The four Visegrad states — Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia (until 1993 Czechoslovakia) and Hungary — form a compact area between Germany and Austria in the west and the states of the former USSR in the east. They are bounded by the Baltic in the north and the Danube river in the south. They are cut by the Sudeten and Carpathian mountain ranges, which divide Poland off from the other states. Poland is an extension of the North European plain and like the latter is drained by rivers that flow from south to north west — the Oder, the Vlatava and the Elbe, the Vistula and the Bug. The Danube is the great exception, flowing from its source eastward, turning through two 90-degree turns to end up in the Black Sea, forming the barrier and often the political frontier between central Europe and the Balkans. Hungary to the east of the Danube is also an open plain. The region is historically and culturally part of western Europe, but its eastern Marches now represents a vital strategic zone between Germany and the core of the European Union to the west and the Russian zone to the east.

Economy and Society

The Tragedy of Great Power Politics

Can socio-demographics still play a role in profiling green consumers? A review of the evidence and an empirical investigation

The History of Economic Analysis

Handbook of the Economics of Finance

Soft power has attracted significant attention in scholarly and public debates on foreign affairs in recent years. Notwithstanding this greater attention, the treatment of soft power has developed little beyond ‘soft theory.’ This article addresses this deficiency by offering a more rigorous and systematic analysis of the process of soft power. In addition, it seeks to address two further shortcomings in the treatment of soft power: by explaining how changes in modern world politics have raised the value of soft power and by proposing conditions that encourage decision‐makers to appreciate and effectively employ soft power strategies.

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Soft power: what it is, why it’s important, and the conditions for its effective use

It pays to be green: The managerial incentive structure and environmentally sound strategies

This book is a historical analysis of the gold standard from 1880-1914 focusing on the origins and workings of the gold standard as an international system. The system functioned smoothly until the onset of the First World War, when the foundations began to weaken. By the end of the 1920s the gold standard had been abandoned by most countries until the disastrous attempt to revive it in the 1930s. This book is comprehensive and definitive.

The Anatomy of an International Monetary Regime: The Classical Gold Standard, 1880-1914

Introduction 1. The theory of cosmopolitan power 2. Crucial-case textual analysis of the founding fathers of Realism: the classical inspirations 3. Crucial-case textual analysis of the founding fathers of Realism: the modern inspirations 4. Case studies of soft empowerment: free trade, the classical gold standard, and dollarization 5. Case study of hard disempowerment: US foreign policy and the Bush doctrine 6. Case study of soft empowerment: the power of modern American culture 7. Conclusions.

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Cosmopolitan Power in International Relations: A Synthesis of Realism, Neoliberalism, and Constructivism

A modified interest-group model links movements in tariffs to changes in the level of economic activity within nations. This model is introduced and tested for tariff behavior in the 19th and early 20th centuries in three nations: the United States, Great Britain, and Germany. Empirical analysis lends strong support to the model's central thesis, that tariffs are sensitive to movements within a business cycle. Tariff changes occurring in the three nations, with the exception of British tariff increases, generally conform to the expectations of the model. Furthermore, business-cycle sensitivity provides an explanation of the behavior of tariffs superior to two prominent alternatives, those based on ideology and on hegemonic stability.

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Giulio M. Gallarotti

Papers

Soft power: what it is, why it’s important, and the conditions for its effective use

It pays to be green: The managerial incentive structure and environmentally sound strategies

The Anatomy of an International Monetary Regime: The Classical Gold Standard, 1880-1914

Cosmopolitan Power in International Relations: A Synthesis of Realism, Neoliberalism, and Constructivism

Toward a business-cycle model of tariffs