Europautredningen og velkjente dilemma

Etter mediereaksjonene å dømme løfter Europautredningen Utenfor og innenfor (NOU 2012:2) fram velkjente dilemma fra tidligere norsk Europa-debatt. På den ene siden skal EØS-avtalen være en demokratisk fiasko for Norge, samtidig som vi økonomisk sett tjener fett på avtalen, i følge Aftenposten. Men den kan muligens bidra til å bryte den langvarige tausheten som har karakterisert offentligheten saken de senere år.

Hele rapporten kan lastes ned fra denne siden hos UD. Se også Europautredningens hjemmeside, som også inneholder annet interessant stoff. Hele overrekkelsen, med kommentarer fra utredningsleder Fredrik Sejersted, utenriksminister Støre og påfølgende FAQ, er filmet og kan beskues her.

Parsons, Ghonim, Web 2.0 and the Arab spring

A great reminder from Ryan Evans in a blogpost about Talcott Parsons' classic statement from nearly 50 years ago:

Since in social conditions the most effective action is collective action, the most important liberty is liberty to co-operate with others to participate in collective action. Furthermore, the most important single condition of effective co-operation is communication with others. The most important deprivations of liberty are therefore those that block communication, in order to limit or prevent altogether co-operation with others. (Parsons, pp. 41-42 in Eckstein 1964)

Evans then quotes from Wael Ghonim's new book Revolution 2.0:

Together, we wanted justice for Khaled Said and we wanted to put an end to torture. And social networking offered us an easy means to meet as the proactive, critical youth that we were. It also enabled us to defy the fears associated with voicing opposition. The virtual world seemed further from the oppressive reach of the regime, and therefore many were encouraged to speak up. (p. 66)

In the video below Ghonim speaks on TED about his experiences:

The Ivory Tower Survey - IR Scholars about themselves and the world

Paul C. Avey, Michael C. Desch, James D. Long, Daniel Maliniak, Susan Peterson and Michael J. Tierney present the most recent IR-Scholar survey in the latest edition of Foreign Policy.

• Scholars are mainly liberal on social and economic issues
• Constructivism is now the most influential perspective
• Wendt is ranked as most influential among his peers, but Nye is most influential among practitioners