The paper analyses the peculiarities of the Russian Federation’s foreign policy towards the so-called post-soviet countries. It focuses on Russia’s policies towards Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, and the South Caucasus, with specific attention onhow a complexityof foreign policy players, diverse available tools, and geopolitical as well asideational, economic, and cultural interestsare combined into a coherent strategy. The paper argues that despite common strategic goals –geopolitical security and Great Power identity –the interests of powerful domestic players hinder the creation of a consistent and long-term plan forhow to achieve strategic goals. The domestic institutional logic of Russia as a Limited Access Order (LAO) creates significant obstacles for long-term planning and makes Russian policy in the post-soviet space tactical rather than strategic. The existing patterns of asymmetricaleconomic, political, and cultural interdependence of neighbouringcountries with Russia allows Moscow to achieve short-term victories. These victoriesare, however,mainly determined by the rigid use of hard power tools, which in the long run reduces Russia’s attractivenessand forces neighbouringcountries to look for alternatives

The paper focuses on the strategies and approaches of the main international financial institutions (IFIs) –the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank –towards reforms in the Eastern Partnership(EaP)countries, namely, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine. It assesses the main principles, goals, policy instruments, conditionalities and the target groups of these IFIs in their interaction with the authorities of the threecountries and the implementation of country support programs. The two core questions that guide the analysis are, first, the role of IFIs in supporting economic and institutional reforms, which aim at transforminglimited access orders into open access orders, and, second, these IFIs’interaction with other external actors,such as the European Union,that are present in the EaP countries. In addition to the traditional advice on fiscal consolidation and structural reforms, the IFIs have been focused on banking and energy reforms,asrent-seeking and corruptionwere especially wide-spread in thesesectors. Increasing focus on policies aimed at reducing corruption, in particular in the case of Ukraine, isamong the most notable features of theIFIs’operation in those countries. However, such measures often risked being implemented only ‘on paper’, especially after the financial pressure on the ruling elitein recipient countries decreased. The attempts to broaden the political and societal support for agreed policy reforms have become another exceptional element of the support strategy practiced by the IFIs in the EaP countries, in particular in Ukraine. In the latter case, the negotiated arrangements were discussed not only with key figures from the ruling eliteand responsible institutions but also with the opposition, societal activists and other important stakeholders. Despite attempts at broadening reform ownership and coordination with other external donors, the actual effects of the IFIs’strategies on transition reforms have been limited, as evidenced by a history of half-implemented and sometimes reversed policy measures.

The European Union (EU) and the countries in the Eastern Partnership (EaP) framework have developed ambitious and comprehensive programmes for scientific cooperation that provide a major source of funding for science institutes and crucial support for science policies in the region. However, science policies and scientific cooperation areembedded in broader political and governance institutional structures. This paper exploresthe idea that in limited access orders(LAOs), institutions and powerful actors can constrain the design and implementation of scientific cooperation projects in a way that limits their broader transformative potential and societal effects. Empirically, the paper is focused on three EaP countries –Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine –that differ in the forms and intensity of their scientific cooperation with the EU, but also in the types of regimes they have.The paper developstheoretically the possible and likely effects of LAOs on science policies and scientific cooperationandseeksevidence for such effects using sets of interviews with policy experts and scientists. Our empirical analysis shows that the results of scientific cooperation projects rarely spillover to broader society. It is unclear, however, to what extent this is a result of the generally limited capacity of EaP governments for strategic policy making and policy implementation, and to what extent it stems from features characteristic of LAOs. Overall, we find that,in line with our theoretical reasoning, the less open the regime, the more stringent the constraints on science and scientific cooperation it imposes.

Bislang ist nicht systematisch erforscht, welche konkreten Unterstützungsbedarfe und -potentiale in Bezug auf hilfs- und pflegebedürftige Menschen in Krisensituationen vorhanden sind. Damit fehlt es an Grundlagenwissen, um die Verletzlichkeit (im Folgenden Vulnerabilität) dieser wach-senden Bevölkerungsgruppe adäquat bewerten und Maßnahmen zur Vulnerabilitätsreduktion ergreifen zu können. Dieses Desiderat adressiert das BMBF-geförderte Forschungsprojekt KOPHIS »Kontexte von Pflege- und Hilfsbedürftigen stärken«. Ziel des Vorhabens ist es, die Vulnerabilität von hilfs- und pflegebedürftigen Menschen aus einer praxissoziologisch geprägten Untersuchungsperspektive, konkretisiert am Beispiel eines Wintersturmszenarios, differenziert zu bewer-ten. Dazu führte die Katastrophenforschungsstelle (KFS) unter anderem eine deutschlandweite Befragung (N = 2.018) durch. Folgend werden die Ergebnisse dieser Befragung deskriptiv dargestellt.

