This work focuses on Great Britain as one of the world powers. It further examines the main aspects of British foreign policy towards the US and the EU. The cornerstone of British foreign policy is the Special Relationship with the US through which Great Britain seeks to strengthen its global status. The final part is devoted to Britain as a member of the EU and explains its attitudes towards European policies and deeper integration.

Cities constitute important political, economic and cultural frameworks, playing a potentially crucial role in influencing the residents' views and opinions about the world. In the context of Central Europe, there has been little attempt to examine the dynamics and construction of attitudes within urban societies. In this research, I explore the influence of urban spaces on citizens' attitudes towards the city and the European Union (EU). This study investigates such citizen behaviours in the largest new EU member state - the Republic of Poland. Building on existing scholarship, I include economic factors and attachment-related approaches to assess support of EU integration among highly skilled citizens living in European cities, the so-called Eurostars. The thesis asks to what extent perceived conditions in Polish cities shape the attitudes of young well-educated urban citizens towards the EU. How do citizens' perceptions of the local and of the supranational space affect their choice of location and work? I assess these questions by employing a sequential mixed methods approach that combines a quantitative and a qualitative method. I devised a survey that I conducted on 923 Masters (MA) students in Polish cities to evaluate their perceptions about their cities' performance. The survey further assessed students' attachments to their cities and their support for the EU. This collected data is complemented by detailed semi-structured interviews with 27 MA students to investigate whether their individual views on their respective city and on the EU influence their motivations to leave or stay in their city. This study situates these students as 'potential Eurostars' as they still live in their hometown. I conducted the comparative investigation in five large urban spaces in Poland: the Tricity area (Gdańsk-Sopot-Gdynia), Poznań, Warsaw, Wrocław and Kraków. Although not representative of every urban centre in Poland, these cities serve as a microcosm to understand the impact of local conditions and Europeanisation in Central and East Europe. (CEE) The use of cities as sites of analysis departs from the traditional and dominant nation-state framework. This thesis further underscores the attitudes of a specific social urban group, whose newly-gained access to the EU - with its opportunities for mobility - potentially offers them new perspectives. Such conditions may influence students' choices of future location and work. The developed methodological framework, with its focus on Polish cities, can be further applied to other countries, groups and territorial units in future research. The quantitative and qualitative findings reveal a relatively marginal influence of urban conditions on place attachment. I further demonstrate that satisfaction with economic and cultural conditions in Polish cities relate to positive attitudes towards the EU. The perception of quality of life plays an important role for the sampled MA students in how they decide where to work and live after graduation. Although, attachment to the city does not necessarily lead to a negative opinion about the EU, it does impact students' exit strategies and often leads to temporary migration plans. Other elements such as local patriotism, family and friends' networks, equally shape this form of place attachment.

European integration has been a widely discussed topic within political science since the creation of the EU. In recent years, signs of disintegration have been observed due to widespread euroscepticism, major crises and public discontent. Simultaneously, cross-border terrorism has become an acute issue for the EU with terror attacks being executed in several member states. This study examines the development of European integration in counterterrorism from 2014 to 2017 to determine if integration in this field has continued or halted. Two traditional integration theories, neofunctionalism and liberal intergovern­mentalism, are applied to understand the driving factors for the European integration process in this field. The results show that European integration in counterterrorism has persisted, and even accelerated in the aftermath of recent terror attacks. The driving factors for this development can be explained by a combination of the applied theories, but the framework of neofunctionalism is unexpectedly strong.

Building on three theories of European integration – liberal intergovernmentalism, neofunctionalism and postfunctionalism – I offer an explanation to the process and outcomes of the development of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) between 2008 and 2018. The process to establish the CEAS has been characterized by clashing actor preferences, which forced actors into negotiations. This thesis aims to analyze the dynamics of these negotiations surrounding the CEAS. My results show that liberal intergovernmentalism explains locked positions in interstate bargaining and highly compromised outcomes, and even non-decisions, of the CEAS. I also argue that neofunctionalism loses explanatory power when sensitive issues concerning automatic quota systems and national sovereignty are discussed, although many arguments by the involved actors in the policy process draw upon neofunctional assumptions. Postfunctionalism is argued to gain explanatory power during recent years, since identityrelated arguments and Eurosceptical and anti-immigrant ideas in European governments have increased.

