Interest groups play a big role in the functioning of the democracy of the EU. These players that lobby for different interests can make a positive, but also a negative contribution to EU politics. The influence of the interest groups on the EU institutions can vary, and some will always be more influential …

In Western Europe, cities that host International Organizations (IOs) have to deal with more and more competition. The last decade many IOs settled in Eastern European and Asian countries. Distributing IOs over several cities in Europe for reasons of political balance and give-and-take among governments …

Analysing the questions “How profitable is the industry made with war and can peace become a profitable business as well?” is very difficult, as it is important to not just identify the profits made by the arms industry, but also to identify the industry focused on peace and built around connected values. …

Half of the geographical areas in Mainland China are currently facing problems of water shortage and water pollution. Both the Chinese government and its private sectors are striving to find viable solutions for this very issue. However, with the enormous population base in China and its fast-growing …

This dissertation examines how European integration and Welsh devolution have affected the Welsh identity. Devolution and European integration are the most important institutional process to have affected Wales in the last 40 years. These political processes have caused shifts of power leading a rethinking …

With regard to the increasing global competition for highly-skilled labour, the group of mobile international students is becoming more and more prominent in the considerations of national policy-makers. One concrete idea is to develop policies in order to bind international students and foreign knowledge workers …

The Turkish Republic has a great history with major defeats and victories in its past. Since the fourteenth century Turkey was part of the Ottoman Empire. During the following centuries, the Empire expanded and covered areas which are nowadays known as Europe, Asia and North Africa. The twentieth century …

This thesis aims to test the credibility of the Responsibility to Protect principle ("R2P") by looking at how the principle was applied in Libya and addressing the question of why R2P was not applied in Syria. The first part of the thesis is about the origins and definition of R2P. The second part compares …

Poland's veto against the Low Carbon Roadmap 2050 of 9 March 2012 represents the point of departure for this research. The aim was determine the extent to which the Council of Ministers retains veto powers on legislation pertaining to their national energy mix, or whether energy policy is governed by …

The South Caucasus compromises the states of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. It is a volatile region, distressed by ethno political conflicts which erupted after the fall of the powerful USSR. Free from Russian domination, the peoples of the South Caucasus - Armenians, Azerbaijanis and Georgians - started …