Since gaining independence, sub-Saharan Africa has experienced periods of internal conflict at higher rates than other regions. The region has also experienced protracted economic problems. Many African countries have implemented International Monetary Fund (IMF) programs designed to improve a state’s long-term economic viability. IMF conditionality, however, has led to a host of problems in sub-Saharan Africa that potentially increase the risk of experiencing internal conflict. The results of this research demonstrate that the implementation of the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility significantly increases a country’s risk of experiencing armed civil conflict. Neither the Structural Adjustment Facility nor the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility have the same affect, though prior conflict, higher GDPs, negative GDP growth, moderate levels of social fractionalization, transitional regimes and the presence of enclave economies do increase conflict risk.

In the early 2000s when several Central and East European countries (CEECs) negotiated their accession to the European Union (EU), they introduced foreign aid policy despite most of them being aid recipient countries at the time. This thesis seeks to explain the evolution of foreign aid policy in two Central and Eastern European countries that took divergent paths in adopting the policy, Slovenia and Latvia. While Slovenia evolved into a relatively active donor country among the CEECs, Latvia’s aid policy developed relatively slowly and aid allocations were smaller. The thesis approaches this subject from the perspective of the ‘Europeanisation East’ literature that seeks to explain policy adoption in the CEECs in terms of EU influence. The literature is divided on how to explain the policy adoption processes in the CEECs. Rationalists, on the one hand, stress the role played by external incentives, in particular the conditions the EU imposed on the CEECs for them to be admitted to the EU, known as EU conditionality. Rationalists also note the role of domestic veto players who can delay or even stop adoption of the policy if it incurs high adoption costs upon them. Constructivists, on the other hand, explain policy adoption in terms of identification and social influence, policy resonance, or the presence of influential norm entrepreneurs. In an important study, Schimmelfennig and Sedelmeier (2005) concluded that most of the policy adoption processes can be explained by the overwhelming influence of EU conditionality, thus downplaying constructivist explanations. This thesis examines whether their finding can be applied to the adoption of foreign aid policy in the preaccession period (1998-2004). It focuses on the role of EU as well as domestic factors in the policy adoption processes. It then explores what factors account for further developments in the policy adoption processes in the period after the CEECs acceded to the EU (2004-2010). The empirical basis of this study consists of a series of interviews with policy makers and civil society representatives in the two countries. The findings in these interviews have been checked against and triangulated with an encompassing examination of policy documents and archival material. The main findings about the pre-accession period indicate that EU conditionality indeed played an important role in foreign aid policy adoption, but so did identification and social influence. Hence policy adoption costs and the efforts of veto players could not delay policy adoption. In the post-accession period, it is argued here, the further policy adoption processes can largely be explained by identification and social influence. Nevertheless, veto players and adoption costs, as well as policy resonance, did emerge as constraining factors in the policy processes. All in all, the thesis argues that the policy adoption processes can be explained best by a combination of both Constructivist and Rationalist theories and that role of domestic factors should not be neglected in research into EU influence on the new member states.