Alors que la littérature académique sur les politiques de l’emploi se concentre sur les variables nationales du changement, cette recherche s’intéresse à la perméabilité des frontières nationales de l’action publique dans un contexte européanisé. En adoptant une approche interactionniste de l’européanisation, elle explique d’abord comment les institutions européennes ont défini un modèle, celui de la flexicurité, qui articule deux dimensions que les experts et les acteurs politiques ont longtemps considérées comme incompatibles : la flexibilité des marchés du travail et la sécurité des travailleurs. La recherche se penche ensuite sur la comparaison de deux cas nationaux, dont les systèmes de protection sociale étaient traditionnellement éloignés des cadres de la flexicurité, mais qui ont pourtant mis en œuvre des réformes qui vont dans le sens prescrit par les institutions européennes : la France et le Portugal. In fine, la thèse montre que les frontières nationales sont remises en cause mais n’ont pas disparu. Même s’il devient difficile d’agir de manière indépendante, les acteurs politiques nationaux mettent en œuvre des stratégies destinées à préserver leur autonomie. / The literature on employment policies has mainly focused on national variables in order to explain change. This research studies the degree of openness of national boundaries in a European context. By adopting an interactionist approach of Europeanization, it first explains how European institutions have defined a model of flexicurity that combines flexibility on the labor markets and security for the workers, whereas these two characteristics have long been considered incompatible. Then the research compares the recent evolution of two social protection systems that did not fit with the flexicurity framework and have nevertheless implemented employment policy reforms in line with European requirements. To explain the link between European demands and national reforms, this research underlines two mechanisms. First, it shows that national spheres are embedded in a broader context that strengthens the competition between welfare models but has a different impact on national spheres (the “national delay issue” in Portugal and the “specificities of the French model” in France). Then, in both cases, the political and administrative actors have tried to depoliticize policy reforms by mobilizing academic expertise. The different modalities of expert interventions crucially influence trade unions’ capacities to participate in the framing of national reforms. All in all, the thesis shows that national boundaries are challenged but have not disappeared. Even though it becomes difficult for them to act independently, national political leaders tend to develop strategies to preserve their autonomy.

Cette thèse prend comme point de départ l’étude d’un service de police, la Police Aux Frontières (PAF) en lien avec la construction européenne. En nous inspirant de la sociologie de l’État nous avons élaboré des catégories analytiques à même de rendre compte de l’évolution concomitante de cette police et des « régimes de circulation » national et européen. Le « régime de circulation » est défini grâce aux catégories rokanienne de l’analyse de l’État : il est lié à un « centre politique » et définit un territoire pertinent de circulation et les caractéristiques des personnes habilitées à s’y déplacer. La PAF est caractérisée comme une police des déplacements, elle met en jeu certaines des formes de pouvoir étatique décrite par Michel Foucault, qui met l’accent sur la capacité de l’État à contrôler à distance les activités des individus. Le régime de circulation national repose depuis 1974 sur le principe de la frontière comme lieu légitime et efficace des contrôles des déplacements des personnes et des déviances. Il entre en contradiction avec celui du régime de circulation européen qui, à partir de 1985, repose sur le principe de libre franchissement des frontières internes. La PAF, administration marginale, connaît alors un développement sans précédent de ses effectifs, de ses tâches et de son rôle dans l’élaboration du régime de circulation. Elle gère les interactions et les contradictions entre le régime de circulation national et européen. La PAF apparaît à la fois comme un acteur professionnel à même de défendre une extension des limites de sa « juridiction » mais également un acteur administratif intervenant dans l’élaboration des régimes de circulation. / This PhD thesis studies a police service, the Police Aux Frontières (PAF) in relation with European integration. Using the literature of the sociology of State, I elaborate two analytical categories to give an account of the parallel evolution of both the PAF and the European and French “movement regime”. The “movement regime” is defined thanks to rokanian analysis of the State: it is linked to a “political centre” and defines an area of movement and the characteristics of the people allowed to move within it. The PAF is defined as a movement police; it applies forms of State power described by Michel Foucault, who puts the emphasis on the capacity of the State to control individual activities from a distance. Since 1974, French “movement regime” has defined the border as the legitimate and effective locus of individual’s movements and deviance control. It opposes to the European “movement regime”, which since 1985 has relied on free movement of people. The PAF, a once marginal administration, has shown a rapid growth regarding staff, tasks, and role in the policy-making of European and French “movement regime”. The PAF is both a professional actor aiming for an extension of its “jurisdiction” and an administrative actor contributing to the “movement regime” decision-making.

