{"title":"Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe","authors":"A. Cârstocea","doi":"10.53779/pojdh8821","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53779/pojdh8821","url":null,"abstract":"2015 marked 15 years since the Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe (JEMIE) was established as the flagship academic publication of the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI). Coincidentally, 2016 also marks an important anniversary, namely 20 years since ECMI was founded on 4 December 1996, in Flensburg, on the German-Danish border.As such, we thought it fitting that the closing 2015 Issue of our Journal should be an anniversary one, looking back at these 15 years of publication history and remembering some of the topics and articles published here, while at the same time reflecting on some of the subjects and topics that could potentially be tackled in the journal in the future.Over the 15 years that passed since JEMIE was launched, the main focus of the journal remained constant: publishing articles, commentaries and book reviews addressing minority issues from a broad range of perspectives, such as ethnopolitics, democratization, conflict management, good governance, participation, minority rights, etc. Concretely, the topics approached in our Special Issues ranged from Europeanization and minority rights to minority language policies, non-territorial autonomy, minority participation in public life, new media, freedom of expression, and many others; these topics were discussed in connection to events and developments across Europe, understood in the broadest sense. Occasionally, JEMIE published special issues dedicated to specific minority groups (e.g. the Roma), or to particular institutions dealing with minority issues (e.g. the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities). The articles published in our General Issues covered additional ground in their selected subject matter, diverse approaches and geographical scope.It must be said that pursuing these topics and publishing such a wide range of articles could not have been possible without the invaluable contribution of JEMIE's previous editors, and of course without the help of the Advisory and Editorial board. (Lists of previous editors and current Advisory and Editorial boards can be consulted here: http://www.ecmi.de/publications/jemie/).As to the future of JEMIE, it will continue to pursue its focus on minority issues, reflecting - as it has been doing for the past 15 years - on academic, legal, socio-economic, or political developments in the field. Among other things, the impact of the refugee crisis on the situation of national minorities, as well as its potential impact on the definition of national minorities and the protections afforded to national minorities, migrants, and refugees will probably constitute important research topics in the near future. In addition to the commitment to publish high-quality articles in the field, we will also seek to improve our visibility and impact factor, by including JEMIE in the major research databases.These being said, our readers are invited to enjoy in the following a selection of articles published over time in JE","PeriodicalId":129402,"journal":{"name":"Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe : JEMIE","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117037841","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Multiculturalism and minority rights: West and East","authors":"W. Kymlicka","doi":"10.4324/9781315254203-20","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315254203-20","url":null,"abstract":"IntroductionCountries in post-communist Europe have been pressured to adopt Western standards or models of multiculturalism and minority rights. Indeed, respect for minority rights is one of the accession criteria that candidate countries must meet to enter the European Union (EU) and NATO. Candidate countries are evaluated and ranked in terms of how well they are living up to these standards (see EU Accession Monitoring Program OSI 2001).There are two interlinked processes at work here. First, we see the 'internationalizing' of minority rights issues. How states treat their minorities is now seen as a matter of legitimate international concern, monitoring and intervention. Second, this international framework is deployed to export Western models to newly-democratizing countries in Eastern Europe.This trend implicitly rests on four premises: (i) that there are certain common standards or models in the Western democracies; (ii) that they are working well in the West; (iii) that they are applicable to Eastern and Central Europe (hereafter ECE), and would work well there if adopted; (iv) that there is a legitimate role for the international community to play in promoting or imposing these standards.All four of these assumptions are controversial. Western countries differ amongst themselves in their approach to ethnic relations, and attempts to codify a common set of minimum standards or best practices have proven difficult. Moreover, the success of these approaches is often deeply contested within Western countries. Many citizens of Western democracies view their domestic policies towards ethnic relations as ineffective, if not actually harmful. The wisdom of 'exporting' these policies to ECE countries is even more controversial, both in the West and the East. Countries in post-Communist Europe differ significantly from Western countries (and from each other) in terms of history, demography, geopolitical stability, economic development and democratic consolidation. Given these differences, Western approaches may simply not be relevant or helpful, and attempts to impose them against the wishes or traditions of the local population can be counterproductive in terms of ethnic relations. So the decision to make minority rights one of the criteria for 'rejoining Europe' rests on a number of controversial assumptions. This decision was taken by Western leaders in the early 1990s, almost in panic, as a response to fears that ethnic conflict would spiral out of control across the post-Communist world. There was relatively little public debate or scholarly analysis about the wisdom of this decision, and it seems clear in retrospect that it was taken without a full consideration of its implications, or of the difficulties it raised.In my view, the time has come to have a vigorous and public debate about these four assumptions. Now that the initial panic about ethnic violence has subsided, and with relative peace throughout the region, we can afford to sit bac","PeriodicalId":129402,"journal":{"name":"Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe : JEMIE","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133965057","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}