Sebastian Mayer – författare

Written by thirty renowned international scholars and practitioners, chapters provide multidisciplinary insights into NATO’s legal and political developments. They examine existing research ventures within NATO scholarship, as well as potential future methodological advancements. The Research Handbook looks closely at NATO’s political and military decision-making, its principles of governance and its key fields of action. It additionally offers a significant analysis of the organization’s stability and cohesion.

This comprehensive Research Handbook will be important for academics studying law, politics and international relations surveying the intricacies of regional organizations. It will be particularly beneficial for NATO practitioners and for researchers endeavouring to further the field of NATO studies.

This volume explains the behavior of the European Union (EU) towards Central Asia. In so doing, the responses of regional actors which impact the EU’s regional conduct, and the effects of competing external governance providers (particularly Russia and China), are considered. The current literature – often from an interdisciplinary, descriptive area studies angle – reveals some research gaps. Scholars chiefly explore the impacts of the EU on Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, while action of the EU itself with its decision-making, preferences, and underlying drivers, remains underspecified. Focusing more explicitly on the EU, chapters in the book are systematically organized along a set of shared, overarching questions. Ultimately, the authors depict and explain EU action and assess how successful the organization has been in achieving its stated regional objectives in a number of policy fields: Economic Development and Trade; Security; Democratizationand Human Rights; Water; and Education.

This handbook-style edited volume discusses historical, but predominantly current political, economic, and societal trends in Central Asia comprising Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. The five countries exhibit many cultural and historical commonalities and face similar internal and external challenges. Despite different transformation paths and frequent intra-regional tensions, a common regional identity has emerged in the countries since gaining their independence in 1991. Besides covering their political systems, a variety of topics such as human rights, media, terrorism, and civil society are addressed. As well, bilateral relations with seven external actors are examined. Lastly, the authors explore the opportunities and limitations of institutionalized regional cooperation in various fields of action.