The negative vote of the French population to the European Constitution shocked the European politics. It shifted the power constellations within the Union. By giving historical examples, the author explains that the refusal of the French population is not a new phenomenon. As a result, the article suggests to slow down the European integration process in order to prevent further setbacks.

By creating a common foreign policy the EU stands to maximize its international clout and leverage over the globe, in much the same fashion as it has done with its united economic policies. European integrationists imagine the EU becoming a major global power, speaking with one voice, substantially increasing its political clout. As a major power the EU could stand to become a counterbalance to the United States, stabilizing the current unipolar world system and offering a real alternative on the global scene. However, standing in the way of such pursuits is the EU member states unwillingness to give up national sovereignty, along with their own individual foreign policy interests, orientations, traditions, and histories. Achieving global superpower status is most unlikely, but the EU can still make great strides in the area of foreign affairs if it can develop some common ground to work upon. This thesis seeks to expand upon the literature discussing the European Unions foreign policy process. It seeks to clarify the issues preventing the development of meaningful foreign policy, and therefore contribute to the body of knowledge concerning the difficulties that the EU faces. By examining the recent events of the preamble to the war in Iraq, this study analyzes the CFSP as it is to date, and draws conclusion about the nature of collective decision-making within the EU. It is also valuable in its analysis of the foreign policy process and how this in turn reflects upon the wider process of European integration.

The aim of this paper is to estimate the effect of FDI and trade openness on wages in the CEECs in the post-transition era. We utilize a cross-country sector-specific eceonometric analysis based on one-digit level panel data for manufacturing industry in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, for the period of 2000-2004. The results suggest that the increases in productivity are reflected in wages only to a modest extent, even in the long-term, leading to a steady decline in the share of labor in manufacturing industry in almost all sub-sectors in all countries. Meanwhile, the high significant and negative effect of unemployment on wages shows that the labor market is flexible in terms of wage flexibility. FDI has a positive effect on wages only in the capital and skill intensive sectors. The results also show that the increase in trade with EU did not lead to positive prospects for wages in manufacturing industry, contrary to the expectations of pro-market policies and traditional trade theory. The long-term net effect of exports and imports is negative, suggesting that integration of CEECs to EU via trade liberalization have worked at the expense of labor. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

By creating a common foreign policy the EU stands to maximize its international clout and leverage over the globe, in much the same fashion as it has done with its united economic policies. European integrationists imagine the EU becoming a major global power, speaking with one voice, substantially increasing its political clout. As a major power the EU could stand to become a counterbalance to the United States, stabilizing the current unipolar world system and offering a real alternative on the global scene. However, standing in the way of such pursuits is the EU member states unwillingness to give up national sovereignty, along with their own individual foreign policy interests, orientations, traditions, and histories. Achieving global superpower status is most unlikely, but the EU can still make great strides in the area of foreign affairs if it can develop some common ground to work upon. This thesis seeks to expand upon the literature discussing the European Unions foreign policy process. It seeks to clarify the issues preventing the development of meaningful foreign policy, and therefore contribute to the body of knowledge concerning the difficulties that the EU faces. By examining the recent events of the preamble to the war in Iraq, this study analyzes the CFSP as it is to date, and draws conclusion about the nature of collective decision-making within the EU. It is also valuable in its analysis of the foreign policy process and how this in turn reflects upon the wider process of European integration.