Seit der Gründung der Bundesrepublik Deutschland haben verschiedene Megatrends die Entwicklungen auf dem deutschen Arbeitsmarkt maßgeblich beeinflusst. Insbesondere die voranschreitende Globalisierung hat zur weiteren Öffnung der deutschen Volkwirtschaft geführt und den sektoralen Strukturwandel, das heißt den Wandel von der Industrie- zur Dienstleistungsgesellschaft beschleunigt. Gleichzeitig hat das durchschnittliche Wirtschaftswachstum seit den 1950er-Jahren bedeutend nachgelassen. Auf dem Arbeitsmarkt wurden zudem schon Jahrzehnte vor der Einführung der Hartz-Reformen Flexibilisierungsmaßnahmen durchgesetzt, um einem Anstieg der Arbeitslosigkeit entgegenzuwirken. Insgesamt unterlag der Arbeitsmarkt in den vergangenen 60 Jahren einem starken Wandel. Wir identifizieren Gewinner und Verlierer dieser Entwicklung in einer multidimensionalen Betrachtung der Entwicklung in den Bereichen Bildung, Arbeitsmarkbeteiligung, Qualifikationsniveau der Beschäftigung und Einkommensentwicklung. Die Analyse wird mit harmonisierten Mikrodaten (Mikrozensus 1962-2013) auf Individualebene und auf dem Haushaltslevel durchgeführt.

The comparative research project LoGoSO Germany China focuses on the integration measures for migrants in four different cities. Berlin and Cologne in Germany and Guangzhou and Hangzhou in China are characterized by particular large numbers of migrants and a well-established philanthropic sector. This report outlines the policy traditions and integration measures of the four cities and compares the challenges for the municipalities as well as the role of social organizations (SOs) in the service provi-sion for migrants. While all cities have their own peculiarities and distinct features, the report finds that the main challenges for the local governments are similar. SOs are an important factor for developing new ideas and structures and all city administrations heavily depend on their assistance. In China, the main way to involve SOs are gov-ernment procurement of services while in Germany, SOs are important partners for the governments but mostly work independently and implement their ideas in their own way.

International adjudication is currently under assault, encouraging a number of States to withdraw, or to consider withdrawing, from treaties providing for international dispute settlement. This Working Paper argues that the act of treaty withdrawal is not merely as the unilateral executive exercise of the individual sovereign prerogative of a State. International law places checks upon the exercise of withdrawal, recognising that it is an act that of its nature affects the interests of other States parties, which have a collective interest in constraining withdrawal. National courts have a complementary function in restraining unilateral withdrawal in order to support the domestic constitution. The arguments advanced against international adjudication in the name of popular democracy at the national level can serve as a cloak for the exercise of executive power unrestrained by law. The submission by States of their disputes to peaceful settlement through international adjudication is central, not incidental, to the successful operation of the international legal system.

Whether couples pool their resources and behave like a unit or spend their income individually is crucial for social and tax policy. In this paper, I provide a test of the income pooling hypothesis using administrative cross-sectional survey data on expenditures and individual incomes of couple households in Germany. The test is performed within the Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDS) framework, which allows for an endogenous expenditure budget and endogenous individual income contribution shares in an instrumental variables approach. Although the hypothesis is broadly rejected, there are significant differences regarding the marital status, the presence of at least one child in the household and whether the household is located in a former West or East German federal state. Married couples and couples with children are closer to the acceptance of the hypothesis than unmarried couples without children.

The previous literature has shown that children who enter school at a more advanced age outperform their younger classmates on competency tests taken between kindergarten and Grade 10. This study analyzes whether these effects of school starting age continue into adulthood. Based on data on math and language test scores for adults in Germany, the identification of the long-term causal effects exploits state and year variation in school entry regulations. The results show that there are no effects of school starting age (SSA) on competencies in math and

A comprehensive empirical study is performed to measure the performance of a Blockchain-based Certi cation Storage System in Hyperledger Fabric. This work is based on a proof of concept in the aviation industry and fol- lows a Technical Risk & E cacy evaluation strategy to determine the utility derived from the use of the artefact. Relevant tuning parameters for per- formance and scalability as well as bottlenecks are identi ed. The impact of con guration parameters such as blocksize, transaction arrival rate and number of concurrent users on the systems performance is investigated. Ob- servations show that demands at throughput above system limits lead to transaction failures. Contributed are a repeatable process to performance sensitivity analysis and recommendations for con guring a Blockchain-based Certi cation Storage System for stable but high performance. The results can be used as a basis for optimizing the performance of similar systems.

