• organized crime in post communist europe, masters thesis

  in this thesis i examine the transitions to democracy found in the postcommunist regimes of eurasia and compare among them levels of organized crime. i find that the regime type classified as competitive authoritarian bears the highest levels of organized crime. this relationship is explained by a number of weak state institutions, such as problematic economic liberalization, low rule of law, and weak civil society. the political environment of competitive authoritarianism provides the ideal conditions for criminal organizations to set up shop and flourish. additionally, i show that as states exit competitive authoritarianism, moving either toward liberal democracy or toward closed authoritarianism, the levels of organized crime decrease.

• thoughts on the relationship between organized crime and civil society

  if a vibrant sc is vital to a liberal democracy, what threat does oc pose to liberal democracy? one might ask whether oc itself is a type of civil society, a voluntary organization that functions between the state/legal-economy and the family and uses violence to (a) protect its illegal assets from the state/legal-economy and (b) assure participation.

• failures of democratization in bosnia and a look at practices of cee states, a paper presented to the third ceu graduate conference

  when war broke out in yugoslavia, the international community had two responsibilities: first to end the violence; second to promote democratic cooperation between the warring nations. to be sure, the first – and most important – responsibility was tenuously fulfilled. however, the second responsibility has had less than prodigious results. this paper seeks to illustrate that the failures of democratization can be found in a long standing belief that the root source of bosnia's conflict lies in an ancient ethnic hatred, a view held by the dayton peace agreement itself. the intergovernmental organizations were given unrealistic mandates that did not unify, but further divided the country. this paper concludes that the root sources lie elsewhere, and other cee states offer greater potential for helping bosnia, for they have similarly endured hardships of post-communist economic liberalization, thwarted ethnic conflict despite deep ethnic tensions, and secured a trajectory towards harmonization with western norms.

• the eu member states' role in the former yugoslavia and the esdp, esdp paper presented to dr whitman

  the eu has evolved in favor of bolstering capabilities to implement its foreign interest objectives. in the effort to develop a security and defense identity, the common foreign and security policy (cfsp) and the petersberg tasks have culminated in a new strategy found in the european security and defense policy (esdp). this paper seeks to assess the extent to which member states' role in the former yugoslavia provides a key explanation for the development of esdp. it makes the argument that the esdp today was directly shaped by the turn of events in the western balkans to the extent that esdp was built exactly for such situations; and yet, for this very reason the esdp has not been developed to such an extent that it can be effective for preventing new forms of conflict.

• the evolution and implementation of sustainable development development in central and eastern europe, a paper presented to dr szarka

  the collapse of communism presented an array of challenges to european actors on both sides of the iron curtain. one challenge was to the views and modes of implementation of sustainable development (sd). while this concept has been slowly gaining support for decades, the central and east european (cee) states suddenly offered unprecedented possibilities for improvement and implementation of an array of dimensions of sd. this essay seeks to examine the ways both western and cee actors have institutionalized and implemented certain dimensions of sd.

• the impact of csce on political development in czechoslovakia, a paper presented to dr just

  from the 1960's, czechoslovakia has had a curious development in the use of human rights norms. dissident groups, in opposition to soviet totalitarianism, remained strong despite repression from the process of normalization. in the 1970's, after prague spring and inspired by the helsinki act, a small group of dissidents formed what has proved to be one of the most intellectually formidable and influential statements against soviet totalitarianism: charter 77. this charter was the product of both czechoslovakia's contemporaneous political philosophy as well as the determined efforts of a handful of self-reflecting dissidents. in this paper i will explain how a development in human security, the "human dimension", functions within the institutional framework of the organization for security and co-operation in europe (osce) and how its development influenced dissident intellectuals in czechoslovakia. below i will argue that the helsinki final document, the institutional core and foundation of the osce, in combination with the contemporaneous czech political philosophy held by key dissidents, produced an environment unique among soviet states and satellites for charter 77 to profoundly effect post-communist development from 1989 to today.

• understanding the human dimension in the osce and its impact on postcommunist transition, a paper presented to dr vykoukal

  since the mid-1970's, human rights have become a salient feature in east-west co-operation. the cost in human capital of world war ii forced european elites to serve their national interests through co-operation rather than conflict, and this new spirit of co-operation has institutionalized human rights norms in the form of politically and legally binding agreements. these agreements, in turn, have given certain interest groups the impetus and language to confront oppression within the soviet union and its satellite states. in this paper i will explain how a development in human security, the "human dimension", functions within the institutional framework of the organization for security and co-operation in europe (osce) and how its development impacted post-communist development in certain cee states through non-institutional means. below i will argue that the helsinki final document, the institutional core and foundation of the osce, was used by non-institutional resistance groups within certain communist states, and, further, that this non-institutional influence contributed critically to the demise of communism.

• implications of the human dimension of osce for the european union, a paper presented to dr šlosarcik

  in the early 20th century, the cost of modern warfare forced european elites to reassess the value of human capital in the consolidation and acquisition of power. the destruction of so many human lives compelled elites to serve their national interests through co-operation rather than conflict, and such co-operation has begun to change the economic and cultural landscape of europe. the welfare of ordinary people, or human security, has produced a host of new procedures and organizations, and offered elites a new paradigm in formulating policy (paris 2001: 2). in this paper i will explain how a specific feature of human security, the "human dimension", functions within the institutional framework of the organization for security and co-operation in europe (osce) and what the human dimension means to the european union (eu). i will argue that as a transnational, politically binding agreement between nation states, the flexibility of the osce benefits the eu in ways that internal laws, bilateral treaties, and other legally binding agreements cannot.

• democratizing welfare in estonia, a paper presented to dr stephens

  in this paper i will discuss the various forms of welfare estonia provides for its citizens and focus on how democratization influenced its social policy after 1989. i will use gøsta esping-anderson's books the three worlds of welfare capitalism and why we need a new welfare state as a guide for assessing the degree of commodification and stratification among estonian citizens and use several theories on transitional governments and social policy for explaining how and why this has happened.

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