ansatz. Der ursprunglich aus den Wirtschaftswissenschaften stammende Ansatz, der in der Politikwissenschaft zunachst vor allem als theoretischer Rahmen fur die Analyse von Beziehungen zwischen Parlamenten und Behorden genutzt (Epstein und O’Halloran 1999) und auch auf internationale Organisationen bezogen wurde (Hawkins u. a. 2006), findet vermehrt in der Forschung zur Europaischen Union (EU) Anwendung. Vor allem durch Mark Pollacks Arbeit (1997, 2003) ist das Modell nun ein wesentlicher Bestandteil der Forschung zu intra-institutionellen Beziehunge…

The effectiveness of interregional security cooperation: evaluating the joint engagement of the EU and the AU in response to the 2013 crisis in the Central African Republic

African Union (AU)–European Union (EU) interregional security cooperation has not so far been analysed systematically with regard to its effectiveness despite the substantial support of African cap...