El curso se basa en la revisión del conjunto de instrumentos de política utilizados en los países de la región para maximizar la captura de la renta extractiva, y el impacto social, político y económico del uso, a través del gasto público, que se le da a esta renta extractiva capturada. En última instancia se trata de sistematizar los procesos de cambio institucional, tanto a nivel local como nacional, inducidos por la expansión de las industrias extractivas, y cómo éstos cambios ayudan o limitan a los países de la región a cumplir con los Objetivos del Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS).

Luego de una sesión introductoria sobre la relación de las industrias extractivas y sostenibilidad, el curso inicia con un módulo sobre los distintos modelos de inversión observados en la región para los casos de las diferentes industrias (gas, petróleo, y minerales). La segunda sección se centra en las políticas fiscales (tributos y regalías) para las distintas industrias extractivas en la región. Luego de revisar la evolución de los instrumentos de rendición de cuentas y transparencia, sobre todo a partir de la implementación de la iniciativa EITI en la última década, el curso centra el análisis en la cuarta sección en los efectos de la renta extractiva; siguiendo la literatura acerca de la maldición de los recursos, se analizan los cambios tanto en indicadores sociales y económicos, así como también en términos de economía política de las instituciones. Finalmente, el curso culmina con una discusión acerca de las condiciones en las que las industrias extractivas pueden formar parte de una visión de sostenibilidad de largo plazo, enfatizando los desafíos para implementar un enfoque territorial del desarrollo.

En suma, el curso persigue tres objetivos generales: (1) brindar a los estudiantes la información necesaria para comprender los principales cambios en las políticas e instrumentos para capturar a la renta extractiva durante el reciente boom; (2) incentivar investigación comparada sobre los efectos del boom extractivo con un enfoque multi¬dimensional; e (3) incentivar un debate acerca de las condiciones bajo las cuales las industrias extractivas pueden formar parte de una visión de sostenibilidad de largo plazo en la región. Todo esto con miras a aproximarse al cumplimiento de los ODS.

En el contexto de la emergencia del neoliberalismo, el régimen militar en Chile introdujo en 1981 el Código de Aguas que inició el proceso de privatización y transnacionalización del sector sanitario, transformando a Chile en el único país del mundo donde el agua es privada. Hoy en día el agua está controlada en gran parte por empresas transnacionales y fondos de pensiones, como el Ontario Teachers‘ Pension Plan (OTPP) que se ha convertido en el mayor accionista desde 2007. Desde la perspectiva de las desigualdades “entrelazadas” analizaremos las desigualdades sociales a nivel local y regional en Chile con respecto al acceso al agua y a la calidad de los servicios sanitarios al incluir los vínculos de interdependencias multidimensionales y transnacionales representado por el caso canadiense del OTPP.

WEXICOM ist ein interdisziplinäres Forschungsprojekt zur Verbesserung der Nutzung von Wettervorhersagen für die Gesellschaft. Im Vordergrund steht dabei der Bereich der Warnung vor Extremwetter, die auf eine für die jeweiligen Empfänger geeignete Art kommuniziert werden muss. Dabei wird besonderes Augenmerk auf die Kommunikation der Unsicherheiten der Vorhersagen sowie der Wetterauswirkungen bei verschiedenen Vorlaufzeiten gelegt. Das Projekt wird im Rahmen des Hans-Ertel-Zentrums für Wetterforschung des Deutschen Wetterdienstes gefördert.

The worldwide populist wave has contributed to a perception that international law is currently in a state of crisis. This article examines in how far populist governments have challenged prevailing interpretations of international law. The article links structural features of populism with an analysis of populist governmental strategies and argumentative practices. It demonstrates that, in their rhetoric, populist governments promote an understanding of international law as a mere law of coordination. This is, however, not entirely reflected in their legal practices where an instrumental, cherry-picking approach prevails. The article concludes that policies of populist governments affect the current state of international law on two different levels: In the political sphere their practices alter the general environment in which legal rules are interpreted. In the legal sphere populist governments push for changes in the interpretation of established international legal rules. The article substantiates these propositions by focusing on the principle of non-intervention and foreign funding for NGOs.

