RECON Report No 6
The Parliamentary Control of European Security Policy
Dirk Peters, Wolfgang Wagner and Nicole Deitelhoff (eds)

Abstract: This report addresses the role of parliaments - the European Parliament, transnational parliamentary assemblies and national parliaments - in European security policy. Christopher Lord discusses why parliaments should have a role in European security policy at all, and other contributions systematically describe and discuss how they are involved. The editors, Dirk Peters, Wolfgang Wagner and Nicole Deitelhoff, draw together the results and employ the concept of the parliamentary field to discuss the findings against the backdrop of RECON's theoretical base. The report is based on a RECON workshop organized by the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt in December 2007.


RECON Report No 5
Reconstituting Democracy from Below: New Approaches to Civil Society in the New Europe
Ulrike Liebert and Hans-Jörg Trenz (eds)

Abstract: This report aims at mapping the current state of the art on civil society research empirically and theoretically. By bringing together normative democratic theory, legal, political and sociological analysis as well as case studies and comparative analyses, the report seeks to stimulate conversations among different accounts of what role civil society play in the enlarged EU. The editors, Ulrike Liebert and Hans-Jörg Trenz, argue that the normative foundations and political functions of civil society have undergone profound changes generating new problems and questions, but have also stimulated search for conceptual clarifications and theoretical innovations.


RECON Online Working Paper 2008/20
Decision-making Void of Democratic Qualities? An Evaluation of the EU's Foreign and Security Policy
Anne Elizabeth Stie

Abstract: The EU's foreign and security policy is often criticised for being undemocratic. This paper addresses this contention from the perspective of deliberative democracy. Anne Elizabeth Stie evaluates the procedural qualities of the second pillar decision-making processes as it is not only the quality of the outcomes that determine the democratic legitimacy of policy-making, but also the way decisions have come about.

RECON Online Working Paper 2008/19
The Perception of the EU as an Emerging Security Actor in Media Debates on Humanitarian and Military Interventions (1990-2006)
Cathleen Kantner, Amelie Kutter and Swantje Renfordt

Abstract: The EU is emerging as an actor in the realm of international conflict management next to states and established international organisations. In this paper, Cathleen Kantner, Amelie Kutter and Swantje Renfordt ask whether the media in the EU member states has reflected this change. Their study of mass media coverage of humanitarian and military interventions in seven countries over a 16-years period reveals that the EU, despite its limited institutional capacity in external security affairs, is present in media coverage on international conflict management.

All RECON publications are available at:
http://www.reconproject.eu/projectweb/portalproject/Publications.html