The present article aims to analyze the effects of high oil prices since 2003 on Iran. The theoretical basis of the analysis is the rentier state approach, the basic element of which is that rents are at the free disposal of the rentier. Empirically, the paper examines the issue areas of foreign...

Die Staaten der Welt haben auf die Terroranschläge des 11. September 2001 und die nachfolgenden Militärschläge gegen Afghanistan unterschiedlich reagiert. In der Region Ost- und Südostasien waren die Staaten je nach Position im Gefüge der internationalen Beziehungen und je nach innerer...

The South China Sea is subject to competing claims of sovereignty by the littoral states. Due to the number of claimants and the complexity of claims, it is called the 'mother of all territorial disputes'. China is far the biggest country in the region and claims sovereignty over almost all the...

This paper takes an in-depth look at the European great powers France, Germany and Britain and their foreign policy reactions vis-à-vis the Russo-Georgian War in August 2008. It explains the different reactions from a certain interplay between present and past geopolitics that shape the foreign...

EU policy towards the Southern Mediterranean remains painfully fragmented across different lines: member states initiatives vs. EU as a whole; bilateral EU policies vs. multilateral frameworks. Underpinning these tensions, there is a continuing 'securitization' of the Mediterranean debate, which...

When Nicolas Zarkozy became president in 2007 he proclaimed a break with the past: France was no longer automatically to go it alone as during de Gaulle's presidency, but was to be integrated fully into NATO. Instead of competing with the strongest power on earth, France - as well as the EU -...

The paper provides an assessment of India's role in the final years of the civil war in Sri Lanka (2003-2009). In particular, it looks for explanations for India's inability to act as a conflict manager in its own region, which is in contrast to predominant assumptions about the role of powerful...

This paper examines the formation of India's energy-policy strategy as an act of doubleedged diplomacy. After developing an analytical framework based on the two-level game approach to international relations (IR), it focuses on the domestic context of policy preference formation. India's energy...