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Carbon leakage – where multinational enterprises (MNEs) transfer carbon-intensive production activities to countries with laxer emissions constraints for cost purposes – is one of the main mechanisms through which international business (IB) contributes to climate change. This chapter discusses a new policy initiative called the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) that the European Union (EU) introduced in May 2023 to fight carbon leakage. The authors analyze the logic of CBAM and discuss how it will likely influence IB both in industries that are directly targeted by CBAM and related industries that will face spillover effects.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the recently enacted Regulation (EU) 2022/2560 of the European Parliament and of the Council of December 14, 2022, on foreign subsidies distorting the internal market (foreign subsidies regulation [FSR]) and its repercussions on the European Union (EU) public procurement marketplace and corporations from third countries. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the geopolitical and economic backgrounds for the Regulation and its efficiency.

In this study, the authors used doctrinal and analytical legal methodologies, meticulously examining pertinent EU law sources. The authors systematically collated and scrutinized applicable literature and legislative process materials to discern the essence and substance of the norms enshrined in the law. In this study, the authors also applied a socio-legal methodology when focusing on the economic and geopolitical context surrounding the adoption of the FSR. The contextual analysis traces the evolution of changes in international cooperation and recent political shifts.

Implementing the FSR should pave the way for a more equitable competitive landscape within the EU public procurement market, bolstering EU values. However, its potential to prolong public procurement procedures and create uncertainties regarding their outcomes could pose challenges, possibly affecting the effectiveness of public procurement regulations. Only time will reveal the extent of the EU’s interventionist approach and how necessary adjustments must be made to align with market demands.

This study highlights socially relevant aspects of the implementation of EU policies – European New Green Deal and European Industrial Policy in the context of public procurement. The analysis contained in this study concerns issues directly related to meeting the collective needs of the citizens.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first in-depth analysis of the solutions contained in the FSR in terms of geopolitical and economic aspects. Furthermore, there have been no studies so far, which have analyzed the FSR in detail from the point of view of its effectiveness. The effectiveness concept contained in this study is the authors’ own solution.

The purpose of this paper is to outline how the EU figures out the importance of strengthening its relations with Egypt as one of the most strategic countries in the region to keep the union secured and stable. The paper also assesses to what extent the EU succeeds to promote democracy in Egypt.

The EU pursues its policy through a series of both bilateral and multilateral agreements with Egypt aiming at positioning their relations in a strategic context. The research adopted different approaches as descriptive and analytical ones.

Following the Arab uprisings, the EU was caught by surprise and announced a paradigm shift in its relations and introduced a set of policies to foster democracy promotion that witnessed some successes but with extremely modest results in some areas compared to the costs of the process. The EU succeeded in important reforms in trade liberalization while it did not bring clear changes in the political arena in Egypt.

The findings of this paper convey that the Arab uprisings were a wake-up call for the EU. It was the right time for the EU to conduct such a strategic and sincere reflection based on the role it wants to play in the changing region. In addition, findings prove that the EU’s response to revolutionary events has been weak and hesitant, and the EU has not an effective role in promoting democracy in Egypt.

This study employs Stein Rokkan's methodological approach to analyse state formation in the Greater Middle East. It develops a conceptual framework distinguishing colonial, populist and democratic pacts, suitable for analysis of state formation and nation-building through to the present period. The framework relies on historical institutionalism. The methodology, however, is Rokkan's. The initial conceptual analysis also specifies differences between European and the Middle Eastern state formation processes. It is followed by a brief and selective discussion of historical preconditions. Next, the method of plotting singular cases into conceptual-typological maps is applied to 20 cases in the Greater Middle East (including Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey). For reasons of space, the empirical analysis is limited to the colonial period (1870s to the end of World War 1). Three typologies are combined into one conceptual-typological map of this period. The vertical left-hand axis provides a composite typology that clarifies cultural-territorial preconditions. The horizontal axis specifies transformations of the region's agrarian class structures since the mid-19th century reforms. The right-hand vertical axis provides a four-layered typology of processes of external intervention. A final section presents selected comparative case reconstructions. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first time such a Rokkan-style conceptual-typological map has been constructed for a non-European region.

This chapter has aimed to indicate some new important emerging policy problems, which have characterised the Covid crisis in the European economy during 2020 and then the bounce-back in 2021. The chapter has illustrated an economic theoretical framework focussed on innovation and structural changes, according to a Schumpeterian and evolutionary or neo-institutional approach, which seems more appropriate than the traditional neoclassical and macroeconomic models, as the basis for a ‘new industrial strategy’ in the European Union. The mainstream economic models are static and point-like, as they do not consider the role of time and of space, such as the existence of asymmetric information and external economies and also the interdependence between the companies and the other ‘stakeholders’ in the process of economic development. On the contrary, the theoretical framework of this chapter considers the factors that act on the structural changes according to four different and interdependent dimensions: the final demand, the intermediate productions and also the supply of labour and the endowment of natural resources. Finally, some preliminary indications on the organisation of a new industrial strategy at the European scale are discussed, different from the focus on just the digital and green technologies, as indicated by the NGEU program by the European Commission.

The European Union (EU) and Russia are considered to be trapped into security concerns in a form of spillover, in a zero sum perspective, considering each step of the other as directed against another. Such an approach seems to prevail, after attempts of engagements for decades after the Cold War. Rather history prevailed in informing perceptions and currently driving the behaviors toward each other, in other words in othering each other.

Discourse analysis

The move in Eastern Europe of both parties is perceived with suspicion from both sides, materialized through their policies, culminated in clash of interests and crash of policies between both parts, manifested by Russian aggression in Ukraine in 2014 and recently in 2022 in one side, and the EU response through massive, unprecedented sanctions against Russia. This has created a context that fosters not just keeping a status quo of clash and struggle for influence between them in the region, but also nourishes further securitization of their respective policies toward the Eastern Europe and beyond. In 2014 and more recently in 2022 Russian aggression in Ukraine, the EU and Russia appear to have the same image to each other as they had during the Cold War, or even beyond. Having this in mind, this paper will address those developments, with particular focus on attempts to avoid them, the failure to do so and how they are impacting the EU, Russia and global politics in a form of emerging new world (dis)order.

This paper is an original paper having a critical approach toward the current conflicts going on in Eastern Europe.

Migrant women face unique difficulties, such as labour discrimination, limited sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, obstacles to family reunification, gender-based violence (GBV) and human trafficking. ¹ The European Commission's labour integration approach currently fails to account for these difficulties. Civil society organisations (CSOs) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) attempt to fill these gaps but lack capacity and funding. The European Commission's current approach does not respect human dignity and impedes the migrant community's integration and inclusion. This chapter discusses sexual assault and gender-based violence, which may be disturbing to some readers.

This issue is relevant and important because migrant women comprise a large portion of the migrant population ² and are a vital part of the migrant community. The methodology used in this chapter is a human security framework with a people-centred approach to policy that empowers those impacted by it. Research for this chapter was conducted using news articles, academic articles, UN reports and publications. Based on this, the European Commission must take a holistic and binding approach that protects the rights and dignity of migrant women.

There are multiple approaches that the European Commission can take to incorporate human dignity into its policies towards women and migration, such as applying international conventions and implementing policies that account for migrant women. All approaches must be realistic and required of all member states.