Detta är en teoretisk uppsats som jämför ett antal olika relevanta teoretikers problematisering av begreppen IMF conditionality, nationellt ägandeskap och statssuveränitet samt dessa teoretikers syn på relationen mellan dessa. Jag har analyserat innehållet i ett antal olika litterära källor och jag refererar till ett flertal antal teoretiker. De ekonomiska lån som IMF ger till stater är villkorade med åtaganden som mottagarlandet måste uppfylla. Dessa villkor hänvisas ofta till som IMF conditioanlity. Statssuveränitet och nationellt ägandeskap definieras som en stats kontroll av sin egen inhemska politik, i denna uppsats begränsad till att gälla den ekonomiska politiken. Statssuveränitet går att definiera i ett vidare och i ett snävare perspektiv. I den snävare så är det regeringens kontroll av dessa frågor som är avgörande medan det i den bredare handlar om folkets kontroll av dessa frågor. Vissa teoretiker anser att IMF conditionality underminerar statens suveränitet och statens nationella ägandeskap av sin inhemska ekonomiska politik och att dessa villkor därigenom också försvagar folkets möjlighet till självbestämmande. Dessa teoretiker anser med andra ord att staten håller på att förlora kontrollen över den politiska utvecklingen och då staten är det medium genom vilket folket är hänvisat till att utöva inflytande genom allmänna val så undermineras på samma gång folkens möjlighet att påverka den politiska utvecklingen. Statssuvuränitet undermineras således både i snäv och bred definition på grund av IMF conditionality. Vissa teoretiker anser att statssuveränitet endast försvagas i dess bredare och inte i dess snävare genom att folket förlorar i ägandeskap genom att regeringen genom IMF conditionality gör sig i högre grad oberoende av folkets vilja. Ytterligare andra teoretiker försvarar IMF conditionality och hävdar att det hela handlar om ett partnerskap mellan mottagare och givare där låntagarnationen inte har gett upp ägandeskap och att IMF conditionality finns som en garant för att reformerna genomförs på ett effektivt sätt. Mottagarnationen har frivilligt tecknat ett avtal med IMF och har frivilligt gått med på att genomföra dessa reformer så det nationella ägandeskapet har inte förminskats menar dessa teoretiker. Jag kommer i denna uppsats fram till att IMF conditionality de facto har en negativ inverkan på staters nationella ägandeskap och på dessa staters suveränitet både i bred och i snäv definition.

This thesis examines the socio-economic transformation processes in Poland and Romania and aims to embed them in broader structural and historical context of changes. The main argument is that transformation processes in the states of Central and Eastern Europe are constituted by the global processes of change within a social totality. The study has three main objectives. First, it aims to provide a theoretical framework challenging the mainstream approaches methodologically/ontologically to point out to their limits and account for the dialectical relationship between the global and the internal. Second, to develop an account of the international context surrounding the transformation processes to highlight the nature of the global and hence to emphasise the unity of transformation and integration processes. As such, it critically interprets the social purpose of the international institutions and the European Union involvement in the policy-making of the states in the region through the changing techniques of monitoring, reporting and the process of negotiations. Third, to provide an analysis of the transformation processes in Poland and Romania as processes of the internationalisation of the state which would effectively help in examining the constitutive role of the global in a dialectical relationship with the national level dynamics and changes. Integration with the global economy as well as Euro-Atlantic institutions was an integral element of the neo-liberal restructuring in Poland and Romania. Socio-economic transformation in the region with added dimensions of conditionality had important social consequences, thereby resulting in new forms of state-society relations.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the European Union has focused its attention on moving the Central and Eastern European Countries towards democracy and the market economy, which culminated in the accession of these countries to the European Union on May 2004. With the accession of the ten new members to the Union, the European Union has acquired new neighbors and come closer to the old ones, with whom it had only indirectly interested in. There is a conviction in EU circles that future widening towards these countries is not possible without risking the integration process which the European countries have developed in the last fifty years. In addition to this internal consideration, the new neighbors of the EU, some of which have already declared their membership ambitions, are the countries which the EU perceives it cannot integrate in the foreseeable future because of their social, economic and political underdevelopment. In response to these realities, the Union developed the European Neighborhood Policy. In this thesis, potential of the new neighborhood policy to fulfill its objectives of being second best alternative to membership and its promise in providing a meaningful framework that is satisfactory both for the EU and its neighbors will be analyzed. Additionally, its impact on the European Union&rsquo / s foreign policy in general will be elaborated. It will be argued in this thesis that the ENP has such serious limitations in terms of its formulation, institutions, and its incentives that it will fail to realize its original aspirations.

This thesis concentrates on the development of human rights policy of the European Economic Communities(EEC) within its transformation process into a political organization. the assumption underlying this study is that the EEC was established following World War II as a regional solution that would enable the restructuring of Europe on the bases of power, stability, and peace. this thesis deals with enlargement as a security-oriented strategy, while, at the same time, it endeavors to analyze the EEC treatment of foreign policy, peace, security and respect for human rights issues as it completed its economic integration process.

