This paper examines the complex relationship between the Western Balkan region and the EU security policy. It examines the development of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) in the context of the violent crises, which occurred in the southeastern European countries (SEE) around the decomposition …

Recently, the European Union seems to have a popularity problem. Especially in the Netherlands the attitude of citizens and journalists has changed dramatically over the past fifteen years. This resulted in low voter turnouts over the years and eventually a Dutch 'no' towards the European Constitution …

In 1949 the People's Republic of China emerged from a civil war with communist Mao Zedong as its victor. During the peak of Mao's rule China was completely isolated from the world. In the 1960's China lost the support of the Soviet Union due to failed policies such as the Great Leap Forward and various …

Enterprise 2.0, deconstructed firms, organisational ecosystems: all of these buzzwords are used to identify operating concepts behind today's companies. They are driven by the need to be agile, flexible, distributed, open, transparent, simple, on demand and with a short time to market. In order to be …

The Caucasus is a region with a turbulent history in which Russia has played an important role as occupier. During the 17th and 18th century Russia became a dominant force in the Caucasus. Near the end of the 19th century Russia was finally able to conquer the whole region. However, after many decades …

I started this particular project with an internship at the European Commission in Beijing, China. Experiencing China's enormous growth myself in the last seven months it was clear to me that China will have an even greater impact on both the economic and political agendas of the Western world and its …

Microfinance programs have significant potential for contributing towards improvements of agricultural and other rural sectors investments and operations and empowerments of rural community. However, access to financial institutions such as banks by smallholder farmers in rural areas is limited because …

Will the Netherlands be able to keep its sovereignty in the current episode of European security and defence policies? More and more cooperation takes place at the international level in a globalised world. The European institutions get more and more control over Member States policies. All nation-states …

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) cannot be separated from today's business world. The ability for a business to reflect responsibility toward its stakeholders on its daily operation has becoming increasingly important in recent years as the pressure to implement is constantly higher. Consequently, …