In this paper, we argue that the ECB’s unconventional monetary policy announcements have generated significant spillover effects in Russia and Eastern Europe. The hypothesis is tested using OLS estimations of event-based regressions on monetary policy event dummies and seven financial variables in eleven East European countries including Russia. Overall, the empirical results associate the ECB’s unconventional policy announcements with the appreciation of East European currencies, rising stock market indices as well as falling long-term government bond yields and lower sovereign CDS spreads in Eastern Europe and Russia. Notably, bilateral integration with the eurozone is a key determinant of the strength of spillovers, with spillovers strongest in non-euro EU countries and weakest in non-EU East European countries. Interestingly, we find differentiated strength of spillovers to Russia compared to other non-EU East European countries, which we attribute to its fixed exchange rate regime. Lastly, we test for the presence of the portfolio rebalancing and confidence transmission channels.

An estimated 150 million tonnes of plastics have accumulated in the world's oceans and the problem increases, as waste management and recycling systems are unable to cope with the rising plastic production. Marine plastic pollution has consequences on the global ecosystem, coastal communities, industries including tourism, shipping and fishing and its impacts on food security and human health remain unknown. Negative effects span borders of national jurisdiction and a solution to the problem requires international cooperation. Policies to prevent plastic pollution have been implemented on local, national, regional and international levels. However, efforts to adequately address the problem have failed so far. When faced with such transboundary problems that threaten global public goods in the past, states have formed international regimes through negotiating legally binding treaties to effectively cope with the issue. This thesis examines factors for success and failure of international regimes for the protection of global public goods and investigates two cases of one successful and one unsuccessful international regime to cope with transboundary pollution problems. Results of the analysis of the successful Montreal Protocol show that an advantageous cost-benefit analysis, active leadership of actors pushing for an agreement, support by non-state actors on the domestic level, as well as perceived urgency for action were success factors. The treaty design constituted a necessary condition for success by using the following treaty elements: a) common but differentiated responsibilities, b) trade restrictions, c) financial mechanism, and d) adjustments and amendments. Findings from the Kyoto Protocol case study indicate reasons for failure, namely the disadvantageous cost-benefit analysis, perceived unfairness due to the exemption of developing countries from costs, domestic compliance incapacity, as well as inadequate targets to address the problem. The treaty design was a necessary condition for failure of the regime by including: a) one-sided responsibility, b) an inadequate scope to deal with the problem, as well as mechanisms that allowed for loopholes and complicated monitoring, c) rigidity incentivising short-term policies and preventing innovation, as well as d) lack of compliance and enforcement mechanisms. This thesis demonstrates that treaty design is significant for setting incentives for participation and compliance, as well as for deterring non-compliance.

The treaty design of a successful international agreement to eliminate marine plastic pollution would require the use of: a) the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, b) an adequate scope to address the problem by including land- and sea-based sources, as well as chemical additives and all stages of the life-cycle of plastics, c) issue-linkage to international plastics trade, d) a financial mechanism to support developing countries, e) flexibility to adapt to changes, f) effective reporting, monitoring and review procedures, and g) enforcement through incentivising compliance and deterring non-compliance. This research demonstrates that treaty design is a key determinant for success of international regimes. This thesis contributes to research by reviewing academic literature on the emergence and maintenance of international regimes, mapping the problem of marine plastic pollution and identifying treaty elements that will contribute to success of a legally binding mechanism on the global scale to adequately address marine plastic pollution. Implications go beyond the topic of marine plastic pollution and global environmental problems, and can also be useful for academics, policymakers, and civil society actors in other areas of international law and global governance.

The paper aims to lay out a framework for evaluating value shifts in the international legal order for the purposes of a forthcoming book. In view of current contestations it asks whether we are observing yet another period of norm change (Wandel) or even a more fundamental transformation of international law — a metamorphosis (Verwandlung). For this purpose it suggests to look into the mechanisms of how norms change from the perspective of legal and political science and also to approximate a reference point where change turns into metamorphosis. It submits that such a point may be reached where specific legally protected values are indeed changing (change of legal values) or where the very idea of protecting certain values through law is renounced (delegalizing of values). The paper discusses the benefits of such an interdisciplinary exchange and tries to identify differences and commonalities among both disciplinary perspectives.