The aim of this thesis is to observe the implementation of the Copenhagen criteria in the context of &lsquo / respect for and protection of minority rights&rsquo / during the accession process of Slovakia. EU&rsquo / s membership conditionality enforces candidate countries to improve the situation of minority groups within their borders. The main motivation of the EU in this process is to eliminate the reasons which cause ethnic conflicts in the continent and to prevent the escalation of minority-related problems into the EU territory. Slovakia which experienced a difficult accession process depending on the fulfilment of political criterion, constitutes an important case for the evaluation of minority clause. This thesis examines minority issue in a historical framework and specifically investigates the implementation of the Copenhagen criteria&rsquo / s minority clause in the EU&rsquo / s enlargement process. EU&rsquo / s conditionality which is its main tool in the enlargement, lacks clear-cut norms and standards regarding minority rights. Furthermore, there is a duality between internal and external policies of the Union on the issue of minority rights. In addition to this duality, the approach of the Union towards minority issue acquires a different character in different accession processes. This thesis argues that the lack of well-defined norms and standards, the duality between EU&rsquo / s internal and external minority policies and changing approaches of the Union in different accession processes complicate the implementation and the monitoring of minority clause giving rise to allegations of double standards in the enlargement process.

This thesis aims to analyze Cyprus issue in the context of the principle of conditionality in Turkey &ndash / EU relations. In this regard, the conditionality principle is examined both in international level and in European Union&rsquo / s approach. The implementation of conditionality by the European Union in relation with the Cyprus question is the second point of analysis. Finally, the evaluation of the conditionality and its implications in Turkey-EU relations regarding the Cyprus issue is overviewed. The assessment is made through historical periods of the relations between Turkey and EU. Finally, the comparison between the theoretical framework and practical application of conditionality in Cyprus issue is done as part of assessment.

The EU, over time, has garnered international recognition and acclaim as a successful agent of democratisation in third countries. The transitions of Greece, Spain and Portugal in the 1980s coupled with the recent Eastern enlargements of the EU into erstwhile communist space attest to the success of the EU in fostering tangible democratisation. However, as the EU rapidly approaches its institutional capacity, questions remain as to its viability as an agent of democratisation in the post-enlargement setting where the EU can no longer offer full membership as an incentive for political and economic reform. This thesis attempts to examine the viability of the EU as a democratic facilitator in the post-enlargement setting, through examination of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), a policy described by the EU as ‘everything but institutions’. Two mechanisms of normative transfer relative to the ENP were identified in the literature: conditionality, where the EU attaches incentives for successful political and economic reform, and socialisation, a newer notion whereby norms are transferred via interaction through generating close links with domestic actors. It was ascertained that in the context of the ENP, socialisation represented the dominant mechanism for normative change; conditionality was still utilised as a mechanism, however its scope had reduced greatly. To illuminate the phenomenon of EU democratic promotion, the case study of Armenia was chosen, a small but politically intriguing state in the EU’s Eastern Neighbourhood which had experienced (as is the case with the majority of post-Soviet states) stagnation and regression of the democratisation process since independence. Two facets of the EU’s democratisation strategy inherent in the ENP were chosen as empirical research areas: free and fair elections and interaction with domestic civil society organisations (CSOs). Free and fair elections offered evaluation of the conditionality aspects of the ENP through examining the 2008 Armenian presidential election. Interaction with domestic Armenian CSOs presented a rich phenomenon to examine the impact of socialisation in the ENP through utilising a case study examining four democratically minded NGOs. Ultimately, this thesis contends that through the ENP, the EU can no longer effectively wield conditionality as a viable mechanism of normative change and currently lacks the tools or a suitable environment to initialise normative transfers through socialisation. Consequently, it is argued that the EU has had little effect in facilitating democratisation in Armenia since the advent of the ENP.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is the leading international economic crisis manager, but the effects of its loans and conditionality reach far beyond overarching macroeconomic indicators. This paper will examine the consequences of IMF fiscal policy conditions on income inequality and poverty by examining cases in Latin America, and specifically Mexico during the 1980s. The role that internal politics within borrowing countries plays is also closely examined. The paper concludes with policy recommendations for the IMF to ensure the most equitable and effective means of overcoming balance